The Bangalore campus will be an innovation hub

Principle L N Welingkar Institute of Management Development and Research, now branded as ‘We School’, is a part of the Shikshana Prasaraka Mandali, Pune.A premier School in India, the Bangalore campus is among the 43 educational institutes managed by SP Mandali and the only one outside Maharashtra.Prof Dr Anil Rao Paila, dean of the School tells Vyas Sivanand about the features that has made it figure among the top B-Schools of the country.What are the distinctive features of We School, Bangalore?The Bangalore campus is compact but every aspect of transparency, openness, spaciousness and adequateness have been amply weaved into the design and architecture.Our intent is to make it the innovation hub for our institutes.Currently we offer three programs; a full time PGDM in General Management which is approved by AICTE, PGDM in e-Business which is the flagship program of the campus and none of the campuses in India offer and PGDM in Business Design and Innovation program which integrates design thinking concepts and skill sets into management.How have you ensured proper exposure of your students to India Inc?We proactively encourage, guide and involve the student fraternity to interact with India Inc.‘We Cafe’ initiative, anchored by our students, is an initiative in which we invite a CEO or MD of a company to our campus to interact with the students for about 1 ½ hours.The initiative has been very successful in terms of our relation with various corporates.We also have roundtables in marketing, human resource, information technology, operations, etc.which provide a platform for students to unveil their personal brand and showcase their caliber to corporates.We have strong corporate linkages by way of program partnerships, mentoring, campus recruitment and the Management Development Center which caters to corporate training needs.How about international collaborations?We School provides a number of opportunities for students to learn through international exposure.Students have undertaken internships and projects in countries such as USA, Japan, Ghana, Denmark, Germany, Kenya, Dubai, Malaysia, Tanzania, Sweden, Singapore, Romania among others.Students have also participated in study tours conducted to leading organisations in Sweden and Japan.We encourage students to learn about working in international groups through student exchange programs with partner universities.We have partnered with many international universities like Curtis Business School - Australia, Lancaster University - UK, Stuggart Media University - Germany, Malardalen University - Sweden, Audencia Nantes - France, Newcastle Business School - UK, Fox School of Business - USA among others to develop academic growth, student and faculty exchange, internships and research initiatives.