Dr. Shweta Jain is a management academician and soft skills trainer with over 20 years of experience and established aptitude in academic deliverance as faculty member and soft skills trainer with comprehensive blend of hands-on professional and scholastic experience.Dr.Shweta Jain acquired her Ph.d in Workforce Development and Training from Jaipur National University and executive training in Human resource management from Indian Institute of Management, Calcutta. She holds dual masters in Human resource management from symbiosis and MCA from GJU University. Her core competency areas include teaching & grooming of students, training & consultancy and academic administration. Ph.D. in management discipline titled “Impact of Behavioural Training for Middle-level Managers of Telecom Companies in India”.

IBS Jaipur

What is that one thing that made you excited to be a part of IBS and share your experience of 10+ journeys in IBS?

The IBS philosophy of identifying the right set of stakeholders and defining individual/institutional deliverables in terms of meeting stakeholders’ expectations is exemplary. As a part of IBS, I feel our sense of responsibility and commitment towards fulfilling stakeholders’ expectations to the best of our abilities drives excellence with gratification. Certainly IBS is a student-centric institution that keeps student welfare and development at the core of all its processes, at the same time the unwavering commitment towards the interests of other stakeholders, particularly industry partners including corporate recruiters and advisors, the academic fraternity and larger society makes us follow an all-embracing vision and broader service orientation. This is what stimulates the true sense of passion and allegiance in me, and makes me not just excited, but extremely proud of being a part of IBS.

Over these years, I have experienced that aligning with the vision and practicing the core values of IBS has made me a more competent, confident and committed person. I have been fortunate to serve in different roles with prolific exposure and opportunity to work in close coordination with different sets of stakeholders, which helps me appreciate, acknowledge and address their needs in an effective manner.

You have held key positions in various organizations, what motivated you to pursue a career in academia and leadership in management?

Academia is perhaps the most fulfilling profession that promises a lifelong opportunity and environment for continuous acquisition, dissemination and creation of knowledge. What can be a bigger motivation! The delight of being surrounded by young learners, the privilege of collaborating with the learned fraternity, the gratification of being mentored by enlightened gurus, makes academia the most rewarding career, I believe! My idea of leadership absolutely resonates with the words of John Mellecker, "Leadership is the creation of an environment in which others are able to self-actualize in the process of completing the job”. And this is what inspires me constantly. Management education allows you to create the environment and facilitate the process of self-actualization for genuine pursuers, and as a leader you drive this noble mission in true senses.

As a program head of - IBS School of Business, what do you feel is the USP or what are the differentiating factors that make IBS stand out from other Business schools?

I believe the core philosophy, “Meritum Ethicus” is the real USP! Merit with ethics. These are perhaps the most powerful words and business education needs to profoundly inculcate the same in every budding professional. IBS preaches and practices this alike our culture, our system, our processes and our outcomes are a true manifestation of the same. Discussing the tangibles, IBS enjoys an excellent reputation in the industry, our corporate connect is way beyond the archetypal model of collaboration for placements and internships. We unify with the industry from the foundation to the final, and the final is truly far-reaching! From designing and developing the curricula to delivering the same, from feedback to feedforward regarding our learning interventions and allied processes, from educating to employing our students, from alumni to allies… they are with us in all capacities and capabilities, and that makes us uniquely fortunate! IBS as an institution has always been agile, alive and awake to the demands of future, this attitude prevails as a culture at IBS and makes us the pioneers in introducing the most innovative and futuristic practices, be it in terms of curriculum development, instructional approaches, corporate association, alumni relations and technology adoption. Their ability to drive change and innovation as a frontrunner is the IBS USP.

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What steps would you take to ensure that the business school's curriculum remains relevant, aligns with industry demands, and prepares students for successful careers?

I strongly advocate that as an entity, you may identify multiple stakeholders as a beneficiary of the activities and outcomes of a business school, but then if we get into a more objective assessment at a macro level, it’s the industry that features as the prime beneficiary. And the answer lies in the same! Our industry partners have been more than generous in extending all support and sharing our responsibility, like a core process owner when it comes to critically evaluating, enhancing and enriching our curriculum on a continuous basis. Our prestigious recruiters, industry experts gracing our academic boards, distinguished alumni from batches across the years and corporate mentors actively engage with us, in curriculum development, review and re-evaluation, instructional design, collaborative learning programs and certification courses. A substantial portion of our curriculum is delivered by our corporate partners, the practicing managers and subject matter experts, particularly in the emerging technologies and multidisciplinary solutions.

The case study methodology serves as the engine of our learning contrivance, and these cases from global business firms bring complex business problems to our classrooms for discussions, deliberations and decision-making by our students, preparing them for the challenges of the business world. Our faculty members are actively engaged in corporate consultancy, also serving as principal trainers for management/executive development programs, working on projects in industry collaboration and jointly mentoring summer internship projects. Being up-close with the corporate professionals allows our faculty members to constantly upgrade themselves and keep abreast with the industry demands. This fortifies our entire learning contrivance, from designing to delivering!

