Corporate HR fraternity recognizes innovative practices in management education to be on par with global management institutions
The NHRD HR Showcase, a signature event of the NHRD Bangalore Chapter, is shaped to bolster the enduring spirit of the HR practices in the true sense of the word. It is a platform to present HR excellence, spanning a range of unique sensibilities, from an intellectual re-imagining of concepts and cultures to an intuitive adaptability for significant business impact.
This 5th - HR Showcase, a two day national level expo held at the Palace grounds, Bengaluru, honored the thinkers and doers, the barrier breakers, bridge builders, and radiating forces of change by bringing them under the limelight in areas like Corporate HR Best Practices, HR Research Best Papers, Innovation in Business Schools Best Practices, Corporate CSR Best Practices and Best HR StartUp during the grand finale recently. WeSchool with campuses in Mumbai and Bengaluru won the top honor as the Most Innovative Business School for showcasing its flagship program; Global Citizen Leader (GCL). The honor in the form of a trophy and cash prize of Rs One lakh was received by Prof Dr Madhavi Lokhande, Dean, WeSchool (Bengaluru) and her team mates amongst loud cheer and applause.
The Global Citizen Leader program at Weschool, designed and delivered in collaboration with Center for Creative Leadership (CCL), USA and Design Impact was launched in 2012. Beginning in 2012, over the last 5 years, this innovative program that is offered to its full-time Management students is an epitome of "learning by doing". A six -month program, delivered as part of the management program, GCL engages students in Live projects in the Social impact and Business impact zone.
The aim of the program is to develop young leaders and finding innovative solutions that make a difference to the society and business. The unique aspect of this initiative is that it involves real-time stakeholders, designing solutions, prototyping them and testing it for feasibility and sustenance. The entire project works with student teams and faculty mentors. The program has over the last 5 years, seen 1400 students working on 220 projects. They work on various challenges shared by corporates, government bodies, associations that took them through the learning journey of stakeholder mapping, gathering observations and insights, prototyping and finally arriving at an offering that is not only commercially feasible but extremely useful to all the stakeholders.
Out of the 22 entries received by NHRD for Innovation Practices From B-schools, showcasing Collaboration with implementation partners, Contribution beyond funding, corporate engagement, student engagement, curriculum design, faculty engagement/development etc, 9 were shortlisted and given the opportunity to showcase their best innovation practice at NHRD conference. The Evaluation by eminent jury members Prof Dr William W Kooser, Associate Dean for Global Outreach at the University of Chicago Booth School of Business and Ms. Rupande Padaki, Director, P & P Group was based on: Current scale of program , Impact inside/outside the Institution ,Availability of measurable indicators, Long-term sustainability of program and Future Scalability /Reliability .
While congratulating the faculty and students on receiving the honor, Prof Dr Uday Salunkhe, Group Director, WeSchool said, “With the convergence of design thinking, technology and empathy, supported by world class faculty, result oriented teaching techniques and experiential learning ,we have always strived hard to develop an ecosystem to nurture the futuristic glocal leaders to lead India in its growth story .With the collaboration with the Center for Creative Leadership (CCL), our aim is to mentor the citizen leaders that possess a heightened sense of empathy and responsibility, are driven to work with passion to use their talents for the hundreds of millions in India whose lives are a struggle, and are instrumental in creating a win-win situation for all stakeholders in spite of a turbulent socio-economic environment. This endeavor not only changed their lenses but also tested their ability to accept failure and turn it into opportunities for higher degrees of success.”