For 43-year-old Harvinder Singh Banga, Head, Business Technology of Mahindra Logistics, a 60–hour course by the All India Management Association (AIMA) on digital innovation and transformation, helped him “add value to the business” as the course had “actual use cases” that helped him “ladder up”.
The course, he says, is designed to touch across some of the popular segments such as HR, finance, and supply chain among others.
“Most organisations are now embracing digital transformation. In this course, there were enough actual business studies and cases across differing organisations touching on various aspects across the spectrum. So, these good number of instances actually helped in creating a digital strategy for our organisation. Also, normally IT guys are generally one up. But, this is where this new age course comes in,” he says.
New age courses
Designed for professionals — mid- and senior-level management personnel, AIMA, which conducts the Management Aptitude Test (MAT), has come up with 10 specialised “new age management courses”.
These courses, having a six month to one year duration, with fee ranging from ₹25,000 to ₹50,000, were introduced mostly over the last year. It has seen around 200-odd takers, mostly from the industry for which they are being targeted. Certification is done by AIMA, and most candidates are nominated by the companies they work for.
The AIMA is the national apex body of management profession in India. Established in 1957, AIMA is a not-for-profit, non-lobbying organisation, working closely with industry, government, academia and students to further the cause of the management profession in India. It has a total of 67 local management associations affiliated to it.
The courses have been designed keeping in mind the “industry requirements” across new and upcoming verticals like corporate social responsibility, cyber security and data privacy, digital business management, waste management and social entrepreneurship, among others.
Some of the other courses include digital marketing, sustainability management, social enterprise management, digital innovation and transformation for enterprise, design thinking for business innovation, strategic business financing and business repositioning.
Curriculum is designed with industry requirements and through discussions with companies who look to “hire such job-ready” people.
“The management needs of companies are becoming more diverse because of the changing business models, competition and regulations. AIMA aims to help corporate executives acquire the latest management know-how through its ‘new age courses’,” Rekha Sethi, Director-General, AIMA, told BusinessLine on Campus.
These courses are over and above the regular PG Diploma courses and certifications that AIMA offers.
In most of the new age courses, participants are put under a business simulation model wherein they have to go through a hypothetical situation, such as running a company, and the impact that the decisions they make have on business.
Simulation programmes
The simulation programs are conducted on the specific request of the corporates or local management associations.
The exercise is conducted as an in-house training programme for corporate managers. The business/management games are conducted within the organisations as a hands-on learning tool for the participants.
AIMA has also come up with a ‘BizLab’ where it allows students to experiment with various management strategies in a simulated business environment. It is designed as a business game (played against an AI) and it allows students to see the impact of their strategies in a “real life-like scenario”.
Sethi also points out that, workshops in women leadership & business simulation (gamification) are being organised too.