1. Please help us with a brief introduction about you, your institution and your latest work or achievements.
Dr. Vandana Sonwaney is a commerce graduate with an MBA in Marketing and Ph.D. in Management. She was a gold medalist at 12th and graduation level. After 9 years of corporate experience in Major FMCG and services industries in the areas of Marketing Operations, Brand Management etc, she braved into the teaching field with the objective of contributing to research and application oriented learning systems. Now with over 19 years in teaching, research, training and consultancy, she is currently working as Director at Symbiosis Institute of Operations management (SIOM). Her exemplary work in curriculum development and competency requirements of corporate with respect to Operations management has contributed in shaping SIOM. Dr. Vandana is also registered Ph.D. guide in the area of Management. She has written and presented research papers at various National and international conferences. She has been a Member of Academic council, Board of Examinations at Symbiosis International University (SIU). She was felicitated with the Distinguished Service award by AIMS International. She was awarded the Best Professor in Marketing Management by the by the 2nd Asias Best B- School Award in the year 2011. She is continuously involved in developing innovative curriculum and pedagogy to make learning amongst students more enjoyable and competence oriented.
About SIOM:
The SIOM Operations Management specialization empowers each engineer with sharp engineering and scientific capabilities along with smart business management disciplines. The students are dressed to tackle planning, development, and implementation tribulations that their organization might confront. The curriculum deals with topics such as supply chain management, project management, technology & innovation management, modeling dynamic systems and quality management. SIOM is an Institute that is dedicated to the creation of operation managers who are proficient at improving an organizations operational performance by minimizing defects in the manufacturing and service-related processes. Inspired by the motto of the institution, engineers who step out of the SIOM portals and stride into the corporate world, prove to be prized assets for modern day organizations.The curriculum is entwined with unique specialized programs to train students holistically in the Operations Excellence towards Process specialists.
2. What is your opinion on whether a student should be given a flavor of local business environment and what is the role of B-schools in creating that local flavor?
Absolutely ! Our own country has a lot to teach us. The demographic spread, cultural diversity, geography oriented business acumen, lifestyle and social stratification, all offer interesting learning opportunities. Be it Marketing, Finance, HR, IT or operations, India itself offers great scenarios for study. A simple case study of Dabbawalas will enlighten students to operations excellence tools. The gamut of Kumbhmela activities is nowhere found.
Located in a town of Nashik (a satellite city, 180 kms off Mumbai) a prestigious institute like SIOM reaps the benefits of automotive & electronic industries, agriculture, tourism and spirituality. This grooms the students in holistic way
3. How is your institute helping rural students to come forward to have better exposure to various management practices and go back to rural area in contributing to bring in development in the rural areas?
SIOM admits students through the all India entrance test (SNAP) and GPI on merit basis. No specific thrust is laid on attracting rural students. But while on campus, SIOM student involve themselves in lot of rural projects of social importance which connect them back to the rural India. The projects have fostered rural youth towards better employment, soft skills and vocations.
4. What is your expectation from the industry?
I expect that the industry will spare time and spend efforts on students by way of Guest lectures, workshops in their areas of expertise and internships. Industry can also support Faculty for live case study writing, research projects and encourage sabbaticals in companies. A step forward would also mean industry stalwarts being seen as members on the Board of studies, advisory council of institutes and universities. Joint programmes which will balance the conceptual and applied skills sets are the need of the hour.
5. What have been constant challenges to keep the curriculum up to dates in the changing Indian business environment?
Updating curriculum is the only way to excel in todays professional education. Not just for Indian scenarios but towards the world views too. Industry has been very vocal about its expectations. Challenge is to incorporate these into the curriculum. Yet B schools who fail to do it will not sustain. Premier Private Universities have excelled only because they have great academic flexibility an outcome centric approach to curriculum. Constant interaction with industry and extensive faculty search is required
6. How can we keep the pace up with technological advancements?
ICT adoption impacts the students learning experience for sure. Faculties need to keep abreast of such suitable technologies. Faculty development programmes, staff trainings on latest developments and making available learning resources will facilitate. Institute promoters also need to increase the ICT spent.
7. Increasing social media, internet, intranet, and mobile communication has created much impact on employees. Do you think this has facilitated the students too?
