Valerian Rodriquez grins from ear to ear. 'I have had the best 14 days of my life, he says when we quiz him about the Advanced Management Programme he attended at the Barcelona Business School. 'Most of my learning happened after classroom hours, with a politician, a priest, and a solar scientist for company. One appreciates the fact that there is a whole new world out there, concurs, Ganesh Natrajan, of Zensar Technologies. In a recent interaction with a reporter he said, 'The take-home from these programmes is the network they put you in touch with. He attributes 50 million dollars worth of business to the leads he gained from his fellow participants. Welcome to the world of short term executive education programmes. As the market conditions go from bad to worse, and training budgets getslashed mercilessly, one would have expected MDPs offerings to go down. But Prof. Sriman Narayana of XLRI observes: 'We see no reduction in the number of participants. In fact, courses which are designed to help managers tide over the tough times seem to have caught on really well. On a year on year basis, we find that the MDP schedule for 2009-10 has thrown up more number of MDPs, 712 compared to 688 in 2008-09 in the top 30 B-Schools.
The appeal of an MDP
The biggest appeal of MDPs lies in their format. Compressed in short capsules they are considered essential tool kits for the problems that the executives face in the day-to-day running of their organisations. Run over 3.5 days, they never demand a professional to be away from work for a period that would affect his or her performance. Subramanian Sarma, Manager EDP, says, 'Valuable practical insights, learning among qualified peers and active group learning are some of the biggest benefits one gets from a short term MDP . And several institutions offer a pre-programme preparation and a post-programme follow-up primarily to maximize one post-programme success.
Is there a time and a place?
Though, they happen round the year, the financial year closing month of March and the second quarter months of April- June see a dip in the number of MDPs. Ideally, a new business school desirous of cracking into the lucrative MDP market must then focus on planning MDPs during these lean months, since corporates would be flush with funds, April-June being the first quarter of any financial year.
| An analysis of fee structure of the MDP offerings (Rs.) |
|
Discipline
|
Lowest
|
Highest
|
Median
|
|
Business Environment
|
1,200
|
950,000
|
15,000
|
|
Entrepreneurship
|
5,000
|
25,000
|
24,000
|
|
Finance & Accounting
|
1,200
|
40,000
|
20,000
|
|
General Management
|
5,000
|
600,000
|
35,000
|
|
Human Resources
|
1,200
|
237,000
|
29,000
|
|
Operations
|
5,000
|
125,000
|
25,000
|
|
Sales & Marketing
|
2,000
|
100,000
|
25,000
|
|
Sectoral
|
1,200
|
499,000
|
29,000
|
|
Strategy
|
5,000
|
75,000
|
20,000
|
|
Systems
|
8,500
|
70,000
|
20,000
|
DISCIPLINARY PROGRAMMES
From plain international business environment to product management and from understanding IT applications in finance to efficacy in marketing, the MDPs in these disciplines cover a wide range of issues.
Business Environment
With the objective of understanding the working of an economic system and its relationship with the business sector and getting armed to analyze the impact of the changing policy regimes on business, the executives attend the MDPs in this domain. The focus of many MDPs is on making the executives aware about macro-economic policies, and trade- related measures. The National Institute of Industrial Engineering (NITIE) Mumbai accounted for two-fifth of all MDPs in this area. Indian Institute of Forest Management (IIFM), Bhopal, also offered 17 programmes last year. This included programmes on corporate environment responsibility, economic valuation and accounting of natural resources. Popular MDPs scheduled for this fiscal include Understanding Business by Institute of Public Enterprise, Hyderabad in February 2010 Managerial Decision Making under Uncertain Environment by IIM Lucknow in December and Demand & Business Forecasting by XLRI in October.
|
Business Environment
|
Date
|
Days
|
Fee in Rs.
