General Management Programme (GMP)

Teaching Methodology

The Rigorous Curriculum hands out the essential tools of management while keeping the participants abreast with the latest trends in management education with the flexibility to explore different areas of specialization. Teaching methods include case studies, group projects, and independent field work with special emphasis on team–based learning. Simulated strategy games and exposure to real world problems enable students to understand, appreciate and imbibe decision making through business finance, cross functional alignment and competitive analysis. The course includes many village outbound programs which provide opportunity to students to understand and solve socio-economic problems faced by people living in rural India, thus grooming students holistically as socially responsible leaders.

From your first day in the GMP Programme students are tested on Time Management. The rigors of classroom teaching, which comprises over 950 contact hours, mixed with discussions, case studies, real time projects, and various applications based quizzes, makes the teaching methodology highly enriching.

Curriculum

The MBA programme includes four terms, each one lasting 7 to 8 weeks. Every term ends with exams.

The first half of the programme is built around 14 core courses, which provide you with a solid understanding of the key management disciplines, including finance, accounting, marketing, operations, strategy, leadership, corporate citizenship and business ethics.

The second half of the programme can be customized, allowing you to choose 12 different electives that support your career and learning objectives. XLRI offers a rich and varied choice of electives for you to choose from - over 56 altogether - including topics as diverse as "Building Business in China", "Mergers, Acquisitions, Alliances & Corporate Strategy", "Private Equity Finance" and "Market Driving Strategies".

Pre-term

Three days of introductory courses which lay the foundation to all courses taught during the 10 month full time MBA. The object of the pre-term is to normalize students coming from different backgrounds.

Core

Term I (June - August)

• Managerial Communications
• Quantitative Techniques for Managerial Decision Making
• Managing Human Behaviour
• Managerial Economics
• Management Accounting
• Business Ethics and Corporate Citizenship
• Marketing Management;               

  OR

  Economics - Strategic Management

  Entrepreneurship

  Industrial Organization and Competitive Strategy

  International Economic Environment

  International Management

  Resource Based Strategy

  Strategy of Cooperation and Private Public Partnerships

  Leadership & Adventure

  The essence of the adventure trip is to experience firsthand the impact and power of a team. This trip will deepen your belief in team power and would leave an everlasting impact. The experience of the adventure trip cannot be captured in world and quite honestly no adjective can explain the emotional rush and passion experienced in the 2.5 day that constitute the adventure trip. This trip tests you on all aspects such as physical, mental and strategy building, resource/energy management, team building etc.Remember only the best of the best survive.
  
  This program helps one understand his/her limits and then go way past them. The philosophy of stretching beyond the limit is what XLRI preaches. XLRI's methodology of teaching which is about reinventing oneself continuously is put to practice in this trip.

  

  

  

  

  Rural Exposure

  The intent of this program is to train students to understand the problems of rural India and address them in a better way, it is mandatory for students to spend a few days in the rural parts of India.
  
  Under the VEP, students of the GMP have to identify the problems of the people of a particular village and then suggest solutions. Students will then have to design business modules. The rural exposure programme will help the future managers to understand the needs of the local people and provide solutions to their problems.

  

  

  

  International Immersion

  International immersion was an exciting & enriching experience of XLRI's one year General Management Program (GMP) (2009-10), five groups of students travelled to 5 different geographical locations across the globe – to Chicago and New Orleans in USA, Munster in Germany, Lille in France and Manila in Philippines, showing the emphasis XLRI puts on diverse international experience that its students would bring to the class.
  
  The 3 week long program focused on familiarizing the students with business climate and industrial scenario of their host countries, as well as giving them a chance to execute a project for different organizations there. For example, the group that went to AIM, Manila visited world Head quarters of Asian Development Bank and participated in round table conference on State Owned Enterprises. The group also worked on consulting projects for companies like Cognizant, Jollibee Foods Corporation, Lafarge etc. and helped them in strategy development & developing forecast model.
  
  The team Germany was accompanied by the Dean of GMP program, Dr. Pranabesh Ray. Germany is the home of world's most respected companies like SAP, BMW, addidas, SIEMENS, Deutsche Bank etc. Applying class room teachings, the group developed insight into German manufacturing industry through value chain analysis and studied the corporate strategies of big and medium size companies in Germany.
  
  The Chicago group got an unique opportunity of attending CII Conference headed by Mr. Sam Pitroda (advisor to Prime Minister of India), also present were business leaders from Chicago & India and professional turned academician, Raghuram Rajan (IMF Chief Economist, 2003-2006). Further, the group made a visit to Chicago Board of Trade. The group also made a presentation on "Destination India" day, highlighting the exciting business opportunities & quality of human resources present in India.
  
  The programme for the New Orleans group was hosted by Tulane University. Besides Company projects, students also participated in a strategy simulation game (CAPSIM) where they created and managed virtual companies that competed against each other for 8 simulated years. Students acting as top management of the company took decisions in various management areas of marketing, operations, finance and HR. The group not only completed the simulations successfully but also made it to the global top 10 rankings amongst world's foremost B schools and Corporations who they were playing the game with.
  
  The France team went to IESEG at Lille and did marketing & strategy projects for the world's 4th biggest Home-Improvement Retail company, and visited EU Parliament at Brussels and Paris to interact with local businesses.
  
  According to the Dean, "the international immersion programme not only helps executive GMP students understand the nuances of new economic order but also showcases Indian talent to the world".