Retail Boom Blooms on B-school Radar

http://www.telegraphindia.com/1070118/asp/jamshedpur/story_7277375.asp]

Jamshedpur, Jan. 17 (The Telegraph): Thanks to the retail boom, XLRI will now offer a course on retail management as an elective from the new academic year.

“We want to provide our students with a strategic and managerial perspective for the retail industry. We will definitely start the course from June, when the new academic year begins, and have already started it in small manner with the present batch,” said Smithu Malhotra, assistant professor, marketing, at XLRI.

At present, a visiting faculty from the industry conducts sessions with the students.

The elective, which would be of a three-month duration, would be offered to all campus students, from general management to those in the management development programme. But the decision if it would be extended to distance learning programmes has not been taken yet.

“The B-school has felt a shortage of managerial manpower in the retail sector and hence we plan to start a course which would concentrate in this area,” said Malhotra.

The course content would include the global scenario of the retail industry, its trends, success stories and experiments in the field. Strategies of the Indian retail industry, its growth areas and managerial role would also be included in the curriculum.

Retail industry stalwarts would be roped in to share their experiences with the students. In addition, students would attend seminars and conferences to get hands on experience.

Very few B-schools in the country have such courses and by offering the course XLRI would be part of the select few, added Malhotra.

Few organised retail companies have tied up with a couple of B-schools for the course. Pantaloon India (Retail) has tied up with two Mumbai-based institutes — Wellingkar Institute of Management, and K.J. Somaiya Institute of Management Studies — for a diploma course on retail management.

XLRI will also be open to such links if they come its way, Malhotra added.

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Posted by Madhukar to XLRI Jamshedpur - News and latest Updates at 1/19/2007 08:41:00 AM