|
|
IIFT
|
Delhi
|
Technology and World Trade
|
Dec 10, 2009 — Dec 11, 2009
|
2
|
10,000
|
|
IIM-K
|
Kozhikode
|
Understanding India's Business Environment
|
Aug 20, 2009 — Aug 22, 2009
|
3
|
15,000
|
|
IMT
|
Ghaziabad
|
Building A Customer Oriented Culture For Creating Customer Advocacy
|
Aug 21, 2009 — Aug 22, 2009
|
2
|
10,000
|
|
MDI
|
Gurgaon
|
Knowledge Management Strategies & Practices for Business Impact
|
Nov 23, 2009 — Nov 25, 2009
|
3
|
27,500
|
|
XLRI
|
New Delhi
|
Land Acquisitions in India: Legal, Policy & Strategic Perspectives
|
Jul 9, 2009 — Jul 11, 2009
|
3
|
36,000
|
Entrepreneurship
The Entrepreneurship Development Institute of India (EDI) is one place where you could be trained at a cost which is one-tenth of what is charged at many B-schools or even get a sponsorship. The Institute of Rural Management, Anand (IRMA) is offering a programme titled Social Entrepreneurship and Transformational Leadership in October this year. IIM Bangalore on the other hand is offering a 5-day course on Reinvention through Entrepreneurial/Intrapreneurial Leadership in February next year. In 2008-09, EDI Ahmedabad, IIM Bangalore and ISB Hyderabad cumulatively offered 75% of MDPs in the entrepreneurship domain.
|
Entrepreneurship
|
Date
|
Days
|
Fee in Rs.
|
|
EDI
|
Ahmedabad
|
Entrepreneurial Management
|
Nov 9, 2009 — Dec 18, 2009
|
40
|
ITEC Fellowship
|
|
IIM-B
|
Bangalore
|
Reinvention through Entrepreneurial / Intrapreneurial leadership
|
Feb 15, 2010 — Feb 19, 2010
|
5
|
60,000
|
|
IIM-I
|
Indore
|
Entrepreneurship
|
Feb 22, 2010 — Feb 26, 2010
|
5
|
30,000
|
|
IRMA
|
Gujarat
|
Social Entrepreneurship and Transformational Leadership
|
Oct 26, 2009 — Oct 30, 2009
|
5
|
|
|
XIMB
|
Bhubaneswar
|
Lab on Entreprenuership
|
Nov 11, 2009 — Nov 13, 2009
|
3
|
12,000
|
|
XLRI
|
Jamshedpur
|
Retail Management : Solutions for small scale Entrepreneurs
|
Nov 3, 2009 — Nov 5, 2009
|
3
|
21,00
|
General Management
Among all the categories, the general management programmes are offered by almost all the B-schools and are generally of a longer duration (6 to 28 days or even more). The executives are exposed to all the core functions of management such as marketing, finance, human resources, systems, production and organization behaviour. All the IIMs, XLRI, XIM and Administrative Staff College of India (ASCI) offer short term executive programmes and classify according to the levels of responsibility of executives. Thus, we have general management modules for young, middle-level and senior management and also the advance programme for persons with many years of experience.
|
General Management
|
Date
|
Days
|
Fee in Rs.
|
|
ASCI
|
Hyderabad
|
Programme for young managers
|
Nov 16, 2009 — Nov 27, 2009
|
5
|
60,000
|
|
IIFT
|
Delhi
|
Cross Cultural Communication and Business Etiquette
in International Business
|
Oct 28, 2009 — Oct 29, 2009
|
2
|
8,500
|
|
IIM-A
|
Ahmedabad
|
3 Tier Programme: Senior Management
|
Aug 2, 2009 — Aug 22, 2009
|
21
|
250,000
|
|
IIM-C
|
Kolkata
|
Creating A Global Mindset Among Young Managers
|
Jul 2, 2009 — Jul 4, 2009
|
3
|
25,000
|
|
MDI
|
Gurgaon & Abroad
|
Advanced Management Programme
|
Aug 24, 2009 — Sep 20, 2009
|
28
|
370,000
|
|
XLRI
|
Jamshedpur
|
Creativity, Problem Solving and Decision Making
|
Dec 14, 2009 — Dec 18, 2009
|
5
|
35,000
|
Finance and Accounting
If you are a non-finance professional, there is every possibility that you would be attending one of the most common MDPs titled finance for non-finance executives&rsquo. The other popular programmes in finance and accounting are: financial risk management spreadsheet modelling in finance, corporate valuation and IT driven finance & accounting. The imminent watch out MDPs scheduled for this fiscal year are - Business Analytics: Scorecard Development & Segmentation being offered at Xavier Institute of Management, Bhubaneswar (XIM) from September 21-25 Value Creation Through Corporate Restructuring at IIM Lucknow from September 17-19 and Demystifying Financial Derivatives being offered at IIM Bangalore from October 26-29. The previous year saw the XLRI Jamshedpur accounting for nearly one-third of all Management Development Programmes being offered by top-30 B-schools, followed by NITIE and Narsee Monji Institute of Management Studies (NMIMS), both in Mumbai, at 23% and 19% respectively in this field.
