Discover SPJIMRs 5 Non-Class Room Initiatives that produce Holistic Business Leaders

Daniel Goleman’s 1995 book Emotional Intelligence, a New York Times bestseller, highlighted the importance of Emotional Intelligence (that included Self-Management, Social Awareness and Relationship Management), and discounted IQ as the sole measure of one’s abilities. Harvard Business Review called Emotional Intelligence “a revolutionary, paradigm-shattering idea”. Since then, several scientific researches have underscored the high importance of EI. For instance, a study by Spencer, L. M., Jr. analyzed more than 300 top-level executives from fifteen global companies and showed that it six emotional competencies distinguished stars from the average.

Sadly, the focus of most MBA Curriculums is on developing just the Cognitive Intelligence, or IQ, by focusing on functional areas like Marketing and Finance through the traditional lecture method, and on Decision Making skills through Case Study analysis in class rooms. While this traditional approach may be useful in exposing students to new subject areas, it doesn’t create a “holistic manager” with high Emotional Intelligence, that is so needed for corporate leadership.

One B-school that has pioneered the understanding and implementation of developing Emotional Intelligence in MBA Curriculum not just in India but across the globe is India’s own SPJIMR Mumbai

First envisioned by Former Dean late Dr M L Shrikant, SPJIMR has developed its unique pedagogy in the last 25 years. Today evolved into a suit of five SPJIMR non-classroom programs, that together aim to create Self Mastery, Empathy and Socially Awareness in MBA graduates that go on to become not just good managers but holistic business leaders. Partly due to these non-classroom learning at SPJIMR, graduates of this B-school have achieved Placements at par with Top IIMs, and are rising the corporate ladder super-fast!

These five initiatives on Non-Classroom Learning at SPJIMR are: Science of Spirituality, ADMAP, DOCC, Abyudaya and PG Lab. Together, they have brought about a pedagogic revolution and have become a model for various B-schools who have also started to rationalize their pedagogic structure.

But, before we move forward, here are key highlights of this unique B-school – SPJIMR.

1. Highly Ranked and Internationally Accredited: SPJIMR is an AACSB Accredited B-School and in the prestigious Financial Times 2022 Global Rankings, it secured World Rank # 44 and India Rank # 2. It was ranked # 6 in India by MBAUniverse.com B-School Rankings 2022.
2. Placements at Par with Top IIMs: SPJIMR Placements are at par with top IIMs. SPJIMR has registered highest package of Rs.53.16 LPA, Average package of Rs.32.05 LPA in 2022.
3. Distinguished Alumni: SPJIMR has a long list of super achievers as its alumni including Mahesh Madhavan, Global CEO of Bacardi and Debjani Ghosh, President of NASSCOM. Read more on SPJIMR Alumni Achievers

Let’s come back to SPJIMR Non-Classroom Program initiatives - Science of Spirituality; ADMAP; DOCC; Abyudaya and PG Lab. Here is a brief introduction of SPJIMR Mumbai MBA Pedagogy with Non-classroom learning initiatives

• Science of Spirituality: This is a course to lead student from Self Awareness to Self-Mastery by  sharing the rich spiritual heritage of India and east.
• ADMAP: Assessment and Development of Managerial and Administrative Potential (ADMAP) is a three-credit course spread through the first year of PGDM curriculum. This helps students to become leaders, entrepreneurs and managers of tomorrow who can get things done even in the VUCA world.
• DOCC:  Development of Corporate Citizenship (DoCC) is an SPJIMR initiative conceived 25 years ago, that aims at engaging with social sector initiatives across India.
• Abhyudaya: This is a transformative experiential learning course where MBA students mentor school children from underprivileged backgrounds for a year.
• PG Lab: This is an innovative pedagogy for teaching Organisational Behaviour, the Personal Growth Lab (PG Lab) is a comprehensive course that helps build personal leadership and team skills through indoor and outdoor activities, psychometric tests and experiential exercises.

While a few other B-schools have some elements of these courses in their MBA curriculum, all these courses are mandatory for SPJIMR students.

Sharing the thinking behind Non-Classroom Learning, Prof Aditi S Divatia, Deputy Programme Chairperson – PGDM at SPJIMR, said, “The rationale behind the NCL experiential courses is to build leaders who are socially sensitive. The NCL courses help them to gain an understanding of society comprising of rural and urban Bharat. The participants learn to manage themselves first before they manage teams in the corporate world.”

The idea of Non-Classroom Learning had started way back when Dr M L Shrikant was the dean of SPJIMR. Widely respected as a pioneer of management education in India, Dr Shrikant served as the Honorary Dean of SPJIMR from 1987 till 2014. Dr. Shrikant completed his BS from Michigan Technology University and MS at the University of Illionis. In 1970s, he was one of the youngest CEOs in India. Then, he went back to the United States to pursue his MBA at Cornell and later completed DBA from Harvard Business School. Dr. Shrikant worked tirelessly to integrate the idea of service to society and responsibility into the MBA curriculum.

