We Focus on Innovation, Technology, Science, and Entrepreneurship, says Dr E.M. Naresh Babu

In a conversation with Shiksha.com, Dr E.M. Naresh Babu, Professor. ABBS School of Management talks about the school's proactive approach to curriculum development ensuring that their courses remain up-to-date and aligned with industry needs. With a focus on Innovation, Technology, Science, and Entrepreneurship, ABBS fosters a holistic learning environment where students gain not only knowledge but also practical skills and a sense of social responsibility.

Dr E.M. Naresh Babu is serving the ABBS School of Management as Professor in the Operations and Analytics department. Prior to that, he worked in reputed B Schools and MBA colleges in Andhra Pradesh.  

Q1. What are the salient features of the teaching methodology adopted by your college? How does this differ from others?

At ABBS school of Management, we follow experiential learning, and maximum weightage is given to contemporary business happenings.  Our curriculum is revised every year and the requisite topics from industry will be included in our curriculum. The students are advised to prepare presentations on their learning with different internships, they will be asked to prepare Cross-word puzzles with the content and subject they are studying which makes them to understand the concepts thoroughly. Sometimes we ask the students to prepare question paper for class tests and case-lets which the students enjoy a lot, as they will be taking the mentor role.  We give more preference to continuous assessment, this makes them to involve in all the activities like presentations, group discussions, role plays, case studies, mini projects, class room participations, assignments and projects etc. one unique feature of our exam system is the students will be given 60 % of the weightage to continuous assessment and 40% weightage is given to end term exams, so they fell every component is important and they don’t miss any of the components. The students are encouraged to participate in the various events national level and the students are encouraged to write research papers with the guidance of faculty.  There are many research papers by our students which got published in reputed journals and also floated in Youtube.

Q2. How are you preparing your students to be Industry ready?

The students are encouraged to get knowledge not only in terms of marks but also they will be a part of live projects and the students are encouraged to take part in live internships with different companies like Amazon, Paypal, google, Parle, P &G and various real estate companies so that they will gain real time experience from the industry which is so helpful for them while going for the final placement. The internships which complete will be presented as a project and documented which is taken as a ready reckoner for the next batches. We provide all the files in our department library (apart from central library) which usually taken care by the student community itself.  We allow the students to go for a 4.5 month Industry Internship Program at the end of their 6^th Trimester, which allows them to get absorbed into the companies just after completing the internships and there is no need for any further waiting or writing exams etc.

Q3. What are the qualities you are looking for in student applicants? What qualities do they need to do well in your course?

The qualities which we are expecting from the student applicants are

• Commitment
• Willingness to learn new aspects
• Energy to deliver the duties
• Innovativeness
• Out of box thinking
• Readiness to accept challenges
• Dedication towards the work

If the students possess these qualities, surely, they will acquire more knowledge from our campus and they will become industry ready with the curriculum which is offered by our institute.

Q4. How do you ensure that your course curriculum is up to date and meets industry requirements?

ABBS School of Management conducts Board of Studies meeting yearly once, which contains academic participants, renowned industry participants and Alumni who are working with reputed companies.  In that meetings, the requirements of various established industries and emerging industries will be discussed, based on that the curriculum development will happen, which goes through a review of Internal Quality Assurance Cell (IQAC), and then the new curriculum will be approved by Board of Studies.  This makes sure that the curriculum is catering to the needs and requirements of industry.

Q5. Is your college receptive to innovation, technology, science & entrepreneurship? How? Could you cite some examples of these?

Our institute is absolutely receptive to innovation, technology as we have included many technologically new subjects in our Management course such as Python, Tableau, R, SQL, Orange, Power BI, Data Mining, and Text Analytics courses as usually these were meant for Technical students only by many of the institutions. Coming to the innovation our institution started the concept of “Theatre in Management” in our campus to the students, wherein the students will be coming out of stage fear, inhibitions etc., There are few students who joined as introverts in our institution, now giving the presentations like experts because of Theatre in Management activity.

We will send the students to explore the city by using the public transportation mode so that they will come know about the city, as well as the pros and cons of each activity and how much time they would be taking for different activities in business and also they will come to what exactly is the communication, oral communication, written communication, body language, gestures and non-verbal communication etc. Campus to community is one more initiative which we have in our campus where the students will be sent for community service, which is a credited course in our institution, which makes every student as a part of community development.  Wish Tree is one more innovation in our campus which makes the students to contribute to the small wishes of Orphan students nearby our institution.  The Orphan students will write their small wishes and tie those to a tree at campus and our students gives those articles as a charity. ABBS STEMME is a journal which is completely dedicated to our student community and the students will be publishing their research work in that journal, it is completely dedicated to the students of Management across the country