According to Director Prof KS Subramanian, SCMHRD differs from other b-schools of its league in that it looks upon students as individuals who are giving a last shot at professional education in their life.
“It is not going to happen that these students will go back to organized learning on a two year basis again in their lives. Having said that, we want to build as many competencies as possible in them and contribute talented individuals to the society and industry,” says Prof Subramanian.
He asserts that SCMHRD is not an HR niche school.
“We have never been an HR school. The presence of HR in the institute’s name is due to our commitment to the development of HR. For the PGDM program we have centres of excellence in IT, Operations as well as for HR,” he informs.
“In fact, there has been a 25 pc drop in HR students in the last two years,” he adds in support.
Quizzed about the correlation between the large number of women students in SCMHRD’s batches and the fact that women have traditionally been inclined towards HR, Prof Subramanian insists that the 60-40 ratio between boys and girls in SCMHRD is completely a result of merit-based selection.
There are no immediate plans to increase the number of seats for PGDM at SCMHRD.
About the latest developments at SCMHRD, Prof Subramanian says, “There is a very high intervention of technology at SCMHRD for which massive investments have been made. We have shifted away from exam-based to assignment and project based testing. We have added large amounts of case studies and the research has gone up.”
SNAP (Symbiosis National Aptitude Test), Admissions
A total of 70,000 students took SNAP for the 2006 admissions, of which 22,000 applied to SCMHRD. According to Prof Subramanian, all of the applicants were called for Group Discussion-Personal Interview.
This year, SCMHRD also accepted CAT scores. About 80 students applied through this route, out of which eight were taken and four finally accepted a seat. What was the reason behind accepting CAT scores?
“We are analyzing if our testing process is right and of the same quality as CAT. For that we want to do a comparison to know what quality of students we are getting through SNAP and what through CAT.”
The process of shortlisting applicants after the entrance exam is as elaborate as it gets.
“We don’t have a single cutoff. We have a work experience cutoff, a professional qualification cutoff, a basic cutoff, a multiple qualification cutoff and so on,” explains Prof Subramanian.
He doesn’t give too much importance to competitor bschool Symbiosis Institute of Business Management (SIBM) closing on a higher SNAP cutoff than SCMHRD this year.
“Academic performance alone is not an indicator of good leadership. Sometimes students with good cutoffs have bad academic performance. On the other hand there are Chartered Accountants who are not good at math, but they make great leaders,” he reasons.
“After the shortlisting, there is a very detailed scrutiny of bio-datas. I spent six nights in the campus bunching and rebunching of the bio-datas to ensure that the quality of students coming to the GD was the best. A GD committee, an interview committee, a scrutiny committee, a review committee and a shortlisting committee works together on the selection.”
Recent years’ batches have broadly had 60 pc engineers, 20 pc chartered accountants, 10 pc MSc, BSc, BA (Economics) and the rest 10 percent BCom and BPharma. At present 45 pc of the batches have work experience.
“My central idea is to get good students on merit. If a student is good and has work experience, great. Students who don’t have work experience but reflect that kind of maturity are equally preferred.”
SCMHRD’s selection looks for the same factors that corporates look for at the time of placements. We rate the students on 1 to 10. If he is 6 we still take him, so that we can make up for the balance 4,” says the Director.
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The qualities that SCMHRD looks for in students keep changing, though broadly it scouts for achievement motivation, conscientiousness, the immediate impact a person makes on the project at hand and how diligent he is in coming up with solutions.
“This is what the industry expects today,” says Prof Subramanian.
SCMHRD is the only college to use psychometric tests.
“We want to know if we are getting the right students. We don’t want intuition calls, we want some logic calls. That logic call needs to be supplemented by some reasoning,” says Prof Subramanian in support of psychometric tests.
He indirectly reveals that the SNAP pattern will change each year with an aim to reach the same level as CAT.
“Why should we allow students to predict what SNAP is all about and have them study on those lines? We want to get the best students.”
“The management quota sponsored students have to pay three times the fees of a general category student. We don’t really want students through the management quota but yet if they are ready to pay that kind of money, we have said publicly that they have to pay the entire fees via demand draft. All students whatever be there status have to pass the SNAP.”
Academics
SCMHRD has replaced rigid management specializations with the ‘basket concept’, wherein students can choose subjects for a semester from across specializations.
“We ask them to select subjects depending on what interest they have. We don’t believe in the old concept of Labour Law 1, Labour Law 2. So somebody can choose compensation along with advanced OR,” Prof Subramanian illustrates.
He claims that the basket concept has improved the students’ focus.
“When my students go on summers, they say we want to work on so-and-so project, or have told companies that they do not want a project because it is not to their liking.”
How does SCMHRD help students identify their interest areas in management?
“There is a test at the time of admission to identify what the students are good at and what their alignment is. After that we have a psychometric test which analyzes them and clarifies whether they are cut out to follow their interests or not. There are many students here who come in the hope of doing HR but later they go on to doing something different like supply chain management. They earlier think that HR is the most promising and is a very fast growing track. But later they realize that their strong point was numbers and they go on to doing supply chain management.”