SPJIMR unique approach has received recognition from various stakeholders including corporates and recruiters. Many organizations such as Tatas and NABARD are supporting DoCC and other initiatives.

SPJIMR Alumni endorse the Non-Class Room Experiential Learning at SPJIMR as these initiatives have made them a better leader. Ms. Ratika Gore, SPJIMR Alumna, Class of 1997, who has over 20+ years of diverse global experience in education and running businesses in USA, Europe, Philippines, Singapore and India, said, "Looking back, me and most of my batchmates agreed that strongest memories were of the rural internships (DOCC) and of the Spirituality classes. I think DOCC helped influence my world-view and build empathy. The spirituality classes needed quite a bit of reflection but honestly, they helped shape my guiding principles. While life in B-schools is insanely busy and the focus is on knowledge and skills, I feel the 2 years on SPJIMR were unique and gave us enough opportunities to also work on our personal growth."

5 Non-Classroom Learning Initiatives at SPJIMR
Clearly, NCL initiatives are working. Let’s get to know What, Why and How of each of them.

1. Science of Spirituality: From Self Awareness to Self-Mastery
The Science of Spirituality, a key Non Class Room Learning initiative is a course on Reflective and Experiential Self Awareness leading to Self Mastery. It makes the SPJIMR students aware on Self Management with meaningful engagement leading to fulfilment and success through wisdom.  The course focuses on Vedanta-based wisdom and leadership.

What is Science of Spirituality?
The current 'Science of Spirituality' course offered at SPJIMR is in line with the spirit and vision of the former dean Dr. M. L. Shrikant but also experiments with innovative ways of delivering this knowledge. The content of the sessions is based upon insights and practices from Eastern Wisdom Traditions (Advaita Vedanta, Buddhism, etc.) and the growing field of Mindfulness, supplemented by frameworks from Cognitive and Developmental Psychology and research findings from Neurosciences and the discipline of Management.

This course is a reflective and experiential course as an initiation on this path of development. Its intention is to provide management students insights and practical tools to navigate with wisdom, live with more engagement, meaning and fulfillment, and in the process accomplish their quest for performance and success.

It is conducted across various programs, for young to experienced MBA students (PGDM, PGPM) to senior executives (EMP) with a different content and emphasis, and is titled respectively Journey towards Self Mastery, Leading with Wisdom, Finding the Space to Lead. It is also offered as an elective course which focuses on Vedanta-based wisdom and leadership.

How Science of Spirituality is Taught – The Pedagogy?
SPJIMR Mumbai MBA Pedagogy on Science of Spirituality is reflective and experiential with the purpose of helping students to shift old habits and create space for a new way of being. The learning strategies include conceptual inputs, models and frameworks combined with case-studies discussion, video presentation, in class group work and individual application exercises. Students are encouraged to engage with exercises and practices as a commitment to their personal development.

What Are Key Benefits for Students?
The course provides students an opportunity to reflect deeply on the way they look at their life, the world and their place in society. It develop skills to make them more centered and grounded, thereby operating with greater relaxation, creativity and objectivity. It helps them to appreciate the need for self-care and associate in an empathetic and participative way with others. It also helps students to identify a personal set of tools and contemplative practices to continue the journey towards freedom, wholeness and self-development.

2. ADMAP:  Value-Based Growth to Leadership to get things done in VUCA World
The Assessment and Development of Managerial and Administrative Potential (ADMAP) teaches the art of administration to business students in a fun, experiential way and is the value-based approach to management education. It aims to create leaders, entrepreneurs and managers who can "get things done" in the VUCA world.

What is ADMAP?
This unique Non-Classroom Learning course was conceived by visionary educationist Dr. M L Shrikant, Former, Honorary Dean of SPJIMR, DBA HBS in 2004. ADMAP refers to influencing without power and getting things done. The Assessment and Development of Managerial and Administrative Potential (ADMAP) is a course born out of SPJIMR conviction and affirmation towards creating leaders, entrepreneurs and managers who can "get things done" even in the Volatile, Uncertain, Complex and Ambiguous (VUCA) world. ADMAP is widely considered as the poster-boy of SPJIMR’s Non-Classroom Learning. It teaches the art of administration to business students in a fun, experiential way.

ADMAP is a three-credit course spread through the first year of the two-year PGDM curriculum. It is the value-based approach to management education, in line with the SPJIMR’s philosophy of Influencing Practice and Value-based Growth.

