Away from the hustle and bustle of the City, this campus can make anyone feel jealous about the students studying here. Spread over eight acres of lush green area, right at the foot of the Chamundi Hills in Mysore, Sri Dharmasthala Manjunatha Institute of Management Development (SDM IMD) displays all signs of turning out to be the most sought after business management school in the country, in the next few years.
Ask what sets this institution apart from the others, and its Director Ramesh Venkateshwaran is quick to answer - ‘parentage, fundamental ethos and respect’. Having had a parentage of the likes of Sri Dharmasthala Manjunatha Educational Society, which is functioning under the aegis of Shree Kshetra Dharmasthala which is visited by lakhs of devotees on a daily basis, it is only natural that SDM IMD aspires to prepare managers with a ‘foot firmly placed on the ground...’ for the companies of today and tomorrow.
SDM Educational Society already has a long-standing reputation of running about 40 educational centres of excellence in disciplines such as medical, dental, engineering, naturopathy, ayurveda, law, business management and physiotherapy.
That students stand to gain a lot from the identity of SDM and the exposure to Sri Kshetra Dharmasthala, even outside the religious aspects is a fact. “Simply put, if one considers that the Trust has been managing lakhs of devotees on a daily basis and a host of other events there, one would know this is the best lesson a management student can get. Building an institution which can sustain its own weight and not crumble, along with posting growth year after year, is something all companies would want to achieve. Our future managers are trained in such environs,” says Ramesh Venkateshwaran.
This 100 per cent residential campus with an accommodation capacity of 240 students is completely self-sufficient, like some of the best campuses in the country and abroad. A well-equipped library, an amphitheatre, an auditorium with best of acoustics, fully furnished hostel, book store, student managed departmental store, state of the art class rooms and a wi-fi campus are among the facilities available here.
The campus, on which the institute is located now, has been home to many students for the past three years.
The faculty are an excellent combination of academic and corporate experience, presenting the best of both perspectives to the students. Guest faculty from different arenas of the corporate and management world visit the campus throughout the year. As a mark of marrying the best of both worlds, students, while they receive the best training in terms of management, are also trained in yoga to maintain physical and emotional fitness. These sessions are compulsory for all first year students.
The selection process for the flagship course Post Graduate Diploma in Management programme is done through the Common Admission Test (CAT). This is followed by a Group Discussion and Personal Interview. After all these levels of ‘filtering’ as the institute refers them to, the student is all set for a 24/7 journey of turning into a manager with the ‘right attitude’ for the Indian business environment.
Over the years, having carved a niche for itself, SDM IMD has become a much sought after destination for students’ exchange programmes even aboard. The recent visit of students from the University of Minnesota and a tie-up with Shanghai University, China and Texas A & M University, Mays Business School are proof of this fact.
Apart from PGDM, there are other programmes too, that are tailored to meet the ever-changing modern business houses such as Management Development Programmes, aimed at creating new competencies in managing diversity of businesses, technologies, people dynamics and global markets. There are Client Specific programmes which cater to ‘on demand’ business and Certificate Programme in Business Management, a six month evening programme to cater to the working segment which wants to hone its business skills.
All this apart, the institute lays equal emphasis on consultancy and research and publications to create material that helps gain a fresh perspective into the world of management.
The campus is being visited by big companies to meet their management needs. Software giant Infosys picked up 29 graduates on a single day a couple of years ago and the students are all kicked up about their prospects once they step out of the campus.
