Hyderabad: Indian School of Business’ (ISB) PGPMAX (Post Graduate Programme for Senior Executives) has been ranked 43 globally in the ‘Economist’s Which MBA- Executive MBA Programme’ rankings. ISB also gained the unique distinction of being the only B-School in India on the list. The Economist’s Executive MBA ranking is a comprehensive ranking of executive MBA courses around the world. ISB’s PGPMAX is a 15- month global executive MBA level programme for senior-level employees with a minimum of 10 years of work experience.
The rankings not just highlight the relevance of the PGPMAX programme but also the importance of an Executive MBA for the working professionals. With the current circumstances, it becomes more critical for the mid-senior level employees to equip and brace themselves up to be ahead of the curve. In the words of Girish Kukreja (PGPMAX Co’17) , “As Senior executive, you enter with the feeling of knowing the subjects, but the structure, frameworks, and cases actually transform you individually to add a lot more value in your future roles.”
In terms of the Economist rankings, students rated the relevance of the programme highly, as well as the helpfulness of the alumni network and the ease with which they could stay in touch with faculty and fellow students. The ability to tap into a helpful network will be even more crucial, with travel likely to remain limited owing to the covid-19 pandemic. An EMBA offers the opportunity to meet executives from other industries and other countries.
The Economist collected data using two web-based questionnaires. While the previous one included more quantitative measures, the latter was filled by the students and alumni from schools’ last three graduating classes and gleaned the more qualitative criteria, such as a rating of classmates, faculty, facilities, etc. Alumni also reported their pre-EMBA and current salaries, from which average increases could be calculated. Programmes are ranked on two broad measures: personal development/educational experience and career development. Both categories are equally weighted.
This development and trust clearly reflect in the views of our alumna Neelima Sesha Thota (PGPMAX Co’18). “ISB stands out distinctly with its competence to transform leaders into adaptive leaders with the attitude of wisdom and self-transcendence! Businesses are for-profits, but what makes businesses responsible is the humanitarian angle, and ISB underscores this enough. Learning at ISB isn’t just classroom-based. It is emphasised by the meaningful and elevating deliberations by the top global faculty, drawn from experiences from on-the-ground researches that are beyond textbooks”.
Regardless of the industry, employees are now expected to multitask and manage multiple responsibilities. The structure of PGPMAX helps them imbibe and take away as much from the programme while managing their team and working back in their professional space.
Being the senior-most programme of PGP suite, the faculty associated with the programme is also among the senior-most and the top faculty. The programme gives an opportunity to learn the latest management concepts from senior global faculty. A lifelong relationship with the faculty transcends beyond the class as the participants are advised and interact even after the programme culminates. Kartik Murthy (PGPMAX Co’16) resonates with this thought as he says,” The PGPMAX program is a platform for lifelong learning from the best professors and peers which has helped each one of us immensely in various ways.”
PGPMAX has been ranked 52nd among the top 100 global EMBAs by the Financial Times Global EMBA 2019 Rankings. Here also ISB is the only business school to be listed from India.
