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IIT Bombay Washington University In St. Louis Joint Venture
Gopal Shukla - CEO - IIT Bombay-WashU Joint Venture
IIT Bombay and Washington University in St. Louis present India’s first and the only joint EMBA degree program for working professionals and entrepreneurs to offer a degree from an Indian and American institute.
The objective of the program is to create future leaders who shall go out and change the society, and their respective industries, rebuild/re-design sustainable business models, and embark on a change in psychology contributing toward social welfare and economic growth.
Keeping in line with this thought, this joint Executive Master of Business Administration (EMBA) degree in Mumbai focuses on making leadership succeed and allowing change management to thrive.
IIT Bombay and Washington University in St. Louis both are prestigious institutes well known for the talents they have created over the years. Their Executive MBA program is the only one in the world that confers a joint degree from an Indian and an American university.
They believe the continuous evolution and transformation of executive education will be the most crucial catalyst enabling strategic transitions in the 21st century.
The residency program is completed in 18 months with 20 modules, out of which 17 are completed in Mumbai and the remaining three in Washington D.C and St. Louis.
Participants who successfully complete the program get a Joint (Executive) Master of Business Administration Degree from IIT Bombay and Washington University in St. Louis. They will also get alumni status and privileges from both universities.
Donning many hats, Gopal Shukla is an Entrepreneur and CEO with diversified industry experience. A result-driven business leader with diversified Global experience in Education & Training, IT, Internet, HR tech, Retail, and Business Assurance Industries, he is consistently successful in driving revenue and profit growth in a given market.
He is skilled in team development and collaborative leadership across departments and cultures, leveraging the capabilities to improve productivity. He is presently leading IIT BOMBAY-WashU joint venture as a ‘Chief Executive Officer.
In this role, he is responsible for developing and executing long-term strategies to create world-class leaders through global education and the overall success of the joint venture between IIT Bombay and Washington University. Over and above the joint venture responsibilities, Gopal also teaches Start-up Consulting (Entrepreneurship) course in the IIT Bombay-WashU EMBA course.
Gopal is an alumnus of IIT Bombay-WashU. His entrepreneurial abilities and leadership skills were noted by the professors & Institute’s leadership during the program.
The board of directors and Leaders at the institute had clear objectives and vision for this joint entity, and they found Gopal to be the right-suited candidate for this journey.
Gopal shares, “It is a dream come true for someone who has studied in an institute…leading it. Before joining this program, I had developed a deep insight into competition and the scope of this global program. When this opportunity came up, I was sure about the future prospect for this program in India and abroad.”
IITB-WashU Executive MBA program encourages the highest standard of management practice, research, and collaboration among industry professionals by promoting innovation and leadership among participants.
Their participants come from a range of industries and functions and are technology savvy, open to change, and passionate about performance. CEOs, CIOs, CXOs, Directors, Presidents, VPs/AVP, senior managers, business heads, or Entrepreneurs can all attend this course.
Gopal mentions, “To join the program, Prospects should have Significant experience and be able to demonstrate career progression and success across levels.”
Talking about the differences in today’s education segment from when he started, Gopal says the edtech’s innovative services are disrupting education delivery anytime and anywhere, thus improving access to education and training compared to the traditional education system,which is classroom-based and teacher-centric. There is a disruption in the content and its offering, and customized education is imparted using technology.
If you are a professional with significant experience and looking to accelerate your career and become a better leader in your field, this course is just for you. The past participants included CEOs, CIOs, CXOs, Presidents, Directors, VPs, AVPs, Business Heads, and Entrepreneurs. For aspirants trying to join the course, Gopal emphasizes four key principles they must follow for successful completion of the course:
Time Management: Time is of the essence. To get more done in less time, you need to work smarter. You must plan and organize your time between activities for better productivity and efficiency during the program.
Commitment: Commitment is another important trait an aspirant must possess. The program is rigorous, and you must invest time outside the classroom on assignments, cases, and pre-reads. You need to be committed to the program to complete the program successfully.
Objective / Goal-focused: To achieve your goal, you need to remain focused on completing all the modules successfully.
Utilize The Resources Offered: Apart from learning from highly qualified faculties, lifelong alumni status for IITB and WashU participants also get to sharpen their skillset by learning from their peers from different professional backgrounds. Utilize the resources and opportunities the program offers and learn from the top best.
