Dr. S. S. Bhakar shares the goals set forth in the upcoming years for Prestige Institute of Management

Interview by Sakshi Aggarwal

Dr. Bhakar is currently heading Prestige Institute of Management, Gwalior as Director.

Dr. Bhakar completed his Ph.D. in Management from Devi Ahilya University, Indore on the topic “A Comparative Study of Material Handling Systems in Automobile Industry.”; Post Graduation in Management (M.B.A. – Operations Management from IGNOU, New Delhi; Masters in Computer Science from Indo-German Cultural society, Mumbai and Graduation in Engineering (B.E.- Electronics and Telecommunications, AMIETE) from IETE, New Delhi. He has undergone six month’s training on missile technology by British Aerospace in U.K.

Dr. Bhakar has been extensively involved in various research activities including supervising Ph.D. scholars. Eight scholars have been awarded Ph.D degree under his supervision and one has submitted his thesis. Currently 6 scholars are pursuing their Ph.D. degrees under his guidance from two Universities, Jiwaji University, Gwalior and Aligarh Muslim University, Aligarh.

Dr. Bhakar is a well-known trainer and he has conducted in-house training programs for some of the most reputed organizations in the country such as Essar Steel, Eicher Motors, Syncom formulations etc. and has organized and conducted Executive Development Programs on ISTD platform.

During his tenure as Director PIMG, Dr. Bhakar has successfully organized four International conferences and four National conferences as conference chairman, Eleven Case Writing Workshops as main resource person and supervisor/ editor, and five National Research Methodology Workshops (one of them AICTE Sponsored) as the Main resource person. He has been the main resource person in twenty other Research Methodology workshops organized by National Institute of Agricultural Marketing, Jaipur; Petroleum University, Gurgaon; MDS University, Ajmer; IILM, Jaipur; Pioneer Institute of Management, Indore; Indian Institute of Tourism and Travel Management, Gwalior; Podar Institute of Management, Jaipur; JK Business School, Gurgaon; Centurion Institute of Professional Studies, Jaipur; Gitarattan Institute of Business Studies, New Delhi and Baba Ramdev College of Engineering and Management Nagpur.

Dr. Bhakar has held senior positions of various bodies such as Chairman, Indian Society for Training and Development (ISTD) Indore chapter (2003-2004), Secretary ISTC, Indore chapter (2000-2001) and Executive President, Gwalior Management Association from 2005 till date.

Dr. Bhakar is a life member of Indian Society for Training and Development (ISTD) New Delhi, an associate member of Institution of Electronics and Telecommunication Engineers, New Delhi and member, All India Management Association, New Delhi.

Induction of new students at Prestige Institute of Management

The admission process of the Institute is completely transparent and truly merit-based. The Institute promotes all the programs offered by the Institute to prospecting students through News Paper ads, ads in magazines, TV channel ads, Google ad words, Hoardings (both print and audio-visual) and social networking websites. Our Institute has been able to generate very high goodwill among the stakeholders and therefore gets very high mouth publicity for the programs run by it. The students of the Institute (current and Alumni) are our Brand Ambassadors. They share their positive experiences on social networking sites.

The students admitted in all the programs run by the Institute undergo 12 days 7hrs/day orientation program to ensure that the students are educated and trained in areas that are pre-requisite to understand and learn courses in their regular program in which they have taken admission. Fifty percent of the sessions in the orientation programs are conducted by the experts drawn from the industry to ensure that the students know in the beginning of their programs about the expectations of the industry when they pass out completing their programs at the Institute.

Planning of The Prestige Institute of Management for further expansion in terms of placement drive, international projects and seminars

The Institute has a well-developed placement cell. The placement cell has the dual responsibility of ensuring that the students are ready for placement and taking care of all the processes of training and placement.

The cell identifies major weaknesses of the students undergoing placement and also weaknesses of individual students for preparing developmental process using internal and external resources and it takes care of summer placement of the students and final placements. The cell continuously works in developing the recruiters’ pool to ensure 100% placement of both UG and PG students of the Institute. The cell visits various organizations to improve the recruiters’ pool.

The Institute has a well-developed system of organizing International Seminars. The Institute organizes at least one International Seminar and four national seminars every year. The International seminar is held in the second week of January every year. The organizing secretary and the dates of next seminar are announced during the inaugural function of the current seminar, thus ensuring continuity. In addition, the Institute also organizes two national level workshops for the faculty. The case writing workshop is organized during the third week of April and Research Methodology workshop is organized during August third or fourth week.

The Institute organizes at least one national-level event every month for the development of faculty members and the students. A large no of contests and workshops are organized for the students throughout the year.

The faculty members of the Institute are involved in collaborative research with faculty members from some the best-known Institutions across the world. 

Know more about placement opportunities available at The Prestige Institute of Management here.  

Dr. S. S. Bhakar on the importance of time management

I believe in proper planning and time allocation. Time is allocated based on the importance of activity/decision for the Institute. My calendar is maintained by Personal Secretary to the Director and a soft copy of the same is maintained by me personally.

