BHARATHIDASAN INSTITUTE OF MANAGEMENT School of Excellence of Bharathidasan University) Tiruchirapalli – 620 014

A BRIEF NOTE ON BIM

Bharathidasan Institute of Management, established in 1984, is one of the premier Management Institutes in the country. It is the brainchild of first Vice Chancellor of the Bharathidasan University, Prof. P.S. Mani Sundaram. His vision was to set up a school of Excellence for Management education under Bharathidasan University. He believed that a school of excellence can be built only if the new school operates with a greater degree of autonomy in all respects like administrative autonomy, academic autonomy and financial autonomy. Bharat Ratna Shri C. Subramaniam, the then Union Minister, was highly impressed by the idea of starting a school of Excellence in Management that would be organically linked with an Industrial house. His belief was that just as a medical school needs to be attached to a hospital, to be effective as a teaching institution, a management school has to be linked with an enterprise or industry. Bharat Ratna Shri C. Subramaniam, based on his familiarity and experiences with the public sector decided that the new school should be paired with an outstanding public sector enterprise. Bharat Ratna Shri C.Subramaniam‘s search for a new public sector partner ended with the BHEL, which had, by the early 80s developed reputation as, a sound profit-making venture. Shri V Krishnamurthy, the then director of BHEL, was entrusted with the task of identifying a suitable person from the industry to take charge as director of the institute. Pyare lal Arya, a graduate of Indian Institute of Management, Ahmedabad, the then senior manager at BHEL, was selected as the first director of BIM and the classes for the first batch of students started on August 14th, 1984. BHEL provided the infrastructure required for the Institute since the inception of the institute and Bharathidasan University has been supporting BIM by meeting the salaries of Teaching and non-teaching staff for a few years till became self-supporting.

Relationship with BHEL did not end just with providing infrastructure facilities and the first director. The extensive resources of BHEL like manufacturing facilities, human resources, library and computer systems were available for the students to have access to. Senior executives of BHEL anchor courses in the MBA program especially in the areas of IT and Operations Management where BHEL has vast experience. BIM conducts number of Executive development programmes for BHEL in the areas of Corporate Finance, Marketing, Organisational Behaviour, Negotiation Skills and Interpersonal Effectiveness. BIM students participate in a number of short term projects offered by BHEL in different functional areas. This symbiotic relationship has proved to be mutually beneficial for both partners and is a good model for others to emulate.

BIM’s professonal reputation has been endorsed by no less a person than Bharat Ratna Dr. A P J Abdul Kalam, the then principal scientific advisor to the Defence Minister, Government of India. Among stiff competition from many reputed Business Schools in the country, Dr. A P J Abdul Kalam entrusted BIM with the responsibility of selecting DRDO scientists with managerial potential and turning them into effective technology managers and leaders. A Joint Technology Management Programme (MBA) was designed in collaboration with Institute for Technology Management, Missourie. The course aimed at creating Techno-commercial managers, who could understand the nuances of Technologies developed by DRDO Labs and also could understand the commercial potential of these technologies in civilian sectors. The participants who have undergone this Programme at BIM are now occupying very important positions within DRDO. This unique tie-up helped BIM in transforming itself from a B-School which offers only a General Management Programme to becoming one of the few management institutes in India with a a unique expertise in Technology Management.

Apart from technology management, managing Information Technology, and using it as a key source of competitive advantage has been recognized as one of the thrust areas for future research and training at BIM. BIM has been collaborating with IT majors like Wipro, Sonata, TCS, Sun Microsystems and Ramco systems in the areas of curriculum development, training and Summer Internships. Besides this, the senior corporate HR Executives from various leading industrial houses participate in the admission process to select the right type of students who could fit into organizational environment after successfully completing their MBA Program at BIM.