How ADMAP is taught?
SPJIMR Mumbai MBA Pedagogy on ADMAP is based on students’ preference as in accordance to their preference, they are allocated to one of the existing committees on campus. As a part of an evaluative process of 3 credits, students will then be involved in the everyday functioning and decision-making of the campus during their first year. Each committee is mentored by a faculty in charge who will oversee the work done by the students and deliver periodic feedback to reflect on and improve upon. ADMAP focuses on a learned rather than a taught pedagogy and it transfers the learning responsibility to the students.

What Are Key Benefits for Students?
ADMAP aims to empower students with the art of administrative capabilities in a fun and experiential way and introduces the participants to ‘self-learning’ and ‘management of the self’ through the prism of ‘doing, observing, reflecting and recording’. It helps students learn how to work in a team of peers with diverse administrative styles. ADMAP instils a professional attitude in students and assists students in learning how to influence without power. It aids students in understanding various organizational structures. ADMAP teaches students what are the sources of formal and informal power

ADMAP: Recent Initiatives
In line with the evolving needs of the SPJIMR community, 8 new committees have been introduced for the academic year 2022-2024 for ADMAP namely Central Admin, Central IT, Centre for Family Business and Entrepreneurship (CFBE), Centre for financial studies (CFS), Centre for innovation in sustainable development (CISD), Centre for Wisdom in Leadership (CWIL), Programme Marketing Committee (ProMak) and Skill Building Unit (SBU)

3. DOCC: Corporate Citizenship through Social Engagement  
SPJIMR is bridging the gap between Rural stakeholders and budding managers and leaders with DOCC to sensitize the students about the Corporate Citizenship. Students take up internships in socially relevant rural projects in association with NGO’s working in rural areas.

What is DOCC?
Development of Corporate Citizenship (DoCC) is an SPJIMR initiative conceived 25 years ago, that aims at engaging with social sector initiatives across India. As part of this initiative, the SPJIMR community engages with rural communities as part of the curriculum where students both volunteer and intern with organizations working in the social sector. This rural internship is in line with SPJIMR’s philosophy of Influencing Practice and Value-based Growth, which helps create sensitivity based on knowledge and the social environment around us. DOCC works as a bridge between rural stakeholders and budding managers and leaders from the participant base of SPJIMR.

DOCC Focus Areas
DoCC initiative focuses to demonstrate to the participants (alumni, current and prospective students) the universality of management principles and their applications to the social sector. It aims to empower the participants to deal with an unstructured environment and make decisions. DOCC provides capacity development programmes for the development sector, including the government and NGOs and focuses to develop amongst the participants sensitivity to the underprivileged constituents of society. DOCC consults for M&E as well as makes Impact Assessment study for various development programmes/projects. It undertakes action field research and develops cases and research papers along with other publications

How DOCC is taught? 
SPJIMR DOCC curriculum facilitates its students to take up internships in socially relevant rural projects. PGDM students intern for five weeks while PGPM participants intern for two weeks. These projects are in association with NGO’s working in rural areas which have been valued for implementing innovative social sector approaches

DOCC benefits for Students
It helps to explore, develop/modify and document sustainable solutions. Students learn to achieve programme goals more efficiently and deliver superior value to the beneficiary. It addresses operational as well as strategic issues/problems of the NGOs. Besides, SPJIMR students learn about ground level conditions, challenges and opportunities, notably in rural India, while NGOs get managerial inputs from SPJIMR Students during the DOCC internships.

DOCC: Recent Initiatives
SPJIMR is increasingly trying to partner with a wide range of NGO’s to give the students a chance to work on diverse problem statements each year. Tata Social Internship (TSI) has partnered with DoCC to create a common platform to showcase their social projects at grass root levels in NGO’s and CSR foundations. Ehsaas, the NGO Mela is partially sponsored and organized by NABARD in association with DoCC

4. Abhyudaya: Empowering Underprivileged and getting Ready for Top Management Roles
Abhyudaya- mentorship programme by SPJIMR students for underprivileged children who are given the name ‘Sitara’, helps to develop ability to mentor and become socially sensitive business leaders. It is a major differentiator among other business schools and in the industry.

What is Abhyudaya?
“Abhyudaya” is a Sanskrit word that means 'welfare and development for all'. This initiative is a transformative experiential learning course with 1.5 credits, where students of 2 year full time PGDM programme mentor school children from underprivileged backgrounds for a year. These children are called 'Sitara', which means star. Each PGDM student is mapped to one Sitara, and mentors that Sitara for a full year.

How Abhyudaya is taught?
Based on the first-hand understanding of poverty, SPJIMR PGDM participants design sustainable business projects to solve social issues, which are evaluated by an industry panel. Thus, they develop their mentoring skills, and work towards becoming socially sensitive business leaders. The program works on two way feedback between the sitara as well as the mentor with an aim to bring out the best in both.

Through the Abhyudaya programme, Sitaras can realize their full potential, both in their work as well as personal life, cecome financially self-reliant and develop sensitivity to cultural diversity, harmonious community living, and gender equality.

