SOIL’s One Year MBA - PGPM Helped Me With Application Of Theory

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How The PGPM Program Helped Me Focus On Application Of Theory

31 Jan 2022
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1 Year MBA, PGPM, Post Graduate Program in Management

MBA courses are considered to impart professional skills amongst those who choose to further their goals in the corporate world. They develop practical managerial skills amongst students in an effort to train them as practitioners in the business world. However, the desired skills that are needed in the corporate world are an amalgam of skills based on a theoretical curriculum, AND developing practical managerial skill according to employers’ needs. The core emphasis of an MBA program that has been designed to move beyond theoretical nature, build on past core functional knowledge and move on to leadership and practical application, is a dream for anyone desiring to forward his career. A program that provides contextual understanding of demanded managerial skills by employers and where practical learning is embedded in the classroom and program design, is an emerging challenge for the sustainability of management practitioners.

Coming to SOIL Institute of Management’s PGPM program, their innovative leadership program integrates the constructs of social, theoretical and practical learning and this defines their uniqueness.

The SOIL PGPM Program – My Experiences

After spending around 2 years as a Systems Engineer in one of the largest IT companies in India, I had reached a situation where I felt the need to move on to a higher level. My functional skills were considered above average, however the managerial skills required honing. My search for MBA courses that could provide me with the necessary platform to move higher, and I ended at the PGPM program at SOIL.

Here was a program that integrated conceptual learning, experiential learning, leadership skills, and the much-neglected social outlook to business. The selection process was itself a self-discovery process. Preparing for the holistic intake process led me to realize my inner strengths and weak areas. The PGPM program at SOIL combined all the above to provide me with the requisite knowledge to apply theory to practicality, changed my outlook to business and more. It structured my thinking process. Today, I can safely say, the program gave me confidence to move on to a sales career anchored around next gen technology solutions and move to Australia (where I didn’t know a soul) and work in Cloud technology sales.

More recently, I have joined Accenture to be part of large-scale transformational cloud deals. I am proud to say that the SOIL legacy has enabled me to be recognised and receive an award for my work to advance social equity in the form of Accenture’s Global Equality Champion award for Growth Markets.

How The PGPM Programme Helped Me

One of the best MBA courses in demand – one year MBA – PGPM program is uniquely designed for mid-career professionals like I was. They offered me the possibility of taking a short break from my career and coming back equipped with skills that I could apply to real life situations. Besides, I learnt that leadership skills could be applied across functional profiles and transition from a tech role to one in marketing could be achieved with this learning.

In my one year MBA at SOIL, I envisioned a world where markets, business entities, and society focused on application of knowledge and skills for the benefit of an organization. The PGPM came with an acquisition of leadership skills with a human centric approach. Whilst the customer is essentially the co-creator of value, the role of society should not be overlooked. Any business can only look to offer value propositions and not deliver value since value was too determined by the customer. Since social and economic stakeholders integrate resources, there needed to be a synergy in decision making that would create value for all. Here, I would like to outline some important areas that helped me to carry my functional and acquired knowledge to real life situations.
1. Experiential Learning – is a step beyond cognitive learning. Experiential learning at SOIL aims to brings students together with common/ shared objectives and draws on the experiences of mentors, industry leaders, coaches etc. I undertook community work, sharing privileges and competencies with people less fortunate where I helped set up a sanitation facility in a local village as part of my PGPM curriculum. This helped me in my sensitization towards the community at large. To view their issues and problems at close hand helped me to apply functional knowledge in business with an ethical and human centric approach.
2. Immersive Internships – Internships are built into SOIL’s MBA program. I had the opportunity to work with an organization in IT service delivery and this helped me to gain valuable experience and connections. These immersive internships enabled me to enhance my problem-solving and analytical skills and clarify my goals.
3. Learning Through Case Discussion – Along with the classroom teaching, we were exposed to real business world situations through cases. We were divided into groups of students and then we discussed the case threadbare, analyzed the issues and came up with suggestions/ solutions to tackle them. Making a presentation along with a suggested course of action in a classroom setting was the final outcome. This gave me the confidence to tackle the process of brainstorming, teamwork and honing my presentation skills.
4. Mentoring – SOIL students are assigned two mentors, a corporate leader as an external mentor and a faculty member as an internal mentor. This provided me with an opportunity to have great learning sessions, build a network, and closely understand how knowledge could be applied to real situations.
My Final Take

Post the one year MBA – PGPM from SOIL, I have not yet faced a situation that I was not prepared for. Be it a lecture, leading a project team, or interacting with customers, my development exceeded my expectations. Today, I go forward with confidence in taking an active role in developing global strategies and implementing innovative ideas.

As I take forward my career with Accenture in the ANZ region in their Cloud practice, the area continues to grow exponentially. However, concentrating on sustainable software engineering practices can help benefit society at large in the long term. I am proud to be a SOILite as they have helped me to integrate a social outlook to business.

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