“The stress level in SCMHRD is very high. We take the pleasure also in increasing the stress levels. We plug all loop holes to further increase the stress levels. We tell the students that you have not come here for a holiday and you haven’t paid that kind of money to do that. Also your father is supporting you at the threshold of your career so you better give him back the returns. We actually stress out the children as far as possible and we have no qualms in accepting that.”
The institute currently has 14 permanent faculty members which it plans to take to 21 this year. As many as 180 professors visit the institute on a timesharing basis.
Placements
For the batch passing out in 2006, more than 64 companies visited the SCMHRD campus with an average salary of Rs 6.75 lakhs and highest salary of 12.50 lakhs (figures as claimed by the institute).
“It’s not the amount that makes a difference, but the quality of jobs that does it. But to know exactly how well I have done in terms of placement I wait for one year to know how many people have left their job and how many people have been promoted. Then I form a barometer to measure my success,” elucidates Prof Subramanian.
“Our performance this year has been good because only one person left his first job. All the sectors have participated in the placements. We have never left any sector out from our placements because we know that all these sectoral shifts are temporary in nature in the economy.”
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Entrepreneurship
Although the SCMHRD website mentions ‘enrepreneurship’ as its focus area, not many SCMHRD students are taking that route.
“That’s my biggest concern area. When students pass out from here atleast 10 pc of them should say that we don’t want placements and want to start our own business. That shows the success of a bschool. Last year there was only one student who did that and I want this number to increase. In the future there are going to be more people than jobs. We want to make them aware that at their age it is more easier to take a risk than at the age of 40,” says the Director.
Vipassana, Yoga, Life on campus
Perhaps the most talked about dimension of SCMHRD is its stress on spiritual learning and yoga, Vipassana sessions and a strict code of conduct on campus. Mobile phones are banned on campus and there are strict restrictions on public display of affection. Prof Subramanian strongly advocates these rules.
“You have come here to learn in a personal teaching environment. Why carry a mobile phone and let yourself and others be disturbed? It frustrates the teachers also disturbs others.”
Asked if the institute has tried to imbibe mobile etiquette in students treating them as adults, Prof Subramanian says, “We give them soft skilled training in mobile etiquette. But one statement doesn’t make a difference to today’s generation. If adults don’t behave like adults then we have to tell them what adulthood is about.”
There is strict campus vigilance on pairing between opposite sexes.
“Maximum marriages take place through my campus. But you have to maintain the decorum while you study. There’s no harm in people sitting down as friends. But you don’t have to show your love pouring out to him in public. There are better places for that,” stresses the Director.
The institute sends all its students for compulsory week-long Vipassana training.
“Vipassana gives you an opportunity to empty your mind. It helps you in the long run, it tells you what you are and how you are. You may not want to do it all your life but that’s your decision. But while you are on my campus I should give you the right opportunities because this is the time to experiment. It has brought great change in students.”
Through compulsory yoga, trekking and other physical activities, SCMHRD carries out health training under professional monitoring.
The institute guards its ethos very closely. All students and their parents have to sign a detailed written declaration agreeing to abide by the rules and participate in campus activities.
“There are certain students who don’t like it so I tell them, don’t come here. I tell the parents that this school is not similar to the way they have brought up their children. For the few students who join us but are unable to follow our set of rules, we counsel them to take it but in any case we don’t accept failure.”
Competition, industry interface
Despite being in the hub of IT industry in the Hinjewadi IT Park near Pune, SCMHRD is yet to make full use of the expert IT manpower in its immediate vicinity. According to Prof Subramanian, the institute has managed to get several advanced software packages and tools for free by using its contacts in the IT industry. However, there are plans in the offing.
“We are starting company-based courses, like the Infosys elective and the Bharti elective, for which we are taking the respective companies’ help,” reveals Prof Subramanian.
As for competition from peer bschools, the Director has a tough approach. He has a lot to say about its closest competitor SIBM. “As far as I am concerned, I will not allow anybody to exist. My institute is the best. But as a team, we will not allow anybody to come near Symbiosis. While we are together, we shall compete together.”
Besides the PGDM programme, SCMHRD is running a one-year executive programme for experienced applicants.
The 18 month course has a six months dissertation comprising two articles, one primary research and one secondary research. The eligibility is 8 yrs of industry experience for a normal degree, 5 yrs if the applicant is already a post graduate, Chartered Accountant, an MSc or an engineer. It is a non-residential course without placements.
“Most of my Executive PGDM students are CAs who did not get a chance to do MBA. Some more are engineers working in shifts and the rest are army engineers who’ve come to work in corporates,” informs Prof Subramanian.
Prof Subramanian did a 7 year stint in the Indian Army before joining the corporate world. In his 27 years of corporate experience, he has worked in high positions at Enron and Walchand Industries.