Hyderabad, 26 December 2020: Institute of Management Technology (IMT), Hyderabad organized The Social Immersion Program - "Sambaddh: Partnering in Community Development" for the first year PGDM students. The program is in concurrence with the institute's vision of being a leading management institute that nurtures socially responsible business leaders.
The program consists of a week-long engagement with various NGO's/Foundations, CSR heads, changemakers, and individual stakeholders like rural artisans. It would provide a real-life perspective regarding societal challenges around. The students would be provided avenues to connect with the key stakeholders working on various issues and then work on a project to identify social problems and design solutions to identified problems in their final project submissions.
The event started with an official address by Prof.(Dr.) Romina Mathew, Professor – HR, IMT Hyderabad. She started her address by welcoming the chief guest Shri R. P. Srivastava, Director (Personnel &Industrial Relations), Coal India Limited, Director and Dean of IMT Hyderabad, Faculty members, and the students who have opted for being the change agents by enrolling in the social immersion program. She emphasized the objective of 'Sambaddh,' i.e., to associate the future leaders with all the stakeholders seeking to bring a change in the community and leading to effective community development.
The event included an inaugural address by Dr. Sriharsha Reddy, Dean (Academics), wherein he enlightened us with his insightful words:
"In line with the vision of nurturing socially responsible business leaders, it is one small step in our program. We started revamping our curriculum to meet the current business needs. That has included admitting a lot of content pertinent to leadership development and also digital transformation. For the tenth batch of IMT Hyderabad, we completely revamped our course curriculum to embed a lot of modules on leadership development and digital transformation, and we do not want to leave out on giving out inputs pertinent to ESG, which is environment, social, and governance. The initiative Leadership Excellence Academic Programme (LEAP) has been taken for students to experience leadership development, social connect, and digital transformation journey."
The event also witnessed a formal address by Director, Dr. M. Venkateshwarlu, wherein he welcomed Mr. R.P. Srivastava to the Social Immersion Program's inaugural session. Given that IMT Hyderabad is in its 10th year since inception, he accentuated a need to review the performance, understand the path, and create new initiatives for the upcoming decade. In its journey to establish itself as a socially responsible institute, IMT Hyderabad has been consistently putting efforts into adapting nearby villages, understanding relevant issues on community living, and incorporating initiatives to tackle them in the long run. As a part of its CSR mission, the institute consistently takes inputs from students and undertakes diverse strategies by integrating numerous activities connecting with nearby communities and societies.
The chief guest for the session: Mr. R.P.Srivastava began his address with a quote: "If you are not learning something new every day, then you're already dead." He emphasized the significance of conducting such a program from the management student's perspective and society's standpoint in general. He reiterated his point that social immersion applies to managers and peoples from all walks of life. He also explained what leadership means to him: 'Leadership to me is solving problems and making effective decisions' The event also included a brief Q&A session revolving around the program's finer nuances.
The event concluded on a vote of thanks by Prof.(Dr.)Tulika Sharma, Assistant Professor, and Area Chairperson, General Management. She expressed heartfelt gratitude on behalf of everyone at IMT Hyderabad to the Chief Guest, Director, and Dean for facilitating meaningful learning opportunities for the students.
All stakeholders' concerted efforts provided fillip in fulfilling the objective of promoting value-based learning and framework, sensitizing participants towards the community needs, and learning about applying the concepts for solving real-life societal changes.
