Dr. Taruna Gautam is a Faculty of Economics & IB, Design Thinking & Innovation. Her current research interest areas are Sustainability and Innovation, Smart Cities, Development Economics. She has experience of almost 22 years in Management Education. She has handled all roles and responsibilities including Program administration as Director, Accreditation, conducting events, liaising with International Institutions and industry. She has done her Bachelor's in Economics, Post Graduation in International Business & P.hd in Economics from the University of Rajasthan.

IILM Graduate School of Management

How would you describe your leadership philosophy?

“Provide new opportunities to develop unique solutions”

The rise of new technologies has disrupted numerous industries at a faster pace than ever before. Leaders across these industries have had to adapt to stay competitive and effective. Co-creation is an important way to incorporate the best of the ideas towards coming up with feasible ideas and creating a competitive edge during these times. I firmly believe that challenges provide new opportunities to develop unique solutions. Acknowledging the contribution of every team member and giving them complete space to innovate themselves both in teaching and institutional activities lead to great results. I also understand that unilateral decisions are not good for an organization. It is always good to seek advice and suggestions from stakeholders when it comes to important issues. Teamwork, co-creation, and transparency through strong communication are important pillars of my leadership philosophy.

How do your programs ensure that students are learning industry-relevant skills?

“Regular industrial updates of the courses ensure industrial-oriented learning of students”

Technological developments are leading to major disruptions in the industry. This has made it much more important to be cognizant of the fact that students learn industry-relevant skills. Our programs are designed, redesigned, and regularly updated based on the feedback received from recruiters, alumni, industry faculty, and renowned academicians on our Academic Advisory panel. Students are engaged in live projects, short-term industry projects, and real-world problems as a part of assessments in various modules. Important electives linked with skills relevant to the industry are taught by industry professionals who can share the experience and what the industry is looking for. Some courses have simulations to exercise upon important industry problems. We try to incorporate technology in most of the courses and wherever possible teaching and assessments are excel based. Students are connected with alumni for mentoring and guidance. Thus, through regular feedbacks, industry involvement and incorporation of technology leads to creating skills as required by industry

How does your institute promote diversity among its student body?

“Provide students with holistic development and make them responsible citizens”

The vision of IILM is Students Centric with a focus on diversity, it makes students better communicators and provides students with a richer experience, learning environment. IILM promotes diversity as it offers holistic development of students and a responsible citizen of this country. Inclusion of gender, region, demography, and religion and stream in programs intended to promote diversity in the institute at the time of admission. At the commencement of the Batch, student profiling is done as it helps create a diverse class, peer & study groups for various academic and non-academic activities. The interaction between students with different views can help change minds or shape ideas. Students can learn from peers with different perspectives shaped by a variety of experiences. IILM is a residential campus hence residents celebrate all festivals to understand the culture and it helps life at campus be vibrant. Diversity of thought is more conducive to creativity and innovation. 

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What efforts do you make to ensure a healthy learning environment at your institute?

”Provide students with a healthy classroom for the overall development of the students”

IILM’s Vision is to have an inspirational learning environment that encourages continuous innovation and learning; practice-based and work related learning experience. To accomplish this vision IILM has a healthy classroom that enables students and teachers to be at their best, physically, mentally, and emotionally. Creating and maintaining a healthy classroom involves holistically addressing issues as part of an ecosystem. The more at ease students feel, the greater the potential for success consequently, the environment of the institute to be healthy. An engaging learning environment increases students' attention and focus promotes meaningful learning experiences, encourages higher levels of student performance, and motivates students to practice higher-level critical thinking skills.

What are some recent updates or new additions to your programs that will help students stand out?

“Design Thinking and Creativity are the new updates in our programs”

An important part of our curriculum is the emphasis we place on critical thinking, problem-solving, and decision-making skills along with our pursuit to enable students to understand and appreciate the disruptive technological change that is almost a constant phenomenon in modern times. To fulfill these objectives we have papers like design thinking and creativity as a part of our core curriculum. This helps the students in understanding how to identify problems and provide feasible solutions. In Year II of the program, we offer a wide variety of papers focused on emergent technologies (like machine learning and artificial intelligence) and their application in different domains of management. As a logical culmination of these initiatives, the institute's entrepreneurship cell invites proposals from students that seek innovative and entrepreneurial solutions to business/societal problems to nurture a select few. 

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What would you like people to know about your institute that they might not know?

“People should know about the blended learning curriculum of our college”

Established in 1993, IILM is a leading institution in Management Education with campuses located in New Delhi, Gurugram, Greater Noida, Lucknow, and Jaipur. IILM offers AICTE, AIU approved Post-Graduate Diploma in Management, accredited by NBA & NAAC 'A’. Rapidly transforming industry has prompted a blended learning curriculum approach that focuses on Digital Disruption, Analytics, Artificial Intelligence, BlockChain, and Internet of Things. IILM has a very strong network with the industry for Internships, Live Projects & Placements. With 30 years of experience in training future entrepreneurs and managers, IILM is proud to have 13000+ well-placed Alumni in top companies in India and abroad. 300+ leading companies across sectors visit IILM for placements every year. Companies like EY, HUL, Deloitte, HSBC recruit from IILM. The Personal Leadership Program has been designed to help students develop self-knowledge and interpersonal skills by introducing a set of learning experiences throughout the PGDM program. The Career Development Program is another exciting and unique aspect of the curriculum at IILM.