The rationale behind the NCL experiential courses is to build leaders who are socially sensitive and have self-awareness

SPJIMR students are sensitized leaders, aware of the urban as well as rural communities and their ways of working. They are aware of their own strengths and weaknesses and learn how to deal with them to become better leaders. They are able to identify and define problems in unstructured environments and are grounded enough to roll up their sleeves and work with their teams. They learn to collaborate with peers and mentor their juniors. All NCL initiatives help develop leaders who are better equipped to balance profit and social purpose of business.

The NCLs go beyond traditional classroom learning students get an understanding of society comprising rural and urban Bharat. The participants learn to manage themselves first before they manage teams in the corporate world.

The NCLs are a mandatory part of the first-year curriculum. Every course has credits assigned to it and follows a rigorous pedagogy with planned evaluations to ensure the students' best possible learning experience and outcomes.

SPJIMR has five NCLs – PG Lab, ADMAP, Abhyudaya, Science of Spirituality, and DoCC- continuously refined yearly. As a highly innovative management institute, SPJIMR strives to continuously add immersive experiences for the students that enhance their learning.

Courses Offered

Science of Spirituality

The current 'Science of Spirituality' course offered at SPJIMR is in line with the spirit and vision of the former dean Dr. M. L. Shrikant who had also experimented with innovative ways of delivering this knowledge. The content of the sessions is based upon insights and practices from Eastern Wisdom Traditions (Advaita Vedanta, Buddhism, etc.) and the growing field of Mindfulness, supplemented by frameworks from Cognitive and Developmental Psychology and research findings from Neurosciences and the discipline of Management.

Approach is reflective and experiential with the purpose of helping students to shift old habits and create space for a new way of being.

The course aims at:

  • Provide students an opportunity to reflect deeply on the way they look at their life, the world and their place in society.
  • Develop skills to make them more centered and grounded, thereby operating with greater relaxation, creativity and objectivity. 
  • Appreciate the need for self-care and associate in an empathetic and participative way with others
  • Help them expand their horizon of meaning and find avenues of fulfilling their personal aspirations and professional ambitions.
  • Understand the concepts of interconnectedness and interdependence, and their role as an active participant and contributor to society.
  • Appreciate the fine balance between the capacity to drive change, and the acceptance of what is beyond their control, in both personal and professional spheres. 
  • Identify a personal set of tools and contemplative practices to continue the journey towards freedom, wholeness and self-development.

ADMAP

The Assessment and Development of Managerial and Administrative Potential (ADMAP) is a three-credit course spread through the first year of the two-year PGDM curriculum. This unique Non-Classroom Learning course was conceived by visionary educationist Dr. M L Shrikant, Former, Honorary Dean of SPJIMR, DBA HBS in 2004.

This value-based approach to management education, in line with the SPJIMR’s philosophy of Influencing Practice and Value-based Growth, helps the students to become leaders, entrepreneurs and managers of tomorrow who can get things done even in the Volatile, Uncertain, Complex and Ambiguous (VUCA) world.

Based on their preference, students are allocated to one of the existing committees on campus. As a part of an evaluative process of 3 credits, students will then be involved in the everyday functioning and decision-making of the campus during their first year. Each committee is mentored by a faculty in charge who will oversee the work done by the students and deliver periodic feedback to reflect on and improve upon.

ADMAP aims to empower students with the art of administrative capabilities in a fun and experiential way. It introduces the participants to ‘self-learning’ and ‘management of the self’ through the prism of ‘doing, observing, reflecting and recording’. ADMAP focuses on a learned rather than a taught pedagogy and it transfers the learning responsibility to the students.

ADMAP aims to

  • Help students learn how to work in a team of peers with diverse administrative styles
  • Instill a professional attitude in students
  • Assist students in learning how to influence without power
  • Aid students in understanding various organizational structures
  • Teach students what are the sources of formal and informal power

There are almost (17/18 Confirm the number) committees that you can be a part of.

