Interview: Ms. Latha Hiremath, Director at IBMR ,Group of Institutions, Hubli|Collegedunia

Interview by Yash Panchal

Ms. Latha Hiremath is the Director – Training & Placement at IBMR Group of Institutions. She has done BBM, MBA, and MDP from IIM-K. She is a Gold Medalist and a proud Alumni of IBMR B School and Alumni of IIM-K. She possesses a rich experience of 14 years across Operations in Capital Market, Process Lead in IT Company, BPO, Retail Marketing, People Management, Core consultancy for Importing Bullions (Gold and Silver from Switzerland), Recruitment and Training, Placement, PGPM, Admissions in Educational Sector.

Ms. Hiremath was won the award of Best Manager in the Corporate world for 3 consecutive times. Within a span of 1 year, she was awarded as Best Performer and Best Trainer in the IBMR B School Hubli. She has conducted three national level paper presentation in IBMR Hubli. She has also conducted many National Level Seminars and Workshops.

Ms. Latha Hiremath’s experience in the education industry after acquiring immense corporate experience

After working for 12 years in Industry Operations in Capital Market, CRM, CPC, IT solutions, BPO/KPO, Retail Management, Process Management, Reporting & Documentation, Cross Functional Team Coordination, Compliance Management, I had taken responsibility as Director-Training & Corporate Relations with IBMR B School Hubli. I developed modules on

1. Personality Development

2. Building Resumes

3. Importance of ID cards

4. Dining Etiquettes

5.Motivational videos

6. National Seminars

I conducted training programs for students, the staff of IBMR and also for the executives in the industry. Understanding the need for professionalism in the admission process for student acquiring, I have taken the responsibility as Director-Admission Dept and achieved the targets of enrolling the students to the IBMR B-School Hubli.

In order to complement the contemporary curriculum that matches the industry requirement, I initiated PGPM as certified courses one for each semester - 1st Sem: Fortune 500 Companies, 2nd sem: EDP, 3rd Sem: Social & Rural Marketing, 4th Sem: Digital Marketing.

Placement is the end result of the MBA program, so I took the additional responsibility as Director-Placements and connected all my Industry network and made 100% placement possible for MBA students.

Participative leadership style

MBA as a degree gives knowledge to the students but it is the responsibility of the institution to identify the lack of skills in each student and train him/her so that all the students will be ready for the campus placement. In this process, I have developed a Modality test as one of the Psychometric tests to evaluate the student’s current position for his/her readiness for the industry. I developed some training programs like Resume Writing, Mock Aptitude Test, Refresher course on Domain knowledge, Mock GD and PI which gave confidence to the student in handling the campus placements successfully.

I conducted a Pre-placement training program with an MNC company Barclays for the MBA students which yielded very good results along with certifications. I conducted Skype Interviews from MNC company like People Consultancy, JP Morgan, TCS, Infosys, Advent Global Solutions and many Placement Drives in the campus wherein around 70 companies came and conducted interviews and offered with the letters to join to their respective company to serve and grow in their career life.

I developed teams in Admission Dept, Training and Placement Dept. Coordinating the team and guiding the teams to reach the target has taken as my Strengths in leading the Teams. This is a participative leadership style by guiding the teams and empowering the teams.

IBMR’s contribution in honing students’ skills to get them ready for corporates

With overall 12 years of corporate experience and good rapport with the executives from the industries, I observed that hard work of the student is the most important aspect of securing the placement. A student who is good in Academics and if he/she can be an all-rounder in working with co-curricular and extra-curricular activities which teach them Teamwork, Leadership, Communication Skills will be the hot cake for the industry as per job the requirements.

IBMR B-school has worked as an Event Management industry by giving an opportunity to all the Management students to explore their leadership skills, patience, listening skills, understanding the requirement for the event like placement drives by coordinating as Volunteers by supporting, guiding, managing the crowds for the job seekers of the outside students. Escorting the HRs, taking care of the requirement, building a rapport and relationships to enhance their skills which help them how to be in the corporate world and face the challenges without any hassles. We trained them in such a way - how to achieve the targets given in the corporate world by climbing the ladder with success in their career life.

