At ISB, the only resource that is limited — is the ‘time’. (PGP Pro MBA)
This is in continuation of my previous post on getting into ISB PGP Pro. The ISB PGP Pro program starts with one week of residency at ISB Hyderabad’s campus, giving us the 2024 Delhi & Hyderabad cohort an opportunity to be at the campus. As the residency was scheduled for the third week of July 2023, the green and scenic ISB campus had turned even more beautiful due to monsoon rains. Situated at around 45 mins from the airport, the route from the airport to the campus is beautiful and convenient.
ISB — The First Impression
Being at the ISB campus itself is fulfilling and inspiring, the lush green campus will leave anyone awestruck and will engage you with nature. The beautiful main entrance road takes you to the ring road that circles the main academic block and connects four student villages, the faculty resident block, the recreation center, and other blocks.
The other thing that will strike you instantly is the sense of openness that is quite unique to the ISB Hyderabad campus. Right from the design of the campus, the academic building, library, everything is designed to provide the best possible environments for students to excel. Anyone you talk to at the campus, — professors, academic staff, etc, everyone promotes open thinking and has time to have an open discussion on a variety of topics. Diversity, open thinking, and inclusivity are the values that you can easily sense at ISB.
The Stay
ISB Hyderabad campus has 4 student villages and an executive housing complex that is available for college students to stay. Most of us as part of the executive program, stayed at executive housing. Every effort was made to ensure a comfortable environment is provided for the students to focus on their studies. All meals were taken care of at the executive Bajaj dining hall. PGP Pro students just have to take care of devoting their time to classes and completing the daily assignments.
Academics
With world-class faculty, infrastructure, and a well-designed curriculum, it was an absolute privilege to be a part of such an institution and listen to the professors at ISB.
The professors were kind to share their years of experience, learning, and research with us. There were a couple of subjects taught during the residency. Both professors possess high credentials and were absolutely brilliant not only at the debt of knowdlege they have but also amazing at transferring their knowledge and concepts to the student.
The academic arrangements were managed by Academic Services and Administration (ASA) team at ISB and we could not be more thankful to them for managing everything and helping us enrich ourselves with the course content & concepts.
The campus & infrastructure
The 260 acres campus provides an ideal environment to focus on studies. It is such a well-designed campus where everything is designed to bring a sense of openness and is conducive to promoting innovation.
The heart of ISB is the main academic building where classes of all ISB programs are held. The Atrium, at the center of the building, is the right place to network, study or just hang around.
The Learning Resource Centre (LRC), is the heart of the Academic Centre and provides access to research databases, e-books, journals, magazines, and physical books. The three-floored library provides access to thousands of physical books and was the favorite place for students to sit and complete their daily assignments.
Start-ups Support
I-Venture @ ISB is the startup and entrepreneurship umbrella brand of ISB. The initiative ties together four of the ISB’s entrepreneurship programs — DLabs, DIRI, AIC, and TRICOR.
Incidentally, I-Venture was the first block I got to explore at ISB. The initiative not only provides support to ISB students and alumni but is also open to non-ISB startups and entrepreneurs. More details can be found here.
Networking and Events
One of the strongest aspects ISB brings to the table is its network. With 17000+ alumni with 800+ of them at the CxO level and 1100+ startups from ISB alumni, this is surely a network to tap into.
During our campus residency, the Student Engagement and Applied Learning (SEAL) team has ensured that we get the best opportunity to connect with alumni. There were classroom interactions with previous PGP Pro alumni followed by a networking dinner. Another networking dinner was organized with the cohorts of PGP Pro 2023 and PGP Max 2024. And then there were classroom sessions by the ISB alumni on product management, marketing, etc.
Diverse Cohort
The strength at ISB is the diverse set of batches and alumni. The Delhi 2024 PGP Pro is no different. Startup founders, CMOs, CEOs, Country heads, Sales heads, Finance analysts, Software professionals, freelancers, defense personnel from all three services of arms forces, sports professionals, doctors, medical professionals, ESG professionals, Brand managers, etc.
Recreation
There are plenty of things to do at ISB. Spending time on the lush green campus provides enough opportunity to relieve students from classroom and assignment stress. Exploring the campus by strolling around is the best way. There is a dedicated recreation area to play sports like badminton, cricket, etc. It has a small lake and a dam as well. ISB is home for some of the non-human buddies as well, I found an interesting Instagram page for that, do check it out here — https://www.instagram.com/non_humans_of_isb/
With so much going on, an abundance of things to do and learn, classes and assignments to complete, and then networking with students and alumni, the ISB Hyderabad campus provides everything that makes it a conducive ecosystem — the only resource that is limited at ISB is time available to explore the beautiful campus. It is probably time management that ISB wants us to learn first. :)
Read here — How to get into ISB PGP Pro?
About Myself
I am a student at Indian Business School (ISB) pursuing Post Graduation Program for working professionals (PGP Pro) and am part of the Delhi 2024 cohort. PGP Pro is an executive MBA equivalent weekend program from ISB.
I am also working in a UK based mutual fund asset management company, Fidelity International, as a Software Project Manager.
In case you are looking for any help regarding ISB or for that matter any other topic where I can help, you can reach out to me at lavalmagan@gmail.com or laval_magan_pgppro2024@isb.edu.
Disclaimer — These are my personal views and are based on my experience with the ISB PGP Pro program only. The photographs in this post are used only to give a better sense of experience at ISB and to complement the post. The ISB logo used is the intellectual property of ISB.