DOCC

Development of Corporate Citizenship (DoCC) is an SPJIMR initiative conceived 25 years ago that aims at engaging with social sector initiatives across India. As part of this initiative, the SPJIMR community engages with rural communities as part of the curriculum where students both volunteer and intern with organizations working in the social sector. This rural internship is in line with SPJIMR’s philosophy of Influencing Practice and Value-based Growth, which helps create sensitivity based on knowledge and the social environment around us.

Some of the key areas covered in this initiative include

  • To demonstrate to the participants (alumni, current and prospective students) the universality of management principles and their applications to the social sector.
  • To empower the participants to deal with an unstructured environment and make decisions
  • To provide capacity development programmes for the development sector, including the government and NGOs
  • To develop amongst the participants sensitivity to the underprivileged constituents of society
  • To consult for M&E as well as Impact Assessment study for various development programmes/projects
  • To undertake action field research and develop cases and research papers along with other publications

SPJIMR curriculum facilitates our PGDM students to take up internships in socially relevant rural projects for five weeks. PGPM participants intern for two weeks. These projects are in association with NGO’s working in rural areas which have been valued for implementing innovative social sector approaches

SPJIMR is increasingly trying to partner with a wide range of NGO’s to give the students a chance to work on diverse problem statements each year.

The key takeaways of the DOCC social project is:

  • To explore, develop/modify and document sustainable solutions
  • To achieve programme goals more efficiently and deliver superior value to the beneficiary
  • To address operational as well as strategic issues/problems of the NGOs

Abhyudaya

“Abhyudaya” is a Sanskrit word that means 'welfare and development for all'.

It is a transformative experiential learning course, where students of our PGDM (2-year full-time) programme mentor school children from underprivileged backgrounds for a year. We call the children 'Sitara', which means star. Each PGDM student is mapped to one Sitara, and mentors that Sitara for a full year.

Based on this first-hand understanding of poverty, our PGDM participants design sustainable business projects to solve social issues; which are evaluated by an industry panel. Thus, they develop their mentoring skills, and work towards becoming socially sensitive business leaders.

Through the Abhyudaya programme, Sitaras can:

  • Realize their full potential, both in their work as well as personal life
  • Become financially self-reliant
  • Develop sensitivity to cultural diversity, harmonious community living, and gender equality

Through the non-profit arm of Abhyudaya, we have engaged deeply with the Sitara community for the past 14 years, providing education to 500+ schoolchildren.

During the current Covid pandemic, we have intensified our efforts, providing financial assistance, food, health and safety programs, laptops for ongoing education, and a digital literacy program for our Sitaras.

The program works on two way feedback between the sitara as well as the mentor with an aim to bring out the best in both.

Abhyudaya is a major differentiator among other business schools and in the industry.

It helps our students evolve into empathetic managers who want to make a difference to the world.

Through the Abhyudaya programme, our management students can:

  • Become socially aware, empathetic future managers
  • Learn mentoring and leadership skills
  • Understand the role of business in sustainability

PG Lab

An innovative pedagogy for teaching Organizational Behavior, the Personal Growth Lab (PG Lab) is a comprehensive course that helps build personal leadership and team skills through indoor and outdoor activities, psychometric tests and experiential exercises. 

The course is delivered in one of the most exciting formats, with participants taken on an outbound in the hills near Mumbai at virtually the start of the programme. So begins the journey for each participant from "me" and traverses through the PG Lab to harness the power of "we". 

Thus, the PG Lab experience has popularly come to be called the journey from "me to we".

The course also has a rigorous self discovery mechanism built in..

The results of the psychometric instruments are mapped on to generic managerial competencies. This helps participants identify strengths and learn to leverage them. Participants also work on a personal development plan based on their areas of improvement. Apart from the learning activities, informal music and dance sessions also help develop a strong sense of bonding.

On coming back to the Institute, they are to reflect and introspect on their feedback, both quantitative and qualitative, and write out a personal learning paper on their understanding of various OB concepts, and application of this knowledge to their personal and professional life. Personal counseling is provided to participants through the counseling and development cell of SPJIMR - Vishwas.

Each activity is aimed at bringing out qualities that are latent in them; each activity focuses on specific skill areas such as creativity, leadership, teamwork and innovativeness; hence, participants identify their own capabilities, their strengths and areas of improvement.