How would you engage with faculty to promote research excellence, encourage innovation in teaching, and support their professional development?

IBS ensures extensive focus on research and innovation, from mentoring PhD scholars (from academia and industry alike) and generating intellectual capital in collaboration; supporting research endeavors with incentives and financial assistance; offering ample opportunities to faculty members for organizing and delivering faculty/management/executive development programs across diverse sectors at various locations; institutionalizing awards for overall excellence and institution building to promote and acknowledge innovation in teaching, research and corporate interface; fostering collaborative approach to maximize research output and rewarding outstanding summer internship projects (that are further developed as research papers and case studies) and similar institutional practices fortify our research, innovation and professional development agendas. At the commencement of the academic year, we encourage a productive dialogue with individual faculty members and motivate them to draw their personal and professional development plans for the entire year, with strong emphasis on exploring opportunities for collaboration with academic and industry partners, to promote interdisciplinary research. Personally, I encourage frequent brainstorming sessions with faculty colleagues to discuss and deliberate on emerging trends, issues, opportunities and challenges in the field of business and management, and exploring approaches to promote creativity, innovation and growth-oriented mindset. We encourage faculty members to take up affiliations/memberships with reputed professional bodies and trade associations. Our faculty assessment and appraisal system places considerable weightage on innovation in designing, developing and delivering learning modules. Creating a conducive ecosystem to promote creation and sharing of intellectual wealth is our prime focus.

How do you plan to leverage technology and online platforms to enhance the delivery of business education and adapt to changing educational landscapes?

Technology is serving as a prime enabler to cater to the learning needs of diverse student groups. Offering a robust end -to-end learning management system, developed by our IT team has helped us provide flexible and self-paced learning opportunities for students with different levels of learning competencies. We have extensively collaborated with corporate partners to offer certifications in multiple domains, with these industry experts serving as lead trainers delivering sessions in blended mode. This has allowed us to foster the industry academia integration and bring real world insights to our classrooms with much convenience. We are profoundly adopting technology in developing content, making this content available to students for flexible learning, encouraging skills enhancement through certifications being offered on open online platforms, collaborating with industry experts for offering joint certification programs, managing our student support, academics, examinations, placement trainings and other processes through technology enabled systems, making our services all the more robust and reliable.

What are the challenging parts of being in the program head of a business school role and how do you handle them?

As I shared in my response to the first question, what makes this role exciting is exactly what makes it challenging. The world of business is very complex and dynamic, the ever-changing needs of multiple stakeholders and the effort to deliver outcomes in alignment with the expectations of these diverse stakeholders is the biggest challenge, nothing less than constantly walking on a tightrope. It's not about effectively responding to the changes in the environment, it's about anticipating the changes in the environment. The industry is changing at a crazy pace, so are the skill sets that make people fit for these novel career opportunities. Preparing our students for the roles and careers of the future requires an extremely agile mindset, robust strategies and extraordinary resources. Meeting the expectations of this generation of learners who are incredibly well-equipped in terms of access and approach to almost everything, puts you to tough tests every day. Fortunately, our processes and systems are quite robust and flexible at the same time, and this allows us to experiment profoundly. And most of the time, right intentions lead to the right outcomes!

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Can you describe what is the significance and support IBS provides for entrepreneurship and innovation?

Innovation is a mindset and IBS has cultivated this mindset in every aspect of our processes and systems. We were extremely proactive in designing advanced courses in the domain of entrepreneurship and meticulously sourcing the right set of experts to mentor our students with entrepreneurial aspirations. The Innovation and Entrepreneurship Cell and Ignited Minds Club at our campus have been doing an extraordinary job in terms of encouraging entrepreneurial culture, organizing large scale interventions like entrepreneurship conclaves, capacity building programs and skills enhancement workshops, collaborating with the entrepreneurship experts and startup mentors from various domains and inviting them on a regular basis. These mentors are not just offering support in terms of handholding, but also fetching the right kind of opportunities for these young aspirants.

Our extensive alumni network is serving a huge support by offering internships and live project opportunities to our students, at their startups.

IBS has been constantly supporting students with training programs, networking opportunities and access to resources to help them nurture their entrepreneurial ambitions.

How do you envision the role of the Program head in shaping the strategic direction and growth of IBS Business School?

The entire ecosystem and participating entities are driving the growth and success of IBS. The role of program head is to bring all these entities together, establish a common purpose and facilitate the process. The imperatives include an agile mindset, flexible approach and 360-degree collaboration. The program head has to serve as a linking pin that keeps multiple stakeholders together and drives a common growth agenda. I realize the most crucial responsibility is developing a conducive environment, fostering collaboration and acknowledging performance. I strongly believe in the fact that practices can be copied, cultures cannot be copied and the same practices may not yield the same results in a different culture. So, the focus should shift from emulating the so-called best practices to establishing a unique culture that creates the right environment to introduce progressive agendas and practices. This is where the role and philosophy of program head makes a difference!