Establishing an open relationship with the students

Students of MBA normally have a mindset of the graduation level. When they join for the MBA program, I take the responsibility to motivate them and then mold them as Budding Managers who will be entering into the Corporate world. As Director of Training & Placement, I take the responsibility of training their attitudes, communication skills, etiquettes that makes them for taking future assignments.

Screening the students thoroughly to make them ready for placements

At the time of admission, we conduct the modality test to understand the students by keeping the parameters and how far he /she reaches the requirement for the MBA Program. Once it is done, his/her file will be processed further through Mentoring System wherein SWOT analysis will be done for each student and pre-placement training on various parameters like communication skills, aptitude test, body language, mock GD and PI will be done.

We have done Video resumes to the final year MBA students wherein the student will give brief insight done in his fag end of the program like brief introduction about themselves, family background, projects undergone in 2nd semester as SIP (Summer in Plant Project), in the 4th semester as MCP (Major Concurrent Project) and his/her achievements in terms of academic, paper presentation conference, sports, etc. He /she will deliver their passion towards their pre-determined goal. The link of Video resume will be e-mailed to all the HR across the globe.

The specialization that harvests more successful MBA graduates

Specialization gives an opportunity to a student to study in depth a particular course - Marketing, HR, Finance. However, the current Job requirements with the Industry as on date is demanding an all-rounder rather than a specialist. Business Environment is also changing due to the stiff competition. In this context, a student should have a dual specialization to get a job initially and to sustain in the long run.

At IBMR, we assess the student and counsel/mentor him or her for selecting the specialization as Marketing and HR require more communication skills with external/internal customer respectively and finance requires more analytical skills. All the specializations require IT skills and soft skills in order to handle the business scenario.

Top qualities that an aspiring manager must possess

The student should have basic communication skills, aptitude to work in industry / start his own business. Also, the students should have the right attitude to undergo the required training that will be offered through simulations in terms of case studies. Commitment to the work is essential for the students to get success in the corporate world. At IBMR B-School, we give all the necessary training skills to the students to be successful budding Managers.

Goals in mind for the next five years

To improve the quality in admissions by considering more students from CAT/MAT/XAT.
To introduce the contemporary curriculum with the support of the industry.
Offering certified courses in terms of skill development with the support of corporate giants like Microsoft, Google, IBM, KPMG, Tally, etc.
In terms of placement, more of the companies have to be invited to the campus and also to make efforts to invite the same companies for the next years.
Strengthening the Alumni association and developing the chapters at various locations.

Different areas that MBA curriculum should focus on at IBMR

At IBMR B-School, apart from academics, we came with + Program which we call it as PGPM (Post Graduation Program in Management) wherein 4 certified courses will be focused along with the MBA curriculum.

Ist Sem: Fortune 500 Companies certificate Program: Fortune 500 companies are the biggest and best run in the nation. The focus is on delivering quality in a competitive market. It's the best platform for all the students to get to know about the Fortune 500 companies and mould their personality skill. This program will help each student to get to know the different sectors of the companies and make them the future best managers in this competitive world.
IInd Sem: Entrepreneurship Development Program: The objective of this program is to motivate, impart and inculcate traits and skills of entrepreneurs among students. Entrepreneurship Development certification is based on the biography of entrepreneurs of International and national Entrepreneurs like Bill Gates, Dhirubhai Ambani, etc.
IIIrd Sem: Social and Rural Marketing Program: The objective of this program is to study the Live projects of NGO's in the Social and Rural sector. By taking the Government Schemes and projects by giving awareness to the villages and doing a survey.
IVth Sem: Digital Marketing Program: To this era on a digital platform at IBMR B School, we have come with a program - Digital Marketing to the students. The digital channels such as SEO, websites, social media, email, and mobile apps are taught to the students.

Suggestions for the youth

Parents should understand the interest of the students/ward in selecting the programs.
Understand the Financial support from the banks that reduce the burden of the parents.
Students should understand that MBA is not just a Degree but they should develop an interest in more learning from the program that will be useful for their career.
Students should understand the ROI of the program and contribute accordingly instead of wasting time during 2 years of MBA
Younger generations should have the zeal to pursue the program and it should be continued throughout the program and beyond.