The speed of communication has surely accelerated. Feedback, information flow is instantaneous. Education pedagogies are changing to better. The challenge is to keep pace with such technologies without losing essence of personal touch with students
8. What is your management mantra?
Leadership is getting people to do what you want because they want to with fierce resolve and complete humility
9. Any mode of contact or link.
[email protected]
Dr. Vandana Sonwaney is a commerce graduate with an MBA in Marketing and Ph.D. in Management. She was a gold medalist at 12th and graduation level. After 9 years of corporate experience in Major FMCG and services industries in the areas of Marketing Operations, Brand Management etc, she braved into the teaching field with the objective of contributing to research and application oriented learning systems. Now with over 19 years in teaching, research, training and consultancy, she is currently working as Director at Symbiosis Institute of Operations management (SIOM). Her exemplary work in curriculum development and competency requirements of corporate with respect to Operations management has contributed in shaping SIOM. Dr. Vandana is also registered Ph.D. guide in the area of Management. She has written and presented research papers at various National and international conferences. She has been a Member of Academic council, Board of Examinations at Symbiosis International University (SIU). She was felicitated with the Distinguished Service award by AIMS International. She was awarded the Best Professor in Marketing Management by the by the 2nd Asias Best B- School Award in the year 2011. She is continuously involved in developing innovative curriculum and pedagogy to make learning amongst students more enjoyable and competence oriented.
About SIOM:
The SIOM Operations Management specialization empowers each engineer with sharp engineering and scientific capabilities along with smart business management disciplines. The students are dressed to tackle planning, development, and implementation tribulations that their organization might confront. The curriculum deals with topics such as supply chain management, project management, technology & innovation management, modeling dynamic systems and quality management. SIOM is an Institute that is dedicated to the creation of operation managers who are proficient at improving an organizations operational performance by minimizing defects in the manufacturing and service-related processes. Inspired by the motto of the institution, engineers who step out of the SIOM portals and stride into the corporate world, prove to be prized assets for modern day organizations.The curriculum is entwined with unique specialized programs to train students holistically in the Operations Excellence towards Process specialists.
2. What is your opinion on whether a student should be given a flavor of local business environment and what is the role of B-schools in creating that local flavor?
Absolutely ! Our own country has a lot to teach us. The demographic spread, cultural diversity, geography oriented business acumen, lifestyle and social stratification, all offer interesting learning opportunities. Be it Marketing, Finance, HR, IT or operations, India itself offers great scenarios for study. A simple case study of Dabbawalas will enlighten students to operations excellence tools. The gamut of Kumbhmela activities is nowhere found.
Located in a town of Nashik (a satellite city, 180 kms off Mumbai) a prestigious institute like SIOM reaps the benefits of automotive & electronic industries, agriculture, tourism and spirituality. This grooms the students in holistic way
3. How is your institute helping rural students to come forward to have better exposure to various management practices and go back to rural area in contributing to bring in development in the rural areas?
SIOM admits students through the all India entrance test (SNAP) and GPI on merit basis. No specific thrust is laid on attracting rural students. But while on campus, SIOM student involve themselves in lot of rural projects of social importance which connect them back to the rural India. The projects have fostered rural youth towards better employment, soft skills and vocations.
4. What is your expectation from the industry?
I expect that the industry will spare time and spend efforts on students by way of Guest lectures, workshops in their areas of expertise and internships. Industry can also support Faculty for live case study writing, research projects and encourage sabbaticals in companies. A step forward would also mean industry stalwarts being seen as members on the Board of studies, advisory council of institutes and universities. Joint programmes which will balance the conceptual and applied skills sets are the need of the hour.
5. What have been constant challenges to keep the curriculum up to dates in the changing Indian business environment?
Updating curriculum is the only way to excel in todays professional education. Not just for Indian scenarios but towards the world views too. Industry has been very vocal about its expectations. Challenge is to incorporate these into the curriculum. Yet B schools who fail to do it will not sustain. Premier Private Universities have excelled only because they have great academic flexibility an outcome centric approach to curriculum. Constant interaction with industry and extensive faculty search is required
6. How can we keep the pace up with technological advancements?
ICT adoption impacts the students learning experience for sure. Faculties need to keep abreast of such suitable technologies. Faculty development programmes, staff trainings on latest developments and making available learning resources will facilitate. Institute promoters also need to increase the ICT spent.
7. Increasing social media, internet, intranet, and mobile communication has created much impact on employees. Do you think this has facilitated the students too?
The speed of communication has surely accelerated. Feedback, information flow is instantaneous. Education pedagogies are changing to better. The challenge is to keep pace with such technologies without losing essence of personal touch with students
8. What is your management mantra?
Leadership is getting people to do what you want because they want to with fierce resolve and complete humility
9. Any mode of contact or link.
[email protected]