"The Global economic growth outlook has a profound influence on where, how, and to whom we are delivering learning. Measuring ‘learning’ distinct from ‘education’ could yield massive economic upside. Measuring the ‘skills premium’ or ROI for investing in skills has been a work in progress for centuries. Much work is required in this area.”
Discussing his beliefs, Gopal shares,
IIT Bombay-WashU joint venture is one of its kind worldwide, offering a joint MBA degree from both Indian and American institutes. Since most of the teaching faculty are flying in from the US, offering global education using international case studies and examples, the program allows pupils to get global exposure. Gopal Shukla mentions.
"We are preparing Change agents with global exposure. Students get alumni status from both universities, giving them exposure to all the available resources and a community to achieve the desired goal. In a nutshell, the best of both worlds is offered in the IIT Bombay- WashU EMBA program.”
Corporate leaders make decisions based on data, processed with their experience and their knowledge of the forces at play. In today’s fast-paced VUCA world, decision-making is an art, what with a data deluge and a complex marketplace that is subject to global forces. There is a quintessential need to constantly upgrade to stay on top.
IIT Bombay and Washington University in St. Louis are two large, very established, and prestigious universities. Washington University and IITB have worked together since 2009.
The institutions are members of the McDonnell Academy Global Energy and Environment Partnership, a consortium of sustainability-minded universities and corporations; McDonnell International Scholars Academy; and IITB-WUSTL Corporate Alliance, an affiliation that develops the next generation of global leaders.
Their rich partnership history facilitates the collaborative delivery of the joint Executive MBA program in Mumbai. CEO of the Joint Venture, Gopal Shukla, says, “We are now running the 7th cohort, and we have produced successful leaders and start-up founders who joined this program from various industries and functional backgrounds.
My objective from the JV is to create world-class leaders, and I call these leaders ‘change agents.’ These leaders are expected to go out to their respective industries, markets, or public sector enterprises, wherever they can contribute, they become ‘Change Agents’ as they change the society, re-design the business models, embark on changing the mindset and psychology contributing to the economic growth, social welfare, and social growth.
Hence, I must tell you that at IIT Bombay - Washington University in St Louis, we are building a pool of ‘Change Agents.’ While everybody is focused on building leaders, we are building the ‘Change Agents’ through our EMBA program.”
Sharing his vision of creating deeper and widespread academic reach, Gopal says, “This program is unique, and as far as the reach is concerned, I see two types of reach. One is reaching out to professionals in India and Other countries to educate them about this unique program. Another is the deep academic reach in the form of module delivery in the classroom.
My vision is to achieve a deeper reach to these segments to create more ‘Strategic Change Agents’ at the top level. These change agents will further influence and fuel economic growth and sustainability.
In addition to where we are able to make an impact through this EMBA, my effort and desire are to invite more and more distinguished participants from Public Sector, Indian Administrative Service, the Indian Police Service, and Defence to foster rich learning and networking experience.
Imagine such cohorts where we have participants from Indian Administrative Service, Public Service, police service, and the corporate world. When these two sets, along with the entrepreneurs, who are building large enterprises and family-owned businesses, come together, they will be instrumental in shaping the future industries and society and fuel economic growth.
Let’s imagine the whole of India comes together to learn from each other about how they do business and how they could empower people, society, and their businesses.
The individuals from the public sector who are not fully exposed to the mechanisms of the private sector or enterprises will now get connected, gain insights into strategic thinking and market dynamics, and be well equipped with understanding and new perspectives to work together.
Imagine if, through our EMBA program, we are able to create this kind of a learning ecosystem and infrastructure where everybody tries to understand the challenges of each other (Public/ Private/Start-ups).
What would be the level of learning and academic reach that we can create in the classroom? So, that is where my vision is to reach out deeply in terms of making it geo widespread and learn from each other and shape the future of economies and society.
About the deep academic reach in the form of module delivery in the classroom, we have the ability and combined experience of both the Universities to impact the participants with well-structured modules, specialised course content and global delivery style.
IIT Bombay-WashU is able to create a unique place in India among senior executives and leaders from corporates, large enterprises, family-owned businesses, defence, the public sector, and so on. So, we have a diverse set of participants enrolling in the program.
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