|
Finance and Accounting
|
Date
|
Days
|
Fee in Rs.
|
|
IIM-B
|
Bangalore
|
Demystifying Financial Derivatives
|
Oct 26, 2009 — Oct 29, 2009
|
4
|
54,000
|
|
IIM-I
|
Indore
|
Revenue Management: Models, Perspectives, Applications
|
Nov 9, 2009 — Nov 11, 2009
|
3
|
20,000
|
|
ISB
|
Hyderabad
|
Private Equity Programme
|
Nov 7, 2009 — Nov 10, 2009
|
4
|
125,000
|
|
MDI
|
Gurgaon
|
Finance for Non-Finance Executives
|
Sep 21, 2009 — Sep 25, 2009
|
5
|
40,000
|
|
XIMB
|
Bhubaneswar
|
Business Analytics : Scorecard Development & Segmentation
|
Sep 21, 2009 — Sep 25, 2009
|
5
|
25,000
|
|
XLRI
|
Jamshedpur
|
Financial Derivatives: A Primer on Options & Futures
|
Aug 25, 2009 — Aug 28, 2009
|
4
|
28,000
|
Human Resource Management
XLRI, Jamshedpur is known for the expertise it has in Human Resource Management, Personnel Administration and Industrial Relations. While it had more or less the same number of MDPs as ASCI, Hyderabad in 2008-09, there were similar programmes in the offing like Effective Performance Management, Team Building and Conflict Management, Human Resource Audit, and Leadership & Organizational Development. This year there are interesting short term executive programmes titled Emotional Intelligence and Interpersonal skills, Effective Trade Union Management, Managing People in Software Projects and Basic Statistics for HR Executives. ISB Hyderabad offers one of the most sought after programmes for CEOs and heads of major functions from medium to large businesses, titled Leadership Skills for Top Management. Similarly MDI Gurgaon is conducting a 5-day programme titled Enhancing Training Effectiveness & Measuring Impact from October 5 to 9 this year. IIM Lucknow, IIM Calcutta, IIM Indore, and XIM Bhubaneswar have scheduled quite a few MDPs for this fiscal.
|
Human Resource Management
|
Date
|
Days
|
Fee in Rs.
