Entrepreneurship to be core course in IIMB's flagship programme

At present, it is taught as an elective in PGP in Management

Entrepreneurship is set to become a core course in the flagship Postgraduate Programme in Management (PGP) at the Indian Institute of Management, Bangalore (IIMB), by next academic year.

So far, entrepreneurship has been taught in the form of a few electives in various terms of the two-year programme. But things are likely to change soon. Prof Sourav Mukherji, Dean, Programmes, IIMB, said that it was one of the changes being proposed as part of the review of the PGP that took place every three years.

With Bengaluru occupying centre stage in the start-up and entrepreneurial ecosystem of the country and even the rest of the world, it is necessary to take advantage of such a situation, according to Mukherji. “There is a big thrust on entrepreneurship and we are constantly asking the question on how to further leverage the new entrepreneurial activity,” he told Deccan Herald.

The aim, he went, is essentially to convert ideas in classrooms and teaching into scalable businesses. Answering a question on when the new core course would be introduced, Mukherji said: “By next year.”

PGP students are taught a number of core courses such as financial accounting, competition and strategy, operations management and corporate finance to name a few along with a number of elective courses throughout the two-year programme. The IIMB has a separate centre — the N S Raghavan Centre for Entrepreneurial Learning (NSRCEL) — devoted to entrepreneurship. It was only a matter of time that entrepreneurship joined the other core courses in the programme.

Kshitij Chaudhary, a PGP student, said: “I think entrepreneurship as a core course should be taught and it would make a lot of difference, especially at this point of time when a lot of start-ups are mushrooming and it is easy to get VC (venture capital) funding when compared to say two to three years back. There is also a general change in the mindset of students who are more receptive to the idea of working in smaller companies and start-ups these days.”

Other possible changes in the programme could be the introduction of workshop courses on special areas of interest, a “blended approach” to teaching with more application of technology such as Massive Open Online Courses or MOOCs. Besides, there will be an emphasis on making the course more “contextually and socially sensitive”, according to Mukherji, complete with an emphasis on the elements of “politics, ethics”.