Key benefits of Abhyudaya for students
Abhyudaya, helps SPJIMR students evolve into empathetic managers who want to make a difference to the world. Besides, SPJIMR students become socially aware, empathetic future managers as Abhyudaya helps the students to understand the role of business in sustainability. Abhyudaya helps the students learn mentoring and leadership skills.  

Abhyudaya: Recent Initiatives
Through the non-profit arm of Abhyudaya, SPJIMR has engaged deeply with the Sitara community for the past 14 years, providing education to 500+ schoolchildren. During the Covid pandemic, SPJIMR intensified its efforts, providing financial assistance, food, health and safety programs, laptops for ongoing education, and a digital literacy program for Sitaras.

5. PG Lab: Journey from ‘Me’ to ‘We’  
Conducted at Khandala Hills, PG Lab activity brings out students’ qualities on creativity, leadership, teamwork and innovativeness taking the journey from ‘Me’ to ‘We’ which help the students learn leadership skills.

What is PG Lab?
An innovative pedagogy for teaching Organisational Behaviour, the Personal Growth Lab (PG Lab) is a comprehensive course that helps build personal leadership and team skills through indoor and outdoor activities, psychometric tests and experiential exercises. 

How PG Lab is taught?
PG Lab is conducted in the picturesque surroundings of Khandala Hills on the outskirts of Mumbai, about a 90 minute drive from the SPJIMR campus in Mumbai. It starts with an ice breaking session to provide the right atmosphere of openness and comfort. The day starts with meditation and yoga sessions. The course is delivered in one of the most exciting formats, with participants taken on an outbound in the hills near Mumbai at virtually the start of the programme.

The journey for each participant begins from "me" and traverses through the PG Lab to harness the power of "we". Thus, the PG Lab experience has popularly come to be called the journey from "me to we". Team events help participants know more about each other, overcome their fears and find their social identity within the group. This builds strong camaraderie in the batch. PG Lab course also has a rigorous self discovery mechanism built in. This is achieved through a comprehensive range of psychometric tools to assess personality, interpersonal relationships, emotional intelligence, blind spots, learning styles, unique strengths and areas of development. Every experiential exercise is followed by relevant questions, based on the participants’ experiences which are then related to the appropriate concepts. These are done in small groups of 30 to 40 participants with at least two faculty members each.

The results of the psychometric instruments are mapped on to generic managerial competencies. This helps participants identify strengths and learn to leverage them. Participants also work on a personal development plan based on their areas of improvement. Apart from the learning activities, informal music and dance sessions also help develop a strong sense of bonding. On coming back to the Institute, students are to reflect and introspect on their feedback, both quantitative and qualitative, and write out a personal learning paper on their understanding of various OB concepts, and application of this knowledge to their personal and professional life. Personal counseling is provided to participants through the counseling and development cell of SPJIMR - Vishwas.

Key Benefits of PG Lab for students
PG Lab takes off right at the beginning of the programme so that the most important 'T' of “Trust” is imparted before “Technology” and “Techniques” and the initiative helps in identifying own strengths and appreciating individual differences. Before going for the lab, the faculty works out a detailed plan of the activities, their sequence, the intended learnings to be derived. This pre lab work for the faculty involves intensive preparation in identifying the appropriate conceptual frameworks and objectives for each activity. Activities of the PG lab are designed to be interesting and exciting and aim to motivate the participants towards eager participation. Each activity is aimed at bringing out qualities that are latent in them with focus on specific skill areas such as creativity, leadership, teamwork and innovativeness. With the PG Lab, participants are able to identify their own capabilities, their strengths and areas of improvement

To increase cross-batch interactions, a combined “Mega PG Lab also happened this year for the students of BM and PGDM specialization.

NCL: Essential Part of SPJIMR Curriculum
These courses are not merely created to position SPJIMR in a certain way. It is mandatory for the SPJIMR students to participate in all the non-class room initiatives. Sharing this with MBAUniverse.com, Prof. Aditi said, “The NCLs are a mandatory part of the first year curriculum. Every course has credits assigned to it and follows a rigorous pedagogy with planned evaluations to ensure the best possible learning experience and outcomes for the students.”

So, if you wish to be a holistic leader with high Emotional Intelligence, SPJIMR is the right B-school for you. It’s Non-Classroom Learning courses like initiatives at SPJIMR are: Science of Spirituality, ADMAP, DOCC, Abyudaya and PG Lab will help you develop Self Mastery, Empathy and Socially Awareness.

Interestingly, SPJIMR looks at the candidates from a holistic perspective and not just focus on test scores.​ You can apply for admission to PGDM 2023 at SPJIMR Mumbai till November 25, 2022. Apply Now

Stay tuned to MBAUNiverse.com for more updates on SPJIMR Mumbai