This document summarizes findings from a study conducted by students at IMT Nagpur to understand perceptions of their brand and identify opportunities for improvement. The study involved interviews with aspirants, current students, and alumni. Key findings include that aspirants were not fully aware of IMT Nagpur or saw it as lower quality than other options due to its large class size, lower placement salaries than competitors, and location in a tier 2 city. Current students chose it due to affordable cost but expect high returns. Alumni felt it provided a solid foundation but that reducing class size and attracting more experienced students could strengthen the brand. The group recommends IMT Nagpur focus on refining their admission process, diversifying students and recruiters, and enhancing their reputation
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Brand Idea -IMT Ngp
1. Brand Idea- IMT Nagpur
Building People Who Build Business
Group Members: Sec C
1. Gopal P- 2015143
2. KaushikG- 2015149
3. Karna Malde-2015148
4. Kumari Rashmi-2015151
5. Debjyoti Saha- 2015139
6. Rohit Raj- 2015173
2. Brand Idea- IMT Nagpur
Building People Who Build Business
Objectives:
How the brand of IMT is viewed in the world of business?
Why do B school aspirants consider IMT Nagpur?
What influence IMT Nagpur has had on its alumni?
How can we position IMT Nagpur better?
Method:
A study was undertaken among the student community
Student community were divided into 4 groups:
Aspirants who did not consider IMT Nagpur
Aspirants who considered IMT Nagpur but did not join
Existing students of IMT Nagpur
Alumni of IMT Nagpur
About IMT Nagpur:
Institute of Management Technology, Nagpur was established in 2004 under the aegis of the
IMT brand which is the brainchild of late Mr. Mahendra Nath, an industrialist and an
educational reformist. It is a premier business school which stands for its vision to create
socially responsible business leaders.
The current position of the institute:
IMT Nagpur, despite being a decade old business school, is currently placed only among the
tier 2 institutes. Though IMT as a brand is well established, both aspirants and the
corporates dont sound confident in associating themselves with the IMT Nagpur brand.
The case study will go on to explore the whys of its current position and suggests means to
position itself better.
Findings from the aspirant community:
A study was conducted among two categories of B school aspirants: those who did not
consider the institute at all and those who did consider but declined to take up the
admission. Few common questions like:
3. a) Why did you not apply to IMT Nagpur?
b) Which other institutes did you prefer over IMT Nagpur?
c) Reasons for declining the admission?
From what could be gathered through student forums like pagaulguy.com and other social
media websites, the aspirants who had excellent scores in the competitive exams felt the
institute could not cater to their needs and demands; placements, peer learning and
exposure for instance. Few of those who cleared the cut off scores of the institute werent
aware that the institute exists. Many could relate IMT brand only with the Ghaziabad
campus as opposed to the Nagpur one.
Besides these, factors like return on investment was perceived to be low as the institute
charges close to 11 lakhs while the average package offered was hovering around 6.5 lakhs
per annum. When this figure is compared to institutes like KJ Somaiya (Mumbai) which
charges a nominal fee of 10 lakhs but offers an average package of 8.25 lakhs per annum.
Even Welingkar Institute of Management charges lesser fee and offers better package than
IMT Nagpur.
As the institutes cut off score is lower than many of its competitors, aspirants believe that
the peer group that they will find inside the campus will not be intellectually competitive
enough for an enriched learning experience. Also the huge batch size which of 360 plus
students acts as a major deterrent to an institute of this stature.
The study also reveals that IMT Nagpur is based in a tier 2 city which does not enjoy similar
sophistication as that of a metropolitan city in terms of connectivity and industrial exposure.
Moreover the aspirants who did get a call for admission from IMT Nagpur declined it as they
heard that the institute though offering a general PGDM program is known more for its
marketing specialisation and people who want to pursue a career in finance or human
resources did not find enough career prospects here.
Opinions of the current students:
In order to get a clear picture as to what IMT Nagpurs brand means to its student
community, about 50 students within the campus were interviewed.
a) Why MBA?
b) Why IMT Nagpur?
c) Other options that they overlooked?
d) Their expectation from IMT Nagpur?
were some of the questions posed to the students.
Their responses were summarised as better career growth, better job perspective, financial
independence, aspiring to become entrepreneurs and last but least a holistic development.
4. IMT Nagpur appealed to these students for reasons as high qualified faculty, state of the art
infrastructure and few even revealed that they had no better options to choose from. Most
important piece of fact was the institutes they overlooked or compromised were BIMTECH
Noida as it was expensive, XISS Ranchi due to its location and XIME Bangalore for its culture.
In the two years the student community invests in this institute it expects a good return on
investment in the form of placements. Students also want to expand their networking
among the professional circles through better corporate exposure. They also expect an
overall skill development to happen in the time they are in the campus.
Words of wisdom from the alumni:
Alumni are the real asset or the testimony that speak of the true brand value of the college
to the outside world. These are the people who are currently in the corporate world as a
result of their two years of hard work in their respective B schools.
By reaching out to 20 alumni from diverse backgrounds chosen at random, it is inferred that
the most important gains of the alumni are in the form of solid academic foundation, time
management through plethora of activities and development of contacts.
The alumni also revealed that the cultural diaspora found within the IMT campus was a
great value addition.
All that said, the pass outs gave invaluable inputs on how the college can improve itself to
be among the elite club of B schools. They feel the fee is a bit on the higher side and should
be thoughtfully regulated to do justice to the services it offers.
A serious consideration on the sizing down of the batch strength and employing ways to
attract quality candidates should be taken up on priority by the management.
Strategies to improve the brand positioning:
It is evident from the study that IMT Nagpur as a brand has a huge room for improvement in
the arena in which it is operating- among aspirants and corporates.
Of all the problems, the first to be addressed would be the selection procedure that the
institute follows. It isnt a stand-alone process to filter students specifically for IMT Nagpur
rather is a combined process for all the campuses of IMT (Ghaziabad, Dubai, Nagpur and
Hyderabad). This process results in all the top talent to be absorbed by Ghaziabad campus
as it has a higher cut off score.
IMT Nagpur also has to reduce the margin of its cut off score which currently is a mammoth
30 percentile range in order to refine the quality of students who are chosen for the PGDM
program.
5. Another critical factor that determines the brand image of an institute is the diversity of
student profiles found in that campus. Whereas in IMT Nagpur, the ratio of freshers to
students with work experience looks imbalanced- 7:3. As successful B schools in the top
league emphasize more on having experienced candidates in their program, IMT Nagpur too
has to ensure the same for value addition purposes.
The list of recruiters who visit the campus seem to be concentrated on the marketing field.
Since the PGDM program focuses on all major specialisations equally, the management has
to take efforts to invite recruiters from various industry segments and for different job
profiles.