The Institute uses transparent participative management in which the administrative responsibilities are also shouldered by the faculty members through coordinator system. All the faculty members get to coordinate administrative responsibilities through the rotation system.

All the conferences and seminars have organizing secretary, who is helped by teams taking care of responsibilities of different activities related to these seminars and conferences. Similarly, the responsibilities of workshops are handled by faculty members as coordinator. In fact, the Institute uses collaborative management system very effectively.

Faculty at The Prestige Institute of Management

The Institute inducts qualified faculty members who are known experts in their respective teaching, training and consulting areas through the transparent faculty selection process.

The Institute has a proper system at a place for the regular development of its faculty members. The Institute organizes two workshops for developing Case Writing Skills and for developing skills to write research papers. The Institute also organizes faculty Development programs in all specialization areas. The Institute organizes one International Conference and five seminars every year. It also sponsors its faculty members to attend unlimited conferences, seminars and workshops organized by other Institutions in India and one conference every second year abroad.

Know more about the faculty at Prestige Institute of Management here.

Top qualities according to Dr. S. S. Bhakar that an aspiring MBA aspirant must possess

An MBA aspirant must possess Excellent Communication Skills (both oral and written), good analytical ability including quantitative analysis, and good academic background. In addition, an MBA aspirant should be disciplined, be ready to work in teams and is ready to put in long hours.

Efforts that Prestige Institute of Management is doing to ensure well-resourced non-academic support services

The students’ club of the institute along with professional clubs take care of non-academic support services for the students. The club organizes a very popular National Fest ‘Spandan’ every year. The fest attracts students from Institutions located across the country.

Social welfare activities are taken care of by PIMG Retract Club. Social activities that are undertaken by the club include awareness generation drives, Swachhta Abhiyan and cleanliness drives, Beti Bachao – Beti Padhao drives, literacy improvement efforts, work with different agencies for the welfare of old age people and differently abled people and distribute woollen clothes and blankets to poor people.

The Institute has set up specialization- based clubs for Management programs and faculty-based clubs for IT and Law to provide a platform for implementation of their learning through the organization of different competitive events. The clubs are funded through membership fees and additional equivalent amount is contributed by the Institute to make clubs viable.

The Institute invites senior executives from industry on regular basis to interact with the students of the Institute. It organizes 12 days skills development workshop for the students before the placement season begins to ensure that the students are equipped with right skills. Senior executives from industry conduct major part of this work shop.

Apart from this, it sponsors students for participating in the competitive and cultural events organized by other well-known Institutions in the country. The Institute has sponsored more than 750 students for participating in different events organized by other reputed Institutes (including IITs and IIMs) of the country in the year 2016-17. The sponsorship includes, registration amount, to and fro travel by second class reserved train or equivalent, staying cost (Actual) and DA to cover food expenses.

Measures taken by Prestige Institute of Management to ensure the process of internships

The Institute gives utmost importance to internship with industry. The students are assigned a faculty guide along with industry guide. The students need to remain in touch with the faculty guide at all times during the internship. The faculty guides also visit the organizations of their interns.

The students prepare comprehensive internship report which is evaluated by panel of internal faculty members. The reports are improved before they are presented to external examiners. The students are sponsored to participate in summer training contests organized by Institutions across India.

Dr. S. S. Bhakar on the growth of B-Schools in India

Management education in India is maturing now. It has gone through four phases till now starting with opening of first B-School (XLRI, Jamshedpur) in 1949.

In the first phase, the growth of B-Schools was very slow and till 1994. After 1994, the second phase started. In this phase, the growth of B-schools picked up momentum AICTE was willing to give approval to Institutions without land or building, that led to mushrooming of management Institutions without infrastructure or good faculty. In the third phase, AICTE became strict with land and building being made mandatory before getting AICTE approval to run Management program. Inspection teams visited each management Institution before being given approval and after that every year for renewal of approval. In later part of this phase the approval process was moved to online by AICTE. By the year 2015 the strength of Management Institutions had reached 4,000 (25% of B-schools in the world). The growth has been more in numbers than in quality of B-schools. Fourth phase is phasing out phase. A large number of management institutions struggled to get enough students to run these Institutions and thus are forced to shut shop. The best Institutions of management are flourishing. The phase will last with only the fittest Institutions surviving the phase.

Main qualities according to Dr. S. S. Bhakar that have helped create a brand name for The Prestige Group

Consistent student-centric approach in all processes from admission to placement and complete transparency has helped the Institute create the brand name for the Prestige Group.

Message for students wishing to pursue their higher studies from Prestige Institute of Management

The Institutions of Prestige Education Society are known for quality of education, training and placement. Regularity in class attendance is important in all the Institutions promoted by PES. The students need to be dedicated and disciplined to do well in the Institutions. The Institutions have excellent placement with some of the best organizations visiting these Institutions for campus placement. Average Pay back period (0.3 years) for PES Institutions is one of the lowest in the country.