Ivey ties up with MDI Gurgaon

Mumbai: The Richard Ivey School of Business (Ivey) is expanding its footprint in India through its partnerships in areas of case study preparation, research and executive education. The Richard Ivey School of Business today signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with the Management Development Institute (MDI), Gurgaon, for development of India-focussed business case studies and distribute them globally. Further, Ivey will also be developing an executive development programme for a large Indian telecom player.

The partnership with MDI will look at training high-potential faculty and case writers in case writing and case teaching process, developing a case writing and case teaching culture in Indian management schools, and expanding the research networks of the institutions.

In an interview with Business Standard, Carol Stephenson, Dean, Richard Ivey School of Business, said, "We are partnering with MDI Gurgaon to develop joint cases. I believe that case based learning is a highly effective and relevant teaching methodology to make management education more attuned to real world business challenges, particularly in fast-growing and emerging economies such as India."

Ivey has a partnership with Indian Institute of Management (IIM), Bangalore, for research and Indian School of Business (ISB), Hyderabad, for developing case studies. The recent MoU is a step in that direction. At the Ivey campus in Toronto, around 10 per cent of students in its MBA programme are Indians. "We have been associated with India for a long time. The number of Indian students in our campuses is also increasing, especially after our alumni, an Indian businessman in Canada has announced 50 per cent scholarships for Indian students," informed Stephenson.

She also said that the Indian students at Ivey, Toronto campus, were looking at coming back to India. “India has the opportunities — entrepreneurial and otherwise. That is why our students are looking at the country more than ever before. Moreover, our mandatory international business trip to India, as a part of the curriculum, is raising awareness among the students about the country, encouraging them to take up jobs here,” opined the Dean.

In terms of executive education, Ivey has been working with several corporates for their internal programmes. Ivey has already worked with GAIL for the latter executive development programme. “Executive education has been our forte. We are thus looking at more partnerships with Indian corporates in this area,” said Stephenson.

The Dean said that the quality brought to executive education was of prime importance. Using its own faculty, unique case method, implementable solutions and getting industry practitioners to the executive education programme has been the focus of Ivey, according to her. "Companies are now realising that they cannot compromise with executive education. Talent is what makes a company and we hope to play a significant role in nurturing this talent among Indian organisations," she concluded.