|
|
ASCI
|
Hyderabad
|
Value-based leadership
|
Sep 18, 2009 — Sep 19, 2009
|
2
|
12,500
|
|
IIM-B
|
Bangalore
|
Embedding Leadership Excellence
|
Sep 7, 2009 — Sep 11, 2009
|
5
|
60,000
|
|
IIM-L
|
Lucknow
|
Strategies for Effective People Management
|
Jul 9, 2009 — Jul 11, 2009
|
3
|
25,000
|
|
IMI
|
New Delhi
|
Managerial Leadership and Team Building
|
Nov 23, 2009 — Nov 25, 2009
|
3
|
25,200
|
|
IRMA
|
Anand
|
Human Resource Development
|
Jul 21, 2009 — Jul 24, 2009
|
4
|
12,000
|
|
MDI
|
Gurgaon
|
Linking Pay to Performance: Strategies and Approaches
|
Oct 26, 2009 — Oct 28, 2009
|
3
|
27,500
|
|
NMIMS
|
Mumbai
|
Basic Statistics for HR Executives
|
September 25, 2009
|
1
|
3,000
|
|
XLRI
|
Jamshedpur
|
Negotiations - The Art of Win-Win Deal Making
|
Aug 17, 2009 — Aug 20, 2009
|
4
|
28,000
|
Operations anagement
Concerned with the production of goods and services in assembly line practice or mass production, the MDPs generally concentrate on addressing issues for standardisation and continuous improvement of the production processes. The National Institute of Industrial Engineering (NITIE) at Mumbai has one of the best management development programmes in this domain and the cost for a typical 5-day programme is Rs 20,000. ASCI Hyderabad, IIM Management Kozhikode, IIM Calcutta, Indian Institute of Foreign Trade (IIFT) New Delhi and Shailesh J Mehta School of Management (SJMSOM) at IIT Bombay also offer MDPs in this area. The common ones are: Supply Chain Management Logistics & Distribution Management Total Quality Management Six Sigma for Global Competitiveness, Inventory Management and Project Management. The unique MDPs touch on topics like Reliability Centred Maintenance Operations Research and Modelling Techniques for Defence Science Executives, Operational Analysis & Decisions, and Trends in Maintenance Management. Last year, the constituent unit of Symbiosis International University at Hinjewadi Campus, Pune offered popular MDPs for executives in industrial engineering and management such as Master Black Belt: Six Sigma programme at Rs. 90,000 and Supply Chain Management at the same cost.
|
Operations Management
|
Date
|
Days
|
Fee in Rs
|
|
IIFT
|
Delhi
|
Logistics Management for International Business Development
|
Aug 27, 2009 — Aug 28, 2009
|
2
|
8500
|
|
IIM-C
|
Kolkata
|
Product Management in India
|
Jul 30, 2009 — Aug 2, 2009
|
4
|
30000
|
|
IIM-K
|
Kozhikode
|
Manufacturing Excellence for Competitive Advantage
|
Feb 1, 2010 — Feb 3, 2010
|
3
|
15,000
|
|
IRMA
|
Ananad
|
Logistics Approach to Supply Chain Management
|
Aug 24, 2009 — Aug 28, 2009
|
5
|
15,000
|
|
ISB
|
Hyderabad
|
Global Operations and Supply Chain Excellence
|
Feb 1, 2010 — Feb 4, 2010
|
4
|
75000
|
Strategic Management
Being central to capitalizing on functional excellence, this area largely attracts people from top management. The participants take a broader view of their functions and correlate their practical experience with the learning from executive programme. NITIE, Mumbai and XLRI Jamshedpur are the prominent institutions offering short term courses like Decision Skills for Managers Strategic Management for Business leadership and Strategies for Growth & Survival. In addition to the IIMs, XIM Bhubaneswar and MDI Gurgaon offer MDPs in strategic management. The average cost of MDPs in this domain vary from Rs. 5,000 to Rs. one lakh. IIFT New Delhi last year offered an interesting four-day programme on Change Management: Building Strategies for Competitive Advantage for Rs. 70,000. IIM Indore trained the Chief Executive Officers (CEOs), Chief Finance Officers (CFOs) and divisional heads in Management Control & Strategy Implementation, making them understand the tools and techniques of organisational planning at a fair price of Rs.15,000.
|
Strategy
|
Date
|
Days
|
Fee in Rs.
