Management is also about understanding the world

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: “Management perspective has to be wide and empathetic and it is also about understanding the world we are part of,” said author Anita Nair. She was delivering the keynote address at the launch of UST Global’s executive management programme at Park Centre in Technopark. Connecting management with the advertising industry, in which she started her career, Anita said that they were sciences that disguised themselves as art. “A management degree has so much more to offer than just being a stepping stone up the corporate ladder. The true worth of a degree lies not in whether it helps you grow in the corporate ladder or takes you into the upper echelons of a company, but how it helps you open up your mind and helps you understand the world.”The continuing education initiative unveiled by the California-based multinational company seeks to provide opportunities for management capability development to the IT workforce. The fully online programme is powered by Max Value Univ® in partnership with the Bharathiar University. The programme had a formal launch in the presence of eminent personalities like M J Xavier,  Director, IIM Ranchi and P V John, National record holder for being the most professionally qualified individual in India. The guests handed out admission tokens to the students of the inaugural batch. As an extension of the programme, several deserving students from various institutions in the State will be provided the opportunity to do MBA with sponsorship. Said Niketh Sundar, Global Head HR, “Corporations like ours can open the windows for learning and it is up to professionals to make the maximum  gain in today’s technologically advanced world.”M J Xavier said that democratisation of learning is the best way forward considering the massive population of the country and the limited learning resources available. The inaugural session was followed by a symposium on ‘Corporate Responses to Management Learning’, which was moderated by Austin P M, CEO of Max Value Univ®. Harish Parameswaran, HR Director, UST Global, endorsed the idea of online learning from a corporate standpoint and made it clear that organisations like UST Global would not be focusing on return on investment while facilitating learning