IIM-Sambalpur launches course on ‘experiential innovation’

The Indian Institute of Management (IIM) Sambalpur, which is among the third generation IIMs, has introduced a nine-month course on ‘experiential innovation’ for first-year students. The objective is to make students learn from experience rather than books.

“We do not have the infrastructure or an alumni-base that is as big as the older IIMs. However, we can create a new structure and that is what we are working on,” said Mahadeo Jaiswal, Director, IIM-Sambalpur.

In the first three months of the course, students will be taught design thinking. They will then pick up a project focused on issues affecting local people in education and healthcare. The students will have to implement what they have learnt and see its impact.

“For managerial education, experiential learning is important. End of the day, whatever organisation one is working in, the two things that one is required to do is either create a business or solve a problem. This course will help them in achieving these two things,” Jaiswal added.

Currently, the institute is running from a temporary place in the Sambalpur University. “It will take two years to complete the construction of the permanent campus and the July 2022 session will start from there,” said Jaiswal. IIM-Sambalpur is also expanding its batch size to 180 from 120 currently. The seats will be added from the batch of 2020.