PHILOSOPHY AND CULTURE:

BIM is committed to excellence and this philosophy pervades every aspect of the Institute. The Institute maintains consistently high academic standards. The students are given an in-depth exposure to all management disciplines, and the benefits of close liaison with business and industry is incorporated into the curriculum on a continuous basis to make the curriculum contemporary and pertinent.

BIM provides the right ambience for the students to develop their personal and professional skills. The Institute lays greater emphasis on righteous behavior of students to groom them as responsible citizens, reflecting the core values of rich Indian traditions.

GOALS OF BIM

BIM’s MBA program is designed to produce skilled managers, effective leaders and responsible citizens capable of succeeding in all types of business organizations, large, small, private, public and non-profit. This is achieved through highly selective admission of qualified and motivated students, and then by providing these students with the analytical skills, creativity, sensitivity and breadth of awareness necessary to be successful in diverse management situations.

At BIM everyone constantly strives for excellence, i.e. ‘Perfection in Action’, and this makes all the difference.

SELECTION PROCESS

BIM selects high caliber students in the country from a diversified pool of several thousands of students who have the right management attitude. BIM has been conducting its own All-India Admission Test right from inception till 2003. For the Academic Year 2005, XAT test scores (conducted by XLRI) will be used to short-list candidates for Group Discussion and Personal Interview. (Admission details are given below)

INFRASTRUCTURE

All the six classrooms are fully air conditioned and equipped with Audio Visual aids like LCD projector, Television, VCR, Overhead Projectors, and a computer with, 2 MBPS Internet connectivity including Hostels.

The Institute also has access to a large centrally air-conditioned auditorium with a capacity to house more than 1500 people.

LIBRARY

BIM has a comprehensive computerized and fully air-conditioned library with over 10,000 volumes. The library also subscribes to an extensive collection of National and International magazines and journals. An impressive collection of Video cassettes and CD ROMs on a wide range of managerial issues complement the library resources. The students also have access to corporate library at BHEL and the Central University of Bharathidasan University.

Business Information Databases

CMIE’S PROWESS, BUSINESSBEACON, IAS database are available for the students .

CRISINFAC – CRISIL This is an excellent source of business information on India with comprehensive coverage, incisive analysis and accurate forecast. Industry Information Service (IIS) provides annual, monthly and quarterly reports on corporates, Industry and economy.

EBSCO Elite EBSCO database offers a broad range of full text and bibliographic database from over 1100 journals and magazines to meet preferred student requirements. Students can have access to all these journals electronically through internet either in the library, class-room, computer centre or their hostel rooms. Back volumes of these 1100 journals since 1970 are also available for the students.

IBID – India Business Insight Database

IBID compiles and consolidates vital in formation on Indian businesses and industries from all leading business magazines and newspapers.

DELNET

BIM Library is a ‘member-library’ of the DELNET Scheme operated by National Informatics Centre, Government of India. DELNET has been established with the prime objective of promoting resource sharing among the libraries through the development of a network of libraries. It aims to collect, store, and disseminate information besides offering computerised services to users, to coordinate efforts for suitable collection development and also to reduce unnecessary duplication wherever possible. Through DELNET access students can search millions of bibliographic databases and they can locate which library holds the documents which they are searching.

INDIASTAT

Students can access demographic or industry statistics about any part of India and any segment of the Industry from this subscription-based datebase.

COMPUTER CENTRE The Institute has a computer centre with 240 computers and it is accessible by students 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. It provides a comprehensive collection of management related software and business specific databases for the students. The centre is equipped with 256 kbps-leased line with connectivity to hostels also. The centre is equipped with languages like Java 1.2.2, C, C++, Linux, RDBMS like Oracle 8i, GUI Tools like Oracle developer 2000, MS Visual Studio 6.0, Crystal Reports 8.5, MS office XP, OR Packages like SPSS 10.01, TORA, LINDO, AMPL, and Crystal Ball, Visual Modelling software like Rational Rose Enterprise Suite and many other web designing packages. Wikipedia knowledge domain is being adapted and used as internal knowledge management system and communication system between faculty and students.