I do feel if students do what we are asking them to do and students have the capability that we imagine them to have once the pass this course I think industry will want them I I see no industry not wanting them hi I'm hes from after boards and we are at I IM Bangalore they recently launched their online BBA DB digital Business and Entrepreneurship course and it's an online fre year course these are the subjects that I taught these are the dates of the entrance exam and this is the deadline for legis we wanted to know what is up and what is cooking at IM am bangal and we have an interview right with you with Professor Sur let's get into it hey it's afterwards I saw your LinkedIn comment that the reason that this is online is so that we can impart very good quality education to Masters it has been a while since we were uh uh discussing about this program we saw I medas and when we had asked I Madras what has been a significant finding that they had in terms of the program they said the hard work that people are putting in from across the country many of them didn't have access to high quality education many of them tried hard may not have gotten to I but the seriousness with which they were coming to online sessions working very hard they said that has been the biggest surprising element of the of the entire program so taking a queue from there we felt we should do something similar M um we should have started this in our 50th year last year but it took a little while but the idea as you have mentioned is need to deliver high quality education at a distance uh scalable modular and a little bit affordable we saw a lot of technological courses in the BB dbe we have low code no code web development we also have uiux we also have a little bit on databases and algorithms so is this to make them make MVPs quicker or is this mainly to give them an exposure key okay this also exists know about this oh know good point I think that's pretty nice of you to look up the content um one of the reasons why we are doing it is because we want the scada to go join companies that are undergoing digital transformation and uh this digital transformation is going to affect every single person right from a farmer to a manufacturing company to a tech company to a space company right so given the world that everybody is getting into ventur cannot not have digital transformation strategies and have Manpower who can help them achieve these strategies so we feel having a cater of people especially freshers who are trained to address some of these uh issues that large corporations are facing we feel that they can go play a very important role in the near future plus we also see entrepreneurship come up in companies yeah so you can be an entrepreneur but at somebody else's risk and try to use the company's resources and I wanted to take an analogy which I identified like we have full stack developers they know front end they know backend and now we have a lot of solar pruners and there will be a segment in the BBA program who are like I want to learn how to do it on my own I want to register an OPC I want to know marketing I want to know I want to do everything and get a taste of it how does this program help them oh that was a that's a very good question I'm sure it should and I I quite like this one person company mode and uh I've also been following couple of people on the net who have tiny Empires one person company you could still have significant Revenue leveraging technology solving a very small problem for a large number of companies we never looked at it from that angle but yes they will have capabilities to definitely try this out sir I read an article which you wrote uh in an entrepreneurship Journal about the 250 rupees Venture AT vishakapatnam when this activity was presented they went to the beach and told let us put stalls over here and let's have a conversation between and we going to charge you money for having that how can we facilitate this online no it's not going to be done online it'll be done offline but the idea here was what you plan to do is not not how things pan out my idea is to do it twice that I plan I execute I learn issues related to execution so therefore when I plan next time my plan will be little more realistic than the first time when I would have imagined I can do this I can do this and I can also do that but the second time around they'll say oh I don't need to do this I don't need to do this as long as I focus on this one particular aspect then I should be good to go so it's this iterative process of identifying and interacting with customers and their problems and how do you subsequently address some of these is what I wanted as part of that experiment nothing more than a very tiny exercise to get that uh Penny dropping moment for I think the requirements of talented individual in this country is huge it's not as if manufacturing as it is right now was how it was 20 years ago there's a lot more technology involved lot more iot involved lot more operation efficiency involved so you need to learn how to play with all these newer gadgets and technologies that are coming in so we're not really looking at the startup world as we are we're looking at this entire gamut of companies could be pharmaceutical companies could be hospitality companies or hospitals for that matter right everybody requires individuals who can very quickly come to speed leverage in technology so program learning outcome can be said that once you go through it you will be adaptable to whatever comes next in the World wow that would be one big wish list like if something like that happens then we would be immensely happy because that's exactly what we want to have somebody who's capable of saying that look um I'm in control right so I have the agency to change myself to address whatever the U industry want so I'm trained enough to make myself capable to whatever the industry wants right so that's what we want because the pram curriculum also shows that I do not see a BBA course in India which is teaching uiux to anyone right now and just knowing uiux also makes you a better say video editor or a better content marketer I read this that uh the viny was not a good painter because he could just paint well but because he knew Anatomy he knew physics he knew how light reflected which helped him become a better painter so would this also apply in a business context I don't think um we had such deep thoughts in terms of putting this curriculum together I think the reason why it happened was because we had a very eclectic mix of Faculty members who putting our minds to what it should have right so therefore that multiple perspectives seem to have reflected on the curriculum which is very diverse you would also want them to be creative because one of the first courses that we're teaching in year one uh term term two is creativity what is creativity at the end of the day you're saying that I'm not limited by whatever is in front of me I'll take some actions to move away from where I am to where I want to be yes sir and the burning question now is since this is an