A B-School for Product Leadership? Institute of Product Leadership is launching one!
There is a real shortage of qualified Product Managers and Product Leaders in India. Whenever this topic comes up for discussion, there are various reasons and explanations thrown around for why this big gap exists, but I'm glad to see that someone is finally doing something about it!
The Institute of Product Leadership is coming up with a program for technology professionals that want to grow in the area of product leadership. It'll be like a B-School, but focused entirely on technology, products and thought leadership.
"The Institute of Product Leadership was formed in conjunction with Executive Product Industry Council (EPIC) to design and deliver a program for senior product professionals to accelerate their transformation from building innovation to productizing it in the global context and that of emerging markets", says Pinkesh Shah, Director at the Institute. The program, called Executive Post Graduate Diploma in Product Leadership (EPGDPL), is designed specifically for technology professionals and delivered by industry practitioners, global senior executives, and world class faculty. The intent is to go beyond skill building and knowledge enhancement into ultimately creating an experiential learning for senior technology professionals. This is not only relevant and actionable in their current role, but ultimately accelerates their growth personally and professionally.
The program has some interesting features:
- Program designed by senior R&D leaders from high tech industry – EPIC (Executive Product Industry Council)
- 45 courses across 6 curriculum themes, delivered over weekends with 600+ face to face contact hours of in-class experiential learning
- Delivered by a blend of world class faculty with professors from MIT, Stanford, Washington as well as industry practitioners (Google, BMC, McAfee, Motorola, Sirius, Intuit)
- Special focus on soft skills (ex. cross culture communication, influence building, negotiation..)
- Each batch will have no more than 30 participants.
- Through 360 degree pre/post assessments each participant will have a personalized gap analysis and leadership development plan before the 1st day of the program
- Continuous 1:1 Executive Coaching throughout the program based on the individualized leadership development plan
- Live Industry projects, assignments sponsored by member companies
Personally, I think this is a great idea! Traditional B-Schools, which have a more generic approach to managing businesses have not been able to plug the shortage of supply of product leaders that can think about technology, products and businesses in a holistic manner. Having a structured way to think about products, about how to build and launch them is a skill that every technology entrepreneur needs in their arsenal.
This is certainly a unique program in India, and I'm curious to find out more about it. "India’s first business school that focuses on Product Leadership", as they're positioning themselves, is conducting an info session on the 23rd of June in Bangalore. If you're a technology professional interested in this area, you should definitely check this out!
