Producing leaders with a rare combination of competency, competitiveness, ethics, principles, social responsibility, global perspective, and entrepreneurial skills is no mean feat. But for the Loyola Institute of Business Administration (LIBA), inculcating excellence in all of the above qualities besides providing good academic curriculum are of paramount importance.
The Journey, Vision and Mission
LIBA’s foray into management education was with the Part-Time PGDM in 1979 much before the existence of AICTE and it was well recognized by the industry because of its quality and commitment to ethics. LIBA stands for Excellence with Ethics, which are the hallmarks of Jesuit business education and all its programmes and activities embody these two elements. LIBA earnestly strives to inculcate in the students’ the values of excellence, justice, honesty, and service to the society.
The vision and mission of LIBA were framed based on the philosophy and values of the Jesuit Higher Education. Along with an attitude of positive thinking, high ethical values and service to society, students are groomed to reach ‘Magis’ – Excellence in everything with ethics.
All our programmes are designed in line with the mission of focusing on holistic growth and developing effective leaders with a global perspective. There is a strand of business ethics incorporated in every module of courses which highlights the importance of the human element in every aspect of decision-making.
B-School with a Difference
Competent, Committed, Creative and Compassionate men and women for and with others -this is the core of Jesuit Higher Education. This is what has made LIBA climb to the top league of B Schools in India. Many schools excel but LIBA excels with Ethics and continues its journey towards Excellence with Ethics in preparing its students to become globally responsible citizens surpassing all qualities.
The result of all this underpinning is seen during placements. LIBA has an enviable record of securing 100% placements since inception of Full-Time PGDM programme. The pre-placement offers/interviews every year bear testimony to the fact that our students are in great demand in the industry.
A Far-sighted Leader
Rev. Fr. C. Joe Arun, SJ is a thought leader. The thought process he has is innovative, creative, and far-sighted. His ideation originates from his grounded training in anthropology in Oxford, UK. He is an institution builder and system creator. He is a multitalented leader who has a great ease in moving from art to literature, music to dance, behavioural studies to management studies.
To substantiate it, we can confidently say that he has been instrumental in building many institutes. This includes Secretary and Correspondent of Loyola College, Chennai, where he played a key role; led 300-plus faculty and 230- plus non-teaching staff in 32 departments and 15 institutes to optimum level of performance; restructured its financial system, reorganized human resources, enhanced the infrastructure and brought all the activities under ERP system.
He was bestowed with CSR’s award of ‘Eminent Director of Leading Institute of India’ in January 2017. Rev. Dr. Arun has done extensive research in the areas of consumer behaviour, cross-cultural management, conflict, and identity construction. He has published books and scientific papers in areas such as personal growth, culture and interculturality, globalization and marginalisation, leadership and strategy.
He is a founding member of Institute of Dialogue with Cultures and Religions (IDCR) that researched into issues of conflict in religions and cultures and evolved conflict resolutions. He played a key role in founding an engineering college by negotiating with a French group, Icam Groupe. Now the college, Loyola-ICAM College of Engineering and Technology (LICET), is successfully run by Loyola College. He is one of the founding members of a group called, Knowledge Xchange, that remains a platform for exchanging ideas and strategies on education.
Dr. Arun is a member of European Association of Social Anthropologists (EASA) and Anthropological Society of Oxford, UK. He is a consultant to many companies and organizations on strategies. He is also a trainer in competence building, communication skills, and entrepreneurial skills.
Courseware and Infrastructure
LIBA has responded to the broad range of changing corporate demands by developing a wide assortment of Executive Diploma programmes alongside our traditional Full-Time PGDM and Part-time PGDM programmes. These programmes are designed to cater to the working managers to acquire and enhance world class managerial skills.
Understanding the need for a more customized approach to the latest managerial practices, the Management Development Centre (MDC) was formally started in 2004. The Centre offers Post-Graduate programmes which are tailor-made to suit needs of companies like Maveric, Ford, TVS Logistics, RBS, to name a few. 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.
Realizing the importance of analytics and Artificial Intelligence (AI), more focus is on machine learning, deep learning and emphasis on technology enabled learning.
Incorporating the Latest
LIBA actively mandates innovative Learning-Teaching-Evaluation by empowering the faculty to use their creativity within the broad scope of the course syllabi. We imbed technology in our business classrooms through an average of five different technology tools at the same time. LIBA is not a teaching, but a learning institute, where everyone learns and assists in learning.
To create a unique and valued position involving different set of activities, to transform from teachers to facilitators, and to offer Experiential and Immersive learning that is industry relevant, new TLA based learning system was implemented. The new learning system is an innovative one, modeled after the Oxford Learning System OLS. This is in consonance with AACSB accreditation.
We do not just impart knowledge, but we also form the character of our students. The approach we take is that every learning is a formation of character that leads to building competencies. Thus, the uniqueness of LIBA is that we do not simply excel, but we excel with ethics.
Faculty Development
LIBA’s faculty are qualified, experienced, and connected to industry. Constant faculty development programs enhance their knowledge, and the institute provides them with the needed tools such as labs, simulation software and they have exposure to the recent trends like machine learning and analytics. 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.
To foster ideas, alternative viewpoints, and different perspectives LIBA promotes faculty exchange programs with foreign institutions (United States, Germany, France, Belgium, and Malaysia) and bring to the classrooms, diversity of opinion and the latest knowledge of business practice.
Expansion Plans
For the forthcoming years, there is 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). LIBA and KerryIndev Logistics Pvt. Ltd. have signed a Memorandum of Understanding on collaboration in the area of academics involving teaching, curriculum development, research, internship, and placement.
The construction of a 77-crore new building with state-of-the-art infrastructure, guided by design thinking, is in progress. This will strengthen LIBA’s resolve and provide space for future orientations.
