Prof. Dheeraj Sharma is the Director and a Professor at Indian Institute of Management, Rohtak. He has taught and presented research at several educational institutions in North America, Europe and Asia. His primary research interests are “relationships” in business domain. He explores relationships in the context of Workforce motivation, behavioral channel theory, international marketing strategy, personal selling, brand management, social media management and ethics. Prof. Sharma has over 100 articles published in reputable journals and conference proceedings and has also authored several books.

Prof. Dheeraj Sharma

Director, IIM Rohtak

Q. One of the newly arrived and the only IIM in the Delhi-NCR region, IIM Rohtak has exceedingly made its presence felt in the sphere of management education, how does your institute plan to cope up with the changing landscapes where the business world is shifting to a more specialized, high on tech and global trends?

A. The businesses are today betting big on analytics, hi-tech and new technologies which tend to take root much faster today than any other time in history. Going by this trend, the course curriculum at IIM Rohtak has been designed in a manner which equips its students with the latest of trends in analytics. The course curriculum, both in the first and the second year, comprises of mandatory subjects on analytics, simulation and data visualization to ensure maximum exposure to its students. The academic curriculum is constantly reviewed to ensure that it is in line with the latest trends so that the fresh graduates can hit the ground running on the very first day.

Q. Many aspirants are muddled on the thought of whether or not MBA is a worthwhile investment. With respect to the ROI of IIM-Rohtak’s flagship PGPM, what would you like to say?

A. IIM Rohtak equips its students to ensure a lifetime of excellence. Its students are highly sought after in the industry, which is also evident by the increasing number of recruiters that show interest in hiring management graduates from IIM Rohtak. The highest salary offered to the batch of 2016-18 was INR 30 LPA, which was a 16% increase from the previous year, with the top 50% receiving an average of INR 14.6 LPA. When it comes to financing, several banks provide collateral-free loans to its students during the admission process. Hence, it is clear that the ROI provided by IIM Rohtak is one of the best among the top Business Schools in the country.

Q. How has the campus placements at IIM-Rohtak in the recent years been? Talking specifically of 2017-18 placements, what were the trends in terms of recruiting sectors, domains, salary and top recruiters?

A. Placements at IIM-Rohtak in recent years have been nothing short of great. The institute strives to improve the quality of students each year by increasing diversity, exposure and provide its participants with the latest of technology. Owing to this commitment, campus placements have seen a rising trend both in quality as well as quantity. IIM Rohtak was able to achieve 100% placements in the year 2017-18. Marketing stood as the top recruiter with 29% of all the offers being made in this domain followed by Finance firms with 26% of the batch getting offers in this domain. Other major sectors included General Management (21%), Analytics (12%), Strategy and Consulting (7%) and Operations (5%). This season also saw the return of the Big 4 with KPMG and EY offering attractive profiles to IIM Rohtak graduates.

Q. That brings me to one of the most common queries amongst the management students; what attributes or skills does one need to build to be a top choice of the recruiters?

A. The timeless advice given by an interviewer is that they decide the final judgement within the first 5 seconds of the interview. Hence, taking care of basic etiquettes and making the first impression is a necessity. A few attributes they look for in the candidate are confidence, knowledge of the domain, genuineness and the decision-making ability. Apart from all these, the recruiter also considers the alignment of the candidate’s career goals with that of their organization. Performance under pressure, patience or the ability to take a punch with a smile is what the recruiters are judging that time. To be a top choice for the recruiter, candidates must show their best side, good articulation and structured thinking will strengthen the candidature of an applicant.

Q. There has been a debate over General MBA vs. Specialised MBA. What do you have to say about it?

A. Generalists typically are expected to have reasonable understanding of a wide range of topics and a specialist is expected to have deep and profound understanding of a specific domain. There is a definite advantage in becoming a specialist in any given domain. As knowledge gained in a particular subject uniquely qualifies an individual for a role and allow the individual to perform that role effectively and efficiently. However, in VUCA (Vulnerable, Uncertain, Complex and Ambiguous) world today a generalist is not just expected to have an understanding of a broad range of areas but also see profounder interconnectedness between areas and proffer a solution that a specialist may not be able to develop and execute. They must have the ability to integrate and provide holistic solution to business problems.

