We begin our quest The 10 Best Global Institutes for Marketing Programs, 2020 with an institute managed by Jesuits. Jesuits are members of The Society of Jesus, a religious order of the Roman Catholic Church founded by Saint Ignatius of Loyola in 1540.
With such a sturdy foundation, Loyola Institute of Business Administration (LIBA) was established in 1979. It began by offering the three-year Part-Time diploma programme (PGDM) in management which primarily catered to working professionals. Later in 1995, the two-year Full-Time Programme in management commenced with a batch of 60 students.
Core Values
LIBA stands for Excellence with Ethics. These are the hallmark of Jesuit business education and all its programmes and activities embody these two elements. The institute earnestly inculcates in the students the core values of excellence, honesty, inclusiveness, integrity, and justice.
LIBA focuses on the holistic formation of individuals in all quotients, viz. intellectual, social, emotional, and spiritual. The institute offers its students the best of education, blending classroom, and experiential learning.
The school empowers faculty to use their creativity to mandate innovative Learning-Teaching-Evaluation within the broad scope of the course syllabi. It imbeds an average of five different technology tools at the same time.
LIBA’s state-of-the-art infrastructure enables and assists students to maximize their learning outcomes. Further, the school incorporates both the financial and commodity market into the classroom. The aim, here, is to instill the objectives of participatory teaching.
Magis is the Jesuit value that defines excellence. In fact, in this excellence, Cura Personalis (Personal Care) is a practice in the Jesuit tradition that accompanies faculty, staff, and students. This is a formative process in which all are guided to excel in what they do and be deeply conscious of ethical values. This is the uniqueness of LIBA, it just doesn’t simply excel, but excels with ethics.
An Erudite Leader
Rev. Dr. C. Joe Arun, SJ, holds a Ph.D. in Anthropology from Oxford University, the United Kingdom, and a degree in Philosophy, Economics and an MBA in Marketing and Human Resources Management. He teaches Organizational Culture, Consumer Behavior, Cross-Cultural Leadership, Entrepreneurship, and Conflict Management. He has been a visiting faculty at Oxford University, UK, Ingolstadt Business School, Germany, ISEG School of Management, Lille, France, and received a postdoctoral fellowship from the University of Chicago.
Prior to taking the position of Director, Rev. Dr. Arun has held many administrative positions. This includes Director, St. Joseph Institute of Management (JIM), St. Joseph’s College, Trichy, Director, Goa Institute of Management (GIM), Goa, CEO, Loyola College, Chennai, Deputy Director of LICET Engineering College, Director, Loyola Development Office, Director, Xavier Institute of Business Administration, St Xavier’s College, Palayamkottai. He has also written many books and published many scientific articles. He is also a trainer in competence building, communication skills, and entrepreneurial skills.
Curriculum Backed by a Legacy
LIBA forayed into management education with the part-time PGDM in 1979. The point to note here is it was much before the existence of AICTE. Still, it was well-recognized in the industry for its quality. Today, the two-year Full-Time PGDM course is the flagship programme of the school. It enjoys the approval of AICTE, national accreditation by NBA, international accreditation SAQS and recognition by AIU.
LIBA has formed a full-proof plan to tackle changing corporate demands. It responds via a wide assortment of One-Year Executive Diploma Programmes and a collaborative MBA programme with Binary University, Malaysia. Further recognizing the need for a more customized approach to the latest managerial practices, it started the Management Development Centre (MDC) in 2004. The Center offers Postgraduate programmes, tailor-made to the meet the needs of companies such as Maveric, Ford, TVS Logistics, RBS, and many more.
In 2006, LIBA was recognized as a Centre of Excellence for Research by the University of Madras and a Ph.D. program affiliated with the University of Madras was initiated.
Moving beyond the four walls, LIBA believes in strengthening its students by helping them recognize their own inner spiritual strength. To carry out the same, it inculcates activities aimed at the overall growth and development of students as a part of the curriculum. This includes Outbound Learning, Inward Journey, Personal Growth Lab, Rural Experience and Self-Awareness etc.
A Perfect Record
LIBA has an enviable record of securing 100% placements since the inception of its full-time PGDM programme. The pre-placement offers every year bear testimony to the fact that the students are in great demand in the industry.
An important strength of LIBA is its strong interface with the industry i.e. it is a member of various industry associations – CII, FICCI, MCCI, MMA, to name a few.
Proceeding further, the institute has corporate members in curricular revamping, employment, and career support panels. These members bring in fresh perspectives of the modern industry trends and needs. Also, close links between the business classroom and the boardroom are apparent at LIBA through its faculty offering industry-specific curriculum.
Another important entity, The Personal Growth Lab (PGL) initiative witnesses the holistic development of the students. It promotes through assessment, dynamic interventions, and mapping of competencies to acquire self-awareness and self-management, therefore, building leaders with character. The conversion and transformation that happens in PGL is seen tangibly in placements.
Why LIBA?
Many B-Schools excel but LIBA excels with ethics. Its first effort to be an excellent MBA institute has been in its learning system. The new learning system is an innovative one, modeled after the Oxford Learning System OLS. This is in consonance with AACSB accreditation. Second, is its self designed Personal Growth Lab (PGL).
Third, is the comprehensive approach to learning by making all the student-club activities an integral part of the learning process. Moving ahead with the fourth, a Finance Lab that trains students in financial services on a real-time basis. Last but not least, fifth; LIBA faculty are trained in design thinking with the help of industry experts from Intellect Design Studio that would embed into the ecosystem of learning and teaching. More importantly, every faculty is asked to be associated with a company and an NGO to enhance their teaching, which is a mandatory and non-negotiable element in being a faculty in LIBA.
Future Verticals
For the forthcoming years, there’s one thing on the management’s mind of LIBA i.e. to innovate and expand. In terms of expansion, LIBA will start three verticals PGBM in Analytics, Healthcare Management, and Logistics. To accomplish this, the institute will work with TCS (analytics), CMC (healthcare) and Kerry-Indev Logistics (logistics).
“The construction of a 77-crore new building with state-of-the-art infrastructure, guided by design thinking, is in progress. By the end of 2020, we will move into this new facility. This will strengthen our resolve and provide space for future orientations,” concluded Rev. Dr. C. Joe Arun.
Words of Trust
Let’s hear from some of the students of LIBA.
“LIBA has given me the opportunity to strive harder towards my goal and elevate myself out of my comfort zone. The campus never sleeps, and the students are always brimming with excitement. My batchmates are from all parts of the country and O have been fortunate to learn about the diverse cultural heritage from around the country. Born and brought up in Kolkata, I was pretty anxious about how I would survive down south! However, Chennai has been lovely! There are amazing restaurants, beautiful beaches and happening pubs! The campus is centrally located and traveling to different parts of Chennai is more than convenient. I have been here for only five months, but it already feels like home.”
-Nikita Sydney, PGDM 2018-20
“A journey from Mumbai to LIBA Chennai has been much more than just a journey from the financial capital of the country to the cultural capital of South India. It’s a place that makes you discover your inner potential and talents. It is an institute where textbook knowledge is just a small facet of your learning as the campus is buzzing with co-curricular activities 24*7. Personally, I have had a great learning experience, especially in the Marketing Club and the Beyond Management Initiative which have immensely helped me in enhancing my verbal and written communication skills which are an integral part of a manager’s personality. Hence, I would say that even though I am 1200 kms away from my home, LIBA doesn’t make me feel so, as it has become my new abode.”
-Saurabh Mishra, PGDM 2018-20
Visit www.liba.edu to know more.