|
|
IIM-A
|
Ahmedabad
|
Strategic IT Management (New)
|
Jan 18, 2010 — Jan21, 2010
|
4
|
60,000
|
|
IIM-B
|
Bangalore
|
Strategic Analysis for Competitive Advantage
|
Nov 16, 2009- Nov 20, 2009
|
5
|
60,000
|
|
IIM-I
|
Indore
|
Manufacturing Strategy
|
Aug 10, 2009 — Aug15, 2009
|
5
|
40,000
|
|
ISB
|
Hyderabad
|
Strategy Execution Excellence
|
Nov 24, 2009 — Nov 28, 2009
|
5
|
125,000
|
|
NMIMS
|
Mumbai
|
Enhancing Decision Making Skills
|
Jul 3, 2009 — Jul 4, 2009
|
2
|
6,000
|
Sales and Marketing
While most executives would say they have some form of sales and marketing process, working perfectly for their organization the realization sets in, after attending the MDPs, that there was always a better way out to address the same. While the popular programmes in this vast subject area are Building and Nurturing Strong Brands, Demand Estimation, Market Research, Retail Management, and Marketing of Services the uncommon ones are - Consumer Psychology, Rural Marketing, and Advance Data Analysis for Marketing Decisions. NITIE Mumbai had maximum number of MDPs listed in 2008-09 but ASCI Hyderabad, IIM Kozhikode, IIM Calcutta and IIFT New Delhi also offered a good number of short-term executive programmes. The fee varies from Rs. 2,000 to Rs. 100,000 per programme.
|
Sales and Marketing
|
Date
|
Days
|
Fee in Rs.
|
|
ASCI
|
Hyderabad
|
Strategic Marketing
|
Aug 17, 2009 — Aug 21, 2009
|
5
|
30,000
|
|
IIM-B
|
Bangalore
|
ABC of Marketing
|
Feb 3, 2010 — Feb 5, 2010
|
3
|
45,000
|
|
IMI
|
New Delhi
|
Sales & Distribution Management
|
Jan 11, 2010 — Jan13, 2010
|
3
|
25,200
|
|
ISB
|
Hyderabad
|
Integrating Sales and Marketing
|
Aug 24, 2009 — Aug27, 2009
|
4
|
100,000
|
|
MDI
|
Gurgaon
|
Strategies for Creating Winning Brands & Corporate Reputation
|
Aug 17,2009 — Aug 21, 2009
|
5
|
40,000
|
|
XIMB
|
Bhubaneswar
|
Marketing Research for Sales Professionals
|
Nov 16, 2009 — Nov 18, 2009
|
3
|
12,000
|
Systems Management
From knowledge management to decision support systems and from Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) systems to data mining, there are a range of short term executive programmes in this domain. While NITIE Mumbai offers the maximum programmes, ASCI at Hyderabad is a good place for MDPs in Systems. Apart from the institutes in the figure, institutes like EDI Ahmedabad, all IIMs and IIFT New Delhi also offer a few MDPs. The fee ranges anywhere between Rs. 8,000 at IIFT, New Delhi to Rs 60,000 at ISB Hyderabad..
|
Systems Management
|
Date
|
Days
|
Fee in Rs.
|
|
ASCI
|
Hyderabad
|
Data Analysis for Business Research
|
Sep 7, 2009 — Sep 11, 2009
|
5
|
27,500
|
|
EDI
|
Ahmedabad
|
ICT Skills for Small Enterprise Operations
|
Oct 26, 2009 — Dec 4, 2009
|
40
|
ITEC Fellowship
|
|
MDI
|
Gurgaon
|
Business Intelligence: Data Warehousing & Data Mining
|
Dec 7, 2009 — Dec 9, 2009
|
3
|
27,500
|
|
XIMB
|
Bhubaneswar
|
DSS for Functional Managers
|
Oct 14, 2009 — Oct 16, 2009
|
3
|
12,000
|
|
XLRI
|
Jamshedpur
|
Data Mining for Effective Decision Making
|
Sep 1, 2009 — Sep 4, 2009
|
4
|
28,000
|
Sector-specific Programmes
By their very nature, specialized institutions come to the fore in this segment. It is IIFM Bhopal which is the premier forest management player that tops the list in this domain with 23 different programmes on forestry. The ASCI Hyderabad which is the public sector training behemoth, comes a close second with about 22 offerings that tops the list, with gender, work culture, urban governance, public health and handling diversity forming a part of the offerings. XIM Bhubaneswar is the leader providing inputs to the Non-govermental (NGO) sector. As most of the courses are for a nominal fee (Rs. 1200 to Rs 20000), it is also the most cost effective institution. The Institute of Rural management Anand in Gujarat (IRMA) is yet another institution that pays adequate attention to a very important sector - the rural markets. From focused courses on liquid milk marketing to generic courses like rural brand building, it covers the entire gamut of issues facing an executive trying to navigate the Indian market. The MDPs in last fiscal included training of executives in Community Mobilisation and Institution Building for District Development Managers of NABARD, Right To Information (RTI) and Strategic Food & Agribusiness Management. This year ASCI Hyderabad is conducting a MDP in Public-Private Partnership in Urban Infrastructure & Service Delivery for policy makers and practitioners associated with urban sector at Rs. 17,500.