online program how will we build a community and I actually want to give some sort of assment to this because when we look at Li and Anish they are building a million dollar company and they met on a forum online and we had this discard Community where just talking to the person continuously being with them online it felt like an alternative to how a college life is supposed to be obviously it's not the same but it feels like the people in the public forum are discounting it heavily that online programs cannot be good what is your take on this sir if you do have a connect with other person on it doesn't matter exactly whether it's online or offline but but you are right it is challenging for us to create a community which is uh online so but online you could be whoever you want to and then I'm only addressing with your uh online avatar yes and it also has led to very good success stories people will be very shy offline but when they go online they like okay no one can see me no one knows me let me try to be the best version of who I am I wish something like that happened and I feel that it's likely to happen because nobody's watching yes right and because nobody's watching the the nobody's giving you a dirty look saying that oh that was such a stupid question having said that I don't think it's going to be very easy for us to create communities and which we would want want to because one of the reasons we go to colleges because we do gain a lot by interacting with others we have socializing skills we understand how to interact with each other different communities different cultures um we are planning to do some offline activities at City level at maybe some Regional level uh to create collectives but we also would like to use challenges students can form groups of Their Own to pitch for those challenges and win prizes because they are the that way they have a CV point and they also have little bit some priz money that could be a way in which we are forcing people to form groups online so would it be a success story if say five people come in together they're like oh I know UI well I can Market it for you one guy says I know Tech well I can help you make the product one person says I know how to sell well and all these people come together and win competitions yeah you know that would be very good but even better would be to say that look I know this person in it Madras course we could work together because it's online it doesn't matter right we know a lot of people because people are very skeptical about online courses because they only uh experience with it has been some 15 hour or 12 hour workshop at corsella or other websites they've not experienced an online degree and the other thought to have is if you're doing this online course and if this is going to be a primary degree which it can be then what will you do with rest of time you only are supposed to work about 7 to 8 hours a week right at best 10 hours could be working in your father's or Uncle's business understanding the ropes of business or you could say I'm going to start something on my own or you can say that I'm going to be part of a drama group because you could then pursue what you want to pursue in the free time that is available to you you can also study and then do another course but it would be interesting for young people to leverage the free time that this course will help them uh and then use that for whatever they want to do so is it like college without the mandatory attendance College without mandatory attendance yeah exactly could be like that makes sense sir would you recommend a student just pursuing only this degree not any other degree and then looking at the offline college for Masters this is a full-fledged degree course and they will not be online on the degree as well they could use it to go abroad for Masters they can use it to go to do an MBA they could straight away go do a job go for a couple of years and then do a masters right or use it to start their own Venture so they could do whatever they want in terms of um their higher education or their vocation is there any perfect combination that you think would exist I am BBA plus this degree right now I don't know this is too early to say anything IM plus this um I'm sure it'll evolve this course will have plard lectures then live classes and then offline examinations yeah and then live tutorials as well so will they uh examinations be like I Madras where you go to a center in your exactly exact similar model so one thing if I may be so candid which we saw at I Madras was a lot of people copy of the assignments which are already uploaded to get it completed and they're not getting that learning outcome so would there be some way to prevent this from happening because accountability is a challenge online so I guess it is little bit easier here because this is not all technology like statistics right but in a lot of management related topics let's say communication or entrepreneurship I can't copy yours directly although I have to figure out whether people are going to use char and the exams are going to be on Sundays just like I madas so that they can weekends weekends makes sense sir so now the most burning fashion a lot of people who are skeptical are mainly skeptical because they think I'm not going to get placements at the end and it's very reliant on the college and a lot of them crudely calculate the ROI of a course by average CTC divided by the fees that paid how do we calculate the alloi of this course what is a measure that will make them think okay I've made it it's worth it for me because I can do XYZ everybody has their own rois for a young person the ROI should be their life so if you're not creative enough to use the cards that are come to you then you say that okay I can only play a game if I have good cards but I think just having a tag key I did a degree from I am Bangalore uh it beit like borrowing reputation and so how do you play this game like for instance now that you have it's like a joker huh right so you should learn how to play The Joker card now Joker card can be whatever you want it to be but just because your Joker doesn't mean you'll win the game I'm not saying they shouldn't calculate Roi like CTC divided by fee I don't think that's wrong also if you if you go back to what Steve Jobs said you can only play Life by connecting the dots and by looking backwards and saying where are the dots so this could be one of the dots that you're creating so what do you and how do you play this and connect these dots much later so I I don't think even CC right it doesn't matter what you started with somebody may start getting 25,000 for a long period of time and suddenly own equity in a company which becomes very large using a formula is a bad way at this age unless unless you say I come from a family where I have to really be careful about my resources because I don't have too many slack resources right um and therefore I'm not saying it's a wrong strategy to use I was trying to paint a picture to a student who was a bit skeptical about this course and I told him at the end