ISB’s PGPpro participants organise their first leadership conclave – ABHYUDAYA

New Delhi: Participants of ISB’s youngest and the first off-campus management programme for working professionals, PGPpro organised their inaugural leadership summit ‘Abhyudaya’ today. Aptly named Abhyudaya meaning ‘sunrise’ or ‘a new beginning’, the conference commences a series of leadership conclave that will be organised by the PGPpro cohort going forward.

Addressing the participants ISB’s Dean, Rajendra Srivastava, said, “ISB’s PGPpro combines learning rigor with the ease of setting the pace of one’s learning. Today with Abhyudaya, PGPpro participants have demonstrated their determination and conviction to excel, yet again. By assembling unique panels, they have made this conclave a success.”

He also spoke about the need of a Weekend Executive MBA-equivalent programme like PGPpro for the mid-career professional who want to elevate in life, enhance their leadership and managerial skills but do not wish to leave their jobs. Dean Srivastava asked the PGPpro students to not just learn but also implement their ISB learning’s in their jobs.

Starting his keynote from the title of the conclave Rakesh Bharti Mittal Vice Chairman Bharti Enterprises said, ”India today is not rising it has risen and that is an awakening you all must take note of. The world has arrived. Time has come when industry and academia need to sit across the table. Time has come when we need to start looking at the future of the jobs. Industry and academia need to start talking, walking and engaging as partners.”

Further talking about his own business journey he advised PGPpro cohort to take pride in their ideas and convert them into a reality and then just dreaming about them.

An enriching panel discussion on ‘Startup Ecosystem in India’ took place with Deepshikha Anand, Founder, SpeakIn; Rohit Kapoor, CEO, OYO Real Estate; Pankaj Bansal, Cofounder and CEO PeopleStrong;and Ankur Warikoo, Founder, Nearbuy.com on the panel. They spoke about how the concept of startup has become ambiguous in today’s world. All of them agreed that while the ecosystem is encouraging and supporting but one should always be prepared for the failure and have a plan B. They spoke about various perceptions related to the startup culture and gave practical insights from their personal experiences of building and elevating a startup.

The day-long conclave had two other panel discussions and some of the key panelists were Shubhradeep Guha, Director, Google; Somnath Dutta, Franchise Head, Johnson & Johnson (Pharma); Sandeep Singh Arora, Vice President, Samsung; Siddharth Bindra, Managing Director, BIBA; Ester Martinez, CEO and Founder, People Matters.

ISB’s Post Graduate Programme in Management for Working Professionals (PGPpro), a Weekend Executive MBA-equivalent programme, is designed to meet career-consolidation goals of mid-career working professionals. It is first off campus programme from ISB currently being offered in Delhi, Mumbai, Bangalore, and Hyderabad. The programme allows professionals to gain deep strategy and leadership insights, specialise in either Finance or Marketing, enhance their decision-making abilities as well as strengthen managerial skills. With ISB, PGPpro helps you build your network and unleash opportunities from various sources—all this while earning a part-time MBA.