The Hindu Business Line : IIM course helps IT cos combat attrition

APART from instilling managerial skills in their engineers, the PG course in Software Management at IIM-Bangalore has helped IT companies battle attrition rates too.

"Most of the graduating students of the programme have remained with their employees and have got expanded roles," said Mr Abhoy K. Ojha, Chairperson, Post Graduate Programme in Software Enterprise Management, IIM-Bangalore.

Speaking to Business Line, he said: "One reason for this is that for the duration of the course they are tied down to Bangalore. In fact, some employees of large software firms have elsewhere in the country have sought transfers to Bangalore to attend the programme."

The PGSM programme was started in 1998 to cater to the industry's need for a crop of middle managers.

With some minor modifications, the core programme has remained the same.

The course syllabus is under review and may undergo some changes soon, said Mr Ojha.

"We realised that internal training was very difficult for these people. In 1998, the IT business was booming and the demand for middle managers was very high. Therefore we decided to link management to the software industry and it's the only one of its kind in the country."

The programme offers courses in concept of business, marketing, context of an organisation where students are taught how to build teams and organisations, etc.

"In short they are being trained to become global leaders. Some of them are looking at entrepreneurship as well," said Mr Ojha.

Is the institute sharpening the Indian software engineer's communication skills, which has been termed as poor and ineffective?

"Yes, it is true that our engineers need to work a little more in this area. We do have a course in communication, but we considering expanding this during the review that is coming up soon."

Special emphasis is laid on training students in improving their presentation skills.

The PGSM programme is a combined effort of industry and academia, he said.

The programme was started with the help of partner companies such as Wipro, Sasken, Oracle, Motorola and Sun Microsystems.

Some of the faculty is borrowed from the industry.

"We are always trying to match the industry's needs and that's why when the US market was down and the European market was on the rise, the institute added language electives like French and German which was appreciated then."

Now, with the imminent fee reduction in the PGP course, will the offtake for PGSM (which also works out to Rs 1.5 lakh per annum) get affected?

"No, you see, the target is different. While the former is seen as a launcher, the latter is seen as a booster course."

But the Institute is trying to increase the interaction between the two streams and offer some common electives.

"Apart from this, from next year, PGSM students will be selected through the Common Admission Test," he said.

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