Mr Walter Esquivel, Director, Glavin Center of Global Management at Babson College, US visited Pearl School of Business to discuss and chart out various collaborative activities in the coming period. On 17 and 18 June 2008, Mr Esquivel held discussions with the Director, PSB, Prof IM Pandey and the Dean, Prof Janaki Raman. His interactions with the faculty helped in understanding the special features of the Indian Management Education scenario.
Mr Esquivel participated in the deliberations of the Advisory Council on 18 June 2008 and stressed on the standards of student life on the campus.
On 19 June 2008, Mr Esquivel visited sister institutions of PSB, Pearl Academy of Fashion and Indian Retail School in New Delhi. He said the success of both the Pearl Academy of Fashion and the Indian Retail School has paved the way for the Pearl School of Business to achieve world class standards.
The International Corporate Governance Network (ICGN) held its annual conference at Seoul on 18-20 June 2008 on the theme of Globalisation of capital markets and its impact on Corporate Governance.
Over 400 delegates from nearly 50 countries attended the ICGNs 2008 Annual Conference in Seoul. Seung-soo Han, Prime Minister, Republic of Korea opened the conference. Se-hoon Oh, the Mayor of Seoul, hosted the opening reception. ICGN Chairman, Peter Montagnon, announced the names of eight scholars from eight different countries at the Gala Dinner held in the historic Changgyeong Palace. Ms Nisha Kohli , as a scholar represented India in the conference.
She also met with the founder of ICGN, Prof Ira Millstein, Senior Associate Dean, Yale School of Management, US.
Babson class of India MBA, led by Prof Bala Iyer, visited PSB on 21 May 08 to open their educational tour of India as a part of the India elective courses. They heard a presentation from Mr Pankaj Sharma, Head Business Dev and Risk Management at DSP Merrill Lynch on the Equity Market in India.
Prof Ashok Sanghi, Associate Professor, PSB spoke to the Babson class about the rise of Indian Economy. A lively discussion followed.
Prof Said Irandoust, President of Asian Institute of Technology visited Pearl School of Business on 29 April 2008 and held discussions with Dr IM Pandey, Director and the faculty regarding the progress of DBA programme along with those of other programmes of PSB. He expressed satisfaction at the modern facilities created in a short time at PSB.
MoU with SRCC
Dr IM Pandey , Director PSB and Prin PC Jain, Principal Shri Ram College of Commerce signed a Memorandum of Understanding on 19 March 2008. The MoU would enable faculty exchange between our two institutions as well as conducting special courses for students of both institutions. This is the first time two Indian institutions have come together to raise academic standards to international levels.
Mr. Stephen Cutler, President, Essex Management Services, US called on the Chairman, Mr. Deepak Seth on 26 Jan 2008. A Babson MBA, Mr. Cutler has been in the field of Investment Banking for the last 45 years. He has given an endowment to Babson for the Cutler Center of Investment and Banking, which houses the latest equipment to give online access to stock markets and databases. The Cutler Center also hosts the Babson College Fund, which is managed by a team of students. Mr. Cutler is also a trustee on the Board of Trustees of Babson College. Mrs. Alice Cutler accompanied her husband on this goodwill visit.
President Brian Barefoot, Babson College and Ms Elaine Eisenman, Dean of Executive Education at Babson visited PSB on 22 Jan 2008. Mr Barefoot held discussions with the faculty about the strategic collaboration between PSB and Babson College to develop entrepreneurial mindset and culture in India. He emphasized on integrative and market responsive curriculum for entrepreneurial education in the country. Prof IM Pandey and Prof Ashok Bhattacharya apprised him of the progress achieved by PSB. The President also met the press to share recent developments in the collaboration.
The President met PSB MBA students informally and discussed how they can develop an entrepreneurial mindset. He told them that though knowledge of functional areas was important, in the end business was about People and delivering value to them.
Later in the day Mr Deepak Seth Chairman, PSB hosted a reception in honour of the Babson guests and the Babson alumni in Delhi.
Dr IM Pandey, Director-PSB, inaugurated the first DBA programme at PSB on 12 Jan 2008. It is the first programme of its kind in India, which enables senior managers and executives to convert their experience systematically into transferable knowledge and insights. This three year programme would lead to the award of Doctor of Business Administration by Asian Institute of Technology, Thailand. The first batch has participants of the level of Chief Operating Officer, Vice President, Executive Director and the range of functions handled by them includes Application Development in IT, e-Governance, Data Security and Life style Retailing. Some of the participants travel from Bangalore, Mumbai and Hyderabad to attend sessions.
DD News covered the Pearl School of Business in its feature, Aadhi Abaadi, telecast on Saturday 27 Oct 07 afternoon. The lady students of PSB, who were interviewed, spoke of the opportunities emerging for women entrepreneurs and about the distinctive features of the Pearl MBA programme. Asked if lady candidates were given any special concessions, Prof IM Pandey said that women managers were found to be better in managing the softer aspects of organizations and hence other things being equal, would get a natural preference in PSB on account of their abilities and soft skills.