Q. How advantageous is Corporate Exposure for management students in their course of study? What does IIM-Rohtak do to help students learn about the real business world and finally prepare them for the industry?

A. Corporate exposure is of profound importance for students to progress in the management field, especially for the freshers in a batch, who have no prior job experience. It is evident that for managers, whose jobs call precisely for managing their subordinates, it can’t very well be done without having some real-world exposure as to how workplaces function. In this aspect, IIM Rohtak offers plenty of avenues and encourages its students to work on live projects to gain exposure. Every candidate in the course undergoes a summer internship after the third trimester wherein the candidates engage with the top organizations from around the world for a two months long corporate immersion. Along with this, IIM Rohtak frequently organizes Management Summits all around the year across major cities wherein stalwarts from the industry converge to impart valuable insights about the latest developments of the corporate world.

Q. How much importance is given to social and cultural involvements and other extra-curricular activities at IIM-Rohtak? Do you believe that pursuing PGPM aids in significant development of the personality of the students?

A. Answering your second question first, YES! PGP helps in developing a student’s overall individuality. Not only you gain credibility in the market, but also, you get the second chance when you go on the field which many managers out there haven’t. Attending an MBA program is that it imparts to him or her, a fine sense of personal, social, and professional etiquette. Students pick right from their classrooms, a unique set of professional problem-solving, presentation and discussion skills.

Now coming to your first question, a major motive of MBA is an individual’s overall growth, and cultural and social activities are an integral part of that. In IIM Rohtak, significant importance is given to one’s extra-curricular feet along with a student’s academics. Students get involved in various sports and cultural activities, and there are numerous clubs and committees to ensure the well-roundedness of students along with building their personalities by improving their communication skills and widening their horizons. The students learn the importance of team-spirit and learn to accommodate different viewpoints and acquire intercultural sensitivity.

Q. At IIM-Rohtak, how are students willing to become entrepreneurs guided? What facilities and faculty resources are available to students which encourages them to pursue their entrepreneurial interests?

A. The heart and soul of IIM Rohtak believe in learning through innovation and engagement. The students are constantly encouraged to innovate into new ventures during class participation and course projects. There also exists an Entrepreneurship Cell which is a student-run committee where students come together to learn about the success, failures and various tricks and techniques of established start-ups across the globe. The institute provides students with the opportunities to interact personally with the people behind these ventures and this ignites the entrepreneurial spirit in students immensely. IIM Rohtak also organizes batches of Professional Development Programs in Entrepreneurship which are aimed at supporting budding entrepreneurs across the country with practical insights from industry experts and present-day entrepreneurs. These courses also provide individual mentoring sessions where budding entrepreneurs, who have developed a business plan as part of the course, get an opportunity to be guided by professionals in the investor community on their business idea.

Q. IIM Rohtak has been in news for its several developments this year- being the first and only IIM to offer a PG programme in sports management, having more than 50% woman students for the first time and moving to a new and permanent campus, what are some important developments or achievements you are looking forward to reach in the near future?

A. We wish to have more interactive learning in the institution. Hence we shall introduce more immersion based programs, live projects, cross-disciplinary courses, and simulation games that will impact the students collectively for their overall development.

Q. Is there any message that you would like to give out to the management aspirants?

A. The world around us is changing at a faster pace than ever before and changes around us are unprecedented. Increased digitalization, experience economy, internet of things, and move towards more localization vs. globalization are some of the recent trends that will have impact on business across the globe. We have witnessed that several old billion dollar companies have disappeared and many new ones have appeared. I believe that student must embrace vulnerability as a normal feature in businesses, embrace technology, and accept collective intelligence as leadership tool.