IFIM Business School, among India’s first six AACSB-accredited Business Schools, based in Bengaluru and a front-runner of quality management education since 1995, launched India’s first multi-city, multi-disciplinary liberal professional MBA programme, ‘MBA 4.0’ for Graduates of Law, Fashion, Design, Arts, Social Sciences; Engineers with a demonstrated interest in design, arts, performing arts; and professionals like CAs, cost accountants, and company secretaries.
MBA 4.0 is the first multi-city, multi-disciplinary two-year liberal professional MBA programme in India offered by an AACSB- accredited institution. Using a liberal framework, this course offers new age specialisation with wide choice of elective subjects delivered by the best in class faculty. Exposure to two cities bring to participants two distinct learning experiences (commercial capital, Mumbai and start-up capital, Bangalore; in a city and in the lap of nature).
Professional with T-shaped abilities
Scheduled to commence from September 23, 2020, MBA 4.0 draws from the Future of Jobs report of the World Economic Forum and the IFIM-NHRDN survey. The findings show that future professionals would be T-shaped, combining both a liberal mind-set covering a wide breadth of knowledge across disciplines, and in-depth knowledge in a specialised area, to perform effectively in the fast-changing workplace.
The research also revealed a need for re-skilling at various levels, emergence of a multi-generation workforce, wellness as an important element of self-management and solutioning or problem-solving as the critical skill-set required for Industry 4.0. Instead of one-size-fits-all approach, the curriculum of MBA 4.0, therefore, facilitates the process of ‘discovery’ - encouraging ‘exploration’ and ‘experimentation’. The liberal framework provides a wide-angle view through exposure to disciplines like Design, Law, Business and Data-Science.
Fortitude and self-belief
Speaking on the launch, Dr. Atish Chattopadhyay, Director, IFIM Business School commented, “The need of the hour is to design a curriculum for students operating in industry 4.0. With the shift from an industrial to service to knowledge economy, and with disruptions led by technology, business rules, or even pandemics like Covid 19, skilling our students in new age areas alone is not enough. We must instil in them the fortitude and self-belief to successfully navigate through the uncertainties.”
He added that: “By combining multiple disciplines of study, liberal arts component in MBA4.0 will expose students to a wide array of subjects, encouraging them to look beyond the obvious and contribute to solutions, and create meaningful change in the world. A quality highly treasured by the industry today. After completion of the professional modules of MBA 4.0 in India’s Silicon Valley, students will be taken to our pristine greater Mumbai campus to go through the liberal modules of MBA4.0. A place where students can live their passion and discover their ‘self’ in the midst of a picturesque valley.”
Course requirements
The programme will focus on new-age specialisations in areas like digital business analytics, digital sales and marketing, financial markets and fintech, management of communication design, competition law and market regulations.
Admission to this programme will require test scores of CAT/XAT/MAT/CMAT/GMAT/NMAT/GRE The selection will be online through test of innovation potential, group exercise and personal interview. The fees for this course will be ₹12 lakh with options for super specialisation with top global business schools like Darden School of Business, University of Virginia; ESCP London; and McCombs Austin.