From the Business Today issue "India's Best B-Schools - A BT - MDRA survey", which ranked SPJIMR as the 4th in overall rankings, dated November 22, 2015:
"While e-commerce has been a big growth driver and will continue to be so for the next year or so, we need to look out for the next growth drivers, which are likely to be sectors where there is an interface between technology and finance," says Ranjan Banerjee, who was appointed the Dean at SPJIMR in April this year. He is referring to the emergence of payment banks and small finance banks that will in all likelihood make their way to B-school campuses in the next three to four years. "We are taking the opinion of our advisory council on how the courses can be designed accordingly and ramped up with new faculty, curriculum and international collaborations," he says. "We have to be ahead of the curve. Today, it is clear that the role of analytics will grow, and that is where we need to build," he says. Also, the e-business component is being enhanced, he says.
At a broader level, the area advisory councils (one for each major specialisation - finance, operations, marketing and information management) of the institute, he says, are being strengthened by the addition of new experts. They are also meeting more often. Plus, the governing body, headed by HDFC Chairman Deepak Parekh, has seen some important additions in the last one year. These include Ireena Vittal, former partner, McKinsey and Company, who is on boards of several leading corporations, and Ravi Venkatesan, the former CEO of Microsoft India and Chairman, Social Venture Partners. The emphasis on entrepreneurship incubation is also being increased. The idea, Banerjee says, "is to gear ourselves not only for placements but also for the shift in society."
