This ground-breaking B-school with classes taught by CXOs, MDs and MPs is redefining business education

The World Economic Forum in its recent report on ‘The Future of Jobs’ talks about ‘widespread disruption not only to business models but also to labour markets over the next five years, with enormous change, predicted in the skill sets needed to thrive in the new landscape’.

In this new normal, one such institution that is ticking all the right boxes to address the challenges in the business education landscape is the newly-established Masters' Union School of Business, a first-of-its-kind, new-age, CXO-led B-school with a sharp focus on technology, and industry-relevant faculty and collaboration.

Located in Cybercity, Gurugram, the institution count among its "Masters" pre-eminent thought leaders and industry veterans like Arun Maira, (Former Chairman, Boston Consulting Group), Mukund Rajan (Former MD, Tata Teleservices Limited, Karthik Ramanna (Director, University of Oxford), Narendra Jadhav (Member of Parliament, Rajya Sabha and Former Chief Economist, RBI), Tathagata Dasgupta (Chief Data Scientist, Viacom) and Bhaskar Chakravorti (Former Professor, Harvard Business School and Former Partner, McKinsey & Company).

A ‘master’ stroke in business education?

Masters' Union’s most ground-breaking feature, reportedly, is its unusual collection of over 21 ‘masters’ — CXOs, MDs, eminent public leaders, and even Members of Parliament, that teach their courses. The masters are individuals who are distinguished authorities or global experts in their area of occupation, and have made positive and significant contributions to the world of business and society. They are not career academics who have never stepped into a boardroom or a business office, but real practitioners who have spent years solving complex problems for the corporate world, and showing the path for others in the industry to follow.

These masters bring their unique experience to the classroom, teaching with authentic stories of successfully tackling real challenges. They also provide one-on-one mentorship to students, and run ‘shadow’ programmes, where students follow them into their original work environment and watch them in action.

Speaking about this new approach to business education, Tathagata Dasgupta, the founding master of the business school said "In medical schools, doctors teach students, practising lawyers teach in law schools, but in business schools, faculty may not have experience with hands-on leadership in the industry. That’s a gap Masters’ Union addresses by getting CXOs, MDs and business leaders to teach and train students."

A PG program that’s part bootcamp, part incubator and part internship

Masters’ Union’s flagship, 16-month intensive programme, Post Graduate Program in Technology Business Management (PGP-TBM), appears to be hands-on at its core, with live consulting projects, field tours and internships, to offer students industry-immersive learning.

The curriculum and pedagogy also aims to be immersive by incorporating consulting projects around corporate success stories for real clients. Students undergo hands-on bootcamp-style tech courses to prepare for the growing technology interface in all aspects of business. The course also gives students access to prominent business sites every quarter for first-hand exposure to various industries.

“The element that I’m most excited about is that the curriculum will be developed dynamically with inputs from leaders in business, leaders from the government, as well as leaders from the third sector,” says Karthik Ramanna, Director, University of Oxford and Former Professor, Harvard Business School.

Unique Industry Interventions: Investment Fund, Center For New Business Models and Startup School

A unique feature of the institution is its student-run fund with a corpus of Rs 5 crore that invests in real estate, capital markets etc., providing the cohort with a hands-on experience of managing a fund, under the guidance of a master.

Talking about the unique student-run venture fund Pratham Mittal, Project Director, Masters’ Union School of Business, said, “The fund will give students a real-time experience of running a mini hedge-fund and the ups and downs that accompany it.”

Masters’ Union also houses India’s foremost research centres focussed on exploring the application of novel technologies to create new business opportunities and models across four key verticals, namely Blockchain, Applied Machine Learning, Genetics and Biotech, and Agriculture and Food Innovation. The findings from these state-of-the-art centres will help create new business models and craft novel business applications of several emerging technologies, which the institution hopes will lead to business innovations in the corporate world.

Moving from job-seekers to job-givers

The institution is also keen on creating and empowering India’s next generation of entrepreneurs. Startup School, their third unique industry intervention is their academic incubator designed to facilitate new ventures from ideation all the way to fundraising; with marketing guidance, a legal and accounts clinic, a fundraising clinic and entrepreneur-in-residence (EIR) mentoring among others.

Curious to know more? Learn about this, and other features of the business school at their website, here.