The Institute of Business Administration (IBA) (Karachi) took a winning leap as it inked down a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with Indian School of Business (ISB) to provide executive education in Pakistan.
“The MoU was signed by Dr Ishrat Husain, Dean and Director IBA and Deepak Chandra, Deputy Dean ISB at the ISB campus, Hyderabad, India on Friday,” said a statement issued by the IBA here on Saturday. The collaboration brings together IBA, the oldest business school outside North America, and ISB’s Centre for Executive Education, one of the largest executive education providers in Asia, to offer open and custom-designed courses for the senior management seeking swift career growth in the country.
ISB is recently ranked 12th among the top Global Business Schools and is the only school in South Asia which has won the prestigious Association to Advance Collegiate Schools of Business (AACSB) accreditation. This alliance is considered a major milestone in IBA’s journey to be ranked among the top100 business schools in the world. Deepak Chandra, Deputy Dean, ISB, while addressing a well attended press conference announced that IBA Karachi is the first Business School in emerging countries with which ISB has entered into a partnership. He said, “We are delighted to associate with the IBA (Karachi) to provide executive education programmes. This marks the beginning of a new chapter in the history of two distinguished business schools in the region. The IBA and ISB are equally dedicated to develop and enhance business leadership through innovative world class programmes in management.” Chandra further added “We are confident that this partnership will help generate tremendous opportunities for cross-collaboration between the two schools and sets the tone for many more future associations aimed at nurturing business leaders and entrepreneurs who would contribute to the growth of business and industry in Pakistan”.
Expressing his pleasure, Dr. Ishrat Husain, Dean and Director, IBA shared, “I am delighted to be here at Hyderabad to sign this MoU with one of the top ranking Global Business schools— the Indian School of Business. This start is on a modest scale but we will build up our relations over time as each one of the two institutions gets to know the other. As a long time advocate and firm believer in friendly relations between the two neighborly countries for peace and prosperity of our people this event represents a turning point.” Foreseeing the future Dr. Ishrat said, “This collaboration between IBA and ISB is just the foundation of a long term broad based relationship in which the two institutions will pool resources for curriculum review, faculty development, joint research & case studies, students & faculty exchange and much more in future.” He hoped that the two institutions will make further strides in the future that will add value to students, faculty and corporate sectors in the two countries. The course offerings would include ‘Open Programmes’ or short-duration programmes that are driven by research, ‘Custom-Designed Programmes’ or specialized courses devised to cater to specific needs of a particular organization as well as workshops and seminars. To begin with, the proposed programmes would focus on family business, entrepreneurship, business leadership, strategy and related domains. This would later be expanded to include programmes on Public Private Partnership (PPP) as well. It is planned to attract participants from the private corporate, family businesses, public sector corporations, government departments and nongovernmental organizations. These participants will receive certificates from ISB.