placement is an opportunity it's a head start why not look at incubation at NSL cell as an opportunity in view of the placement and maybe at a certain point of time you sit at imb's placement but on the other side of the table that you're recruiting people because you have your own startup so and would I am Bangalore at least facilitate okay okay we'll give you an opportunity to sit in front of 20 vent uh Venture capitalists and pish in front of them so that all the students who are in this program get an advantage and Edge in terms of opening doors VCS are after making money true right so they are in the business of outcomes if they giving you a million dollar they want $10 million in about 7 years time so they nothing got to do with where you come from if your idea is good if your idea is legs they would be in listening to you the purpose of Education should be to able to help you to figure that out value proposition very quickly addressing a very large market and you have capability to scale definitely I I think there are lots of incubators with um uh grants that they're giving up to 4050 lakhs which are available there are entities like elev 800 where governments are giving money to early stage companies which trying to do well so I don't think if you have have a good idea and if you have traction that they won't be people willing to invest in you right so that should not be what we promise them because we don't want to bring them on promises you come because we giving you great education you come because we're looking at something extremely Innovative you come because it will open up a whole lot of ways having said that I doubt if students will pass and clear this program not have jobs we are saying we would like to socialize we would like to create projects we would like to create um um challenges we would like to create internships wherein you socializing with the industry continuously I medras has been successful because it's socializing and students are coming out are really good so the companies would B them and there uh would be clubs and committees and City level offline events at the same time yes definitely definitely I think that needs to be like plastered as an immediate answer to an objection that a student has definitely because we're looking at um internships in local areas uh events in local areas maybe Regional level meets so obviously we would be interested in doing all of this because socializing with one another is an important aspect of Education especially at this age and we should try every possible experiment to make that happen and they were also saying that I madas has offline convocation for the people who completed degree even I want to come to the campus and I don't think people are aers to the thought we haven't discussed this uh and made it a rule but the the informal conversations that I've been having all seem to indicate that we see no reason why we can't have an offline convocation if there are going to be some fee waivers in terms of Merit right now we have a 50% fee waver for folks from SCS so right now not year one because there are far too many things that we need to stabilize we could start be leveraging CSR money like what I mras does but all of this will come once they see a program once they see the quality once they see what is happening in this particular program will there be any offline course materials also deliver to the students um we wouldn't want that because just the uh Logistics would be expensive maybe some goodies in the beginning I don't know a lot of people seem to be asking will we get merch will we get mer will we get merch will we get merch maybe we should start a merchandise store first and then start the course because that could be earning more money or just as much money or maybe all the students who enroll that could be a contest for the best design and then you could put and upload your design and get the topmost person to understand what the market good idea yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah like something like uh design Challenge and then that uh the the ones that most people see could be made into a product yeah something like that can be done um we not aever to any of these it's just that we haven't put our mind to it I'm just very happy it's a open conversation and I'm pretty sure once students come in you'll be getting emails so I have a suggestion I have an idea yeah yeah yeah yeah because that's how because that's what I M also keep saying and like every Marvel movie after the excited there's always a sneak peek to the next thing offline Bachelors I'm bang but that's a different program different program and that's happening in um another campus and they will have a different uh Focus it's more multidisciplinary program um not IPM kind of focus it's a fouryear course is a threee course and um fingers cross that we have it next year there are lots of hurdles that program has to cross because unlike online which doesn't require too many of our resources we should at least sink in hundreds of crores because we can before we can even have one student out so anything you wouldd like to tell to the students who are still skeptical or confused no I think the I think being skeptical is very good because I don't think people should jump in because this is IMB I think they should think for themselves before they join this course all I can say is that we are very honest trying to be very honest um a lot of things we haven't figured out um lot of things I'm sure we'll figure out as we start we're just putting one foot at a time and hopefully others will join in this journey and um those of them would like to jump and jump jump in with us welcome it'll be a great ride all right sir thank you so much thank you nice really nice talking to you yeah thanks so and um I really think that thead idea will work so well yeah because I met all my closest friends all my business friends online and the first time I meet them offline is when we go to like any entrepreneurship Summit and it's just so much happiness and I feel kids are missing out on that because they no but that has to be a little bit geekish um so they have to be certain but I'm sure some of these who will start to play the online game will it's the same World of Warcraft you play without even knowing who the other person is right pubg you have been playing without knowing who the other person is right so there a lot of these games where people are playing I'm sure time is right now than earlier in order to have uh digital connections and now at afterwards we have a couple of free marks for you to learn and practice from to become better at this entrance exam we also have 10 marks available for just $4.99 and at the end of the day do like comment share subscribe yeah so do share that helps us stay motivated and brings really good content in front of you I hope this was enjoyable and informative and most importantly if you have any queres whatsoever do leave a comment down below we look at it obsessively and will be more than happy to help you out thank you so much signing out hey it's afterwards