Prof. Bala V Balachandran Founder and President, Mumbai Business School, Malad, Mumbai Founder and Dean, Great Lakes Institute of Management, Chennai, India J L Kellogg Distinguished Professor of Accounting and Information Management (Emeritus in Service), Northwestern University, Illinois, USA Executive Professor and Strategy Advisor to the Dean, Bauer College of Business, University of Houston, Texas, USA

“In 2004, when I founded Great Lakes (under whose aegis MBS has now come) the intention was to create a world-class institute of learning which would provide, very simply, the best management education to the most deserving professional at very reasonable costs. What started as a one school initiative then, has in the last seven years received an overwhelming response.

Now, I am proud to introduce the second school under the Great Lakes umbrella – Mumbai Business School. Also a not-for-profit Institution, we share the same objectives and are focused to bringing our successful one-year, fast-track, fully-residential management program closer to our students. Mumbai Business School, now under the same management as Great Lakes, and with a new administration headed by our Dean, Prof Jayanta Sengupta, is committed to bringing you the same quality and excellence that the world has come to expect from Great Lakes.

As I mostly do in my classes, I want to state an analogy. When you buy a product, what do you look for? I am guessing here that the answers would be as follows: best suited to the need or usage, top-notch quality, value for money, low maintenance etc. What if you bought a product that is a combination of all these and as you proceed to use, it provides you with many other hidden benefits that you originally had not planned on having at all? Now, that my friends would not only ‘astonish’ you but would also create in you a sense of satisfaction that you have made the right choice.

So also, management education. The market is buyer-driven and you are faced with a plethora of choices that differ right from the word go. Be it the differences in the duration of the program, mode of delivery or the nature and type of courses and teachers you may encounter, the differentiations are several and I can only sympathize with you on the difficult answer that you have to arrive at – “which school do I finally select from the available options?”

My message here is an attempt at making the decision easier for you. Our firm belief is that being in the heart of the financial capital of India can reap us rich dividends given the unrivalled combination of business and culture that Mumbai represents. As for the program, all the courses have been carefully designed by some of the best minds in academia headed by Dr.Jagdish Sheth who chairs the MBS Academic Advisory Council. You have the unique opportunity to be taught and mentored by some of the leading gurus from the Western and Indian Universities apart from being backed by some of the best companies in the country. The course schedule is quite rigorous and competitive and makes use of multiple pedagogies and approaches as well. These apart, co-curricular activities also abound, making the entire program a holistic and balanced education and learning initiative.

Management education is at a crossroads and most of the western universities are looking to the East and in particular, India to augment their programs with ethics-based and principally sound courses. We hold the key to all this and the future is going to witness an unprecedented shift in management education when the east teaches the west. We have already a head-start in the process of crafting and perfecting a delivery model that not only includes all this, but also completes it in twelve months flat. Now this is what I call the ‘Money Value of time’ and I am confident that the return on your investments will be high.

Having come this far, don’t you want to join the excitement and exhilaration of being part of our Institute, or accompanying us on this incredible journey of self-enhancement? Do you not want to be astonished?!! What are you waiting for? Swagatham!”