|
Sector-specific Programmes
|
Date
|
Days
|
Fee in Rs.
|
|
EDI
|
Ahmedabad
|
Governance & Management of Non-Profit Organizations (NPOs) /NGOs
|
Jul 6, 2009 — Aug 14, 2009
|
40
|
ITEC Fellowship
|
|
IIM-A
|
Ahmedabad
|
Food Supply Chain Management
|
Feb 7, 2010 — Feb 13, 2010
|
7
|
70,000
|
|
IIM-K
|
Kozhikode
|
Social Media and Consumer-driven Marketing
|
Jul 23, 2009 — Jul 25, 2009
|
3
|
15,000
|
|
IMI
|
New Delhi
|
Workshop on ‘Developing culture of working together for common goal of satisfied employees in successful companies.’
|
Jun 4, 2009 — Jun 5, 2009
|
2
|
18,400
|
|
ISB
|
Hyderabad
|
Managing Professional Services
|
Jul 17, 2009 — Jul 19, 2009
|
3
|
75,000
|
|
NMIMS
|
Mumbai
|
Competitive Advantage With Environmental Management
|
Sep 4, 2009 — Sep 5, 2009
|
2
|
6,000
|
EDUCATING THE LEADERSHIP
Advanced Management Programmes: In the MDP food chain, these occupy the highest slot both in terms of cost and prestige. Generally meant for top management or professionals being groomed for the highest echelon, the AMPs invariably have either leadership or global business environment-oriented content.
Global Leaders Programme: Growing & Innovating in a Flat World, IIM Ahmedabad & Fuqua School of Business, Duke Campus, USA
Duration: 16 days Fees: Rs. 950,000 or $ 19,000
For: Senior managers at global/MNCs/large national firms aspiring to be global, entrepreneurs & CEOs from midsize organizations
ISB Kellogg Global Advanced Management Programme at ISB, Hyderabad
Duration: 6 days Fees: Rs. 600,000
For whom: CEOs, General Managers, SBU Heads of firms having global business exposure. It also provides an immersion at Kellogs
Changing the Game . India Negotiation and Competitive Decision Making.
Harvard Business School - India Research Center, Mumbai (also offered on the HBS Campus, Boston and London)
Duration: 6 days
Fees: Rs. 338,000 + $ 9,750
For whom: Senior professionals in dynamic industries such as high technology, pharmaceutical, energy, consulting, & investment banking
General Management Programme at MDI, Gurgaon
Duration: 28 days
Fees: Rs. 339,000
For: Top management executives
General Management Programme at ISB, Hyderabad
Duration: 14 days Fees: Rs. 300,000
For: Existing managers, high potentials, requiring cross-functional inputs
Conclusion
One of the key advantages of MDPs is the opportunity it gives the executives to build networks that give way to exploring new opportunities or reviving old ones. These short term executive programmes are also often used to evaluate potential executives and it is a good mechanism for the senior management to inculcate their strategies, goals, and even elements of culture to the lower echelons of management. The short capsules of cutting knowledge that these courses incorporate provide fresh perspective to the issues that executives face in their day to day activities. The international flavour some of these programmes provide also add to their allure. In short, a crucial factor about those attending the MDPs is that they return to their profession with a new orientation that would enable them to optimize and sustain their potential by building greater capability for addressing the imminent challenges in their work place.