Going beyond the realms of a traditional classroom – Innovation at SP Jain

Businesses today are competent, diverse, fast-paced and curious. With the 21st century workplace going global, the demand for competent and highly trained employees is on the rise. How do business schools keep up with this demand? Today’s student needs more than just the traditional classroom. They need hands-on experience, global intelligence, and problem-solving skills. At SP Jain, this is what we aim for.

Applied Business Research (ABR) and Capstone Projects are two ventures by SP Jain where the students get to make the best of their abilities, shape autonomous projects, and profit from the guidance and help of the best in the industry. Designed to encourage students to think critically, solve challenging problems, and develop skills such as oral communication, public speaking, research skills, media literacy, teamwork, planning, self-sufficiency, and goal setting—i.e., skills that will help prepare them for global careers and shape them into being knowledgeable and culturally agile, the creative aspect of the projects help students with future planning, goal setting, postsecondary decisions, and career exploration.

These projects go above and beyond the regular classroom setting, giving the students the ability to make independent and responsible decisions. ABR and Capstone Projects take a variety of forms, where the students choose a topic or project that interests them, conduct research on the subject, apply the research into real-life scenarios, and create a final presentation demonstrating their learning acquisition or conclusions to a panel of the faculty, experts, and peers.

What do the students have to say about their experience while undertaking the Projects? Here’s a look!

ABR Projects at SP Jain –

The Applied Business Research (ABR) Project is undertaken by the Executive MBA students at SP Jain. Worth 4 credits in the curriculum, the project is done by participants within the context of their own organisations. ABR is divided into two logical stages:

• Design and Defense of Research Proposal

The First Stage, or the Design and Defense of Research Proposal, is dedicated to designing a research proposal. In this stage, the students conduct extensive secondary research. They are actively involved in literature review, which includes scanning academic papers, journals, and books as well as industry data from journals, white papers, news articles, and websites. The students build a business case using data collated; define a business problem/opportunity; and arrive at clear research objectives to meet the business challenges. It is required to defend one’s proposal to the panel of mentors from faculty and industry before commencing research.

• Conducting Research and making recommendations

The second stage is the process of conducting the research. Students begin by fine-tuning their research proposal based on the panel’s feedback. In this stage, they are required to conduct primary research (filed research), where they follow a two-pronged research process that is both qualitative and quantitative. Each student carries out in-depth analysis using various research tools and techniques to arrive at strategic recommendations with managerial implications.

On completion of the research project, students present and communicate the results to the senior management industry mentor resulting in recognition and career growth. In the past, these dissertations have helped many of our participants obtain recognition and success in their own organisations.

Capstone Projects at SP Jain –

Much like the ABR Projects for the EMBA students, the Capstone Project is a core element of the Digital Marketing &
Metrics curriculum. The creative nature of capstone projects, which are self-selected by students and based on personal interests, strengthen student motivation to learn and apply. Capstone projects typically require students to take on new responsibilities, be more self-directed, set goals, and follow through on commitments. Students work in long-term teams to execute a digital marketing strategy with real-time digital assets, measure performance, and use the feedback to monitor and improve the tactics. The capstone project module has been distinctively designed to be in complete sync with the in-class modules.

Students complete the capstone project by undertaking the following steps:

• Students, in their respective teams, pick an industry vertical and product category and set up a fictitious firm with
specific value propositions
• Using the techniques and concepts learnt in the classroom, they are expected to apply the digital marketing strategy for their companies. This can include strategies like setting up social network profiles or building a mock website/mobile application.
• Using both paid and unpaid means, student must popularise and bring visitors to the digital assets of the company.