Managerial mindsets

The International Masters Program in Practicing Management (IMPM) is about doing a better job, not just getting a better job, finds Poonam Jain.

Participants are graded on a "Reflection" paper at the International Masters Program in Practising Management (IMPM). Why? "Reflection is an important constituent in producing well grounded managers as we are not interested in producing MBAs. Captain Gopinath was a part of this programme before he started the low cost airline Air Deccan you know," says Dr S Raghunath, Dean, IIM-B, and Cycle Director with IMPM.

"We constantly ask ourselves - what can be done to develop managers in a serious educational process? And that's why IMPM, since 1996, has created a masters programme for truly practising managers," muses Raghunath. As we can guess, the campus extends around the world. Participants receive complete immersion in five different countries and they were recently in Bangalore at the Indian Institute of Management as a part of their India visit. "The idea is to allow them to view their own management style, build their decision making skill, help them gain insights into different cultures and their unique business challenges and finally initiate and lead change while maintaining necessary continuity through skilful implementation," says Dora Koop, Director, Market & Programme Development, IMPM.

...IMPM programme is designed by Professor Henry Mintzberg - an internationally renowned academic and author on business and management. The programme is quite a departure from the traditional case-study approach - more to do with actual experiences and needs of the participating managers and their organisations. "That's why we have only accomplished managers with experience to participate in the programme," Koop tells. The master's degree is achievable while maintaining full-time position, and designed to integrate individual experience. "The purpose is to offer concepts and frameworks that remove the boundaries from their current managerial practice. They are then able to successfully develop global perspective with personal impact," concludes Raghunath.

Read full article: The Times of India, February 20, 2012