ASBM: Redefining Education through Innovative Leadership Development and Industry Integration,

ASBM University stands out as a beacon of modern education, driven by a vision to cultivate leadership across all disciplines, says Biswajeet Pattanayak, President of ASBM University. Rather than comparing itself with others, ASBM is committed to self-improvement, distinguishing itself through innovative initiatives that bridge the gap between theory and practice. These three pillars—strong industry linkages, the pioneering Finishing School concept, and community immersion—serve as cornerstones for ASBM's distinctive identity in the educational landscape.

Prof. Biswajeet Pattanayak, Founder and President of ASBM University, is a globally recognised expert in Human Resource Management and a well-known management guru. With a career spanning three decades, he has held prestigious positions such as Professor of IIM Indore and Lucknow, Director of the Indian Institute of Bank Management (an institution of the Reserve Bank of India), Vice-Chancellor of KIIT University, and Group HRD Head of Essar Group.

Q1. What are the three things that ASBM is doing that will enable it to differentiate itself from the competition?

ASBM is a new-age university that has a distinct focus on building leadership in all the streams of education it provides. I must make it clear that we compete with ourselves rather than comparing with others. Our primary focus is to bridge the gap between theory and practice through our strong industry linkage initiative. Secondly, we are the first institution to introduce the Finishing School concept since 2006 to shape and reshape the students for better employability and a holistic personality. Thirdly, we integrate education and community participation through the village immersion programme to help the students understand rural life and rural market that constitutes the largest cake in the country.

Q2. What are the top three initiatives undertaken by you that are helping your students become more industry-ready?

ASBM University has developed a unique initiative like the Road to Excellence Lecture delivered regularly by industry practitioners. Each school conducts national symposiums on contemporary themes with mostly corporate leaders as speakers to infuse in the students the spirit of management in action. It allows the students to learn industry practices and to also interact with industry role models. Industrial visits are conducted to relate the classroom with the shop floor and to make the students understand how the precepts that they study are converted to practice.

The ASBM Finishing School conducts the psychometric and language proficiency assessment of the students to identify their strengths and weaknesses. This baseline data is used to carve out roadmaps for them. They are then exposed to different modules throughout their course. Finally, they are evaluated through mock GD and PI undertaken by the industry practitioners. The feedback thus received is used to further refine the students so that they appear at their real job interview with full preparation and confidence. This improves the success rate tremendously.  

Moreover, the management students mandatorily carry out analysis of different business sectors to give them an understanding of a focused sector of business. They also participate in capstone and live virtual projects to better appreciate the real-life problems faced by the industry.  

These initiatives have made our students stand out in the recruitment process.  

1. What are the key attributes that a student should have in order to qualify for your university?

• Apart from academic excellence, we look for a positive attitude towards life, and a strong interest in learning, which in my opinion are the two most important ingredients to excel.

Q3. Which programme/s would you say is/are your best? What is it that helps your institution differentiate itself for this programme?

Our main thrust is on management, technology, law, and liberal arts. All our programmes are equally robust, unique, and industry-driven. However, ASBM University traces its legacy to the Asian School of Business Management, which was established in 2006 benchmarking the leading IIMs and best B-schools worldwide. Our flagship programme MBA is uniquely positioned with the right blend of domain and sectoral focus and is fully accredited by the Accreditation Council for Business Schools and Programs (ACBSP), USA. This accreditation testifies to the fact that our MBA is at par with the best MBA programmes of 1600 leading universities across the globe.

Q4. What are you doing to improve/drive better campus placements for your current students and alumni? What kind of jobs routinely come to campus? What would you say are the key recruitment trends for your University (observed over the past five years)?

We focus on competency building of our students equipping them with the right kind of attitude, skills, and knowledge. Further, as I said earlier our Finishing School is a unique initiative in transforming the students to make them industry-ready. Campus recruitment drives of the industries are always market-driven. Our Industry Connect Department works closely with the HR Heads of our recruiters to understand the industry needs year after year. This helps us to leverage and achieve an excellent placement record since inception.