Mr Suresh Panjabi, MD of Pacific Logistics Ltd, UK spoke on 17 Aug 07 to the students of MBA (M&E) about the emerging opportunities in Online Retail with special reference to Apparel. After talking of the rising trends in online retail in UK, he gave details of some Success stories in the field and also shared how some Big Names in retail have not been able to make a success of online retail. Strong Brands are necessary, but not sufficient to pull the webworld shoppers to online retail. Those who have made it big in online retail have developed systems for dealing with customer returns. Pacific Logistics handles apparel supply for big retail chains in the UK.
The second meeting of the Advisory Council was held at PSB on 21 Jul 07, attended notably by Mr Gobind Sahney, a California-based entrepreneur, Prof Robert Eng of Babson College, Prof Ashok Rao, Dean of Saunders College at Rochester Institute of Technology, Mr Vimal Bahuguna, a Chicago-based consultant and Mr Vishnu Bansal of Morgan Stanley. Members noted with satisfaction the standard of facilities created for students in such a short time and discussed the arrangements being made for starting the MBA(Exec) and DBA programmes. Mr Deepak Seth presided over the proceedings.
Jagdeep Chhokar conducted a one-and-a-half day International Business Lab – India at Zurich on June 8-9, 2007, as part of an Executive certificate programme on International Management and Corporate Culture organised jointly by the University of Zurich (Institute for Strategy and Business Economics) and the Swiss Banking Institute.
A panel from Nottingham Trent University visited PSB on 14 May 2007 and held discussions with PSB team for the purpose of approval of PSB as a centre and MBA(Management & Entrepreneurship) as a validated programme. The panel was headed by Prof Paul Periton, Director, Centre for Academic Standards and Quality, NTU and comprised Ms Gillian Moore, Dy Director, CASQ, Mr Shishir Malde, Programme Leader, Flexible MBA, NBS, Ms Lesley Warren, S&Q Officer, CASQ along with two external experts, viz. Mr Rajendra Shirole, Sr Lecturer, Coventry University, UK and Prof Anil Chaturvedi, Dean- School of Public Policy, MDI, Gurgaon. Prof IM Pandey headed the PSB team comprising Professors J Chhokar, Ashok Bhattacharya, Ashok Sanghi, J Raman and Ashutosh Bhupatkar.
At the end of the visit, Prof Paul Periton conveyed the Panel’s decision to approve PSB as a Centre and the programme offered as MBA (Management & Entrepreneurship). The next step would be to complete the documentation leading to the signing of the Institutional Agreement.
On Monday 30 April 2007 Mr Deepak Seth, Chairman, Little People Education Society signed a memorandum of understanding with Asian Institute of Technology to offer the Doctor of Business Administration (DBA) in India. Prof Said Irandoust, President, AIT and Prof IM Pandey, Dean, AIT School of Management were present on the occasion. Prof Irandoust commended the commitment shown by Mr Seth and the LPES in establishing the Pearl Academy of Fashion over the last decade. Prof Pandey highlighted the need for practitioners to generate knowledge from experience. Mr Seth said that with the launching of DBA the PSB hoped to fill the scarcity of trained faculty in management education.
Prof Ashok Sanghi welcomed the guests. The genesis of PSB and importance of DBA were highlighted by Prof Ashok Bhattacharya, Associate Dean. Prof Janaki Raman proposed a vote of thanks.
“Mr Deepak Seth, Chairman, Little People Education Society and founder Chairman, House of Pearls, has been appointed as a member of the International Academic Advisory Council of Asian Institute of Technology, Thailand. AIT was established in 1959 to promote technical education in Asia and has since established different schools in disciplines such as Management, Environment and Technology. Mr Seth’s nomination is an acknowledgement of his contribution to Internationalisation of Indian business.”
From Babson: Dr Patricia Greene, Provost of Babson College, US visited PSB on 12 Dec 06 alongwith her colleagues, Prof Robert Eng, Director, Asia Institute of Babson College and Prof Ashok Rao, Babson College . She held discussions with Mr Deepak Seth, Chairman, LPES and Prof IM Pandey, Chairman, Academic Board, PSB , Prof Ashutosh P Bhupatkar, Adviser, LPES and Mr AKG Nair, Group Director, Pearl Academy of Fashion . In a message sent to Mr Seth after the visit, Dr Greene said, “ After visiting Pearl, I am even more certain that Pearl is indeed the right partner for Babson in India .
GEM The PSB team led by Prof Ashutosh P Bhupatkar completed the 2006 survey work of India for the Global Entrepreneurship Monitor of the Global Entrepreneurship Research Association. Thus PSB has revived the India data collection of GEM project, which is an annual exercise conducted in about 40 countries of the world. The report is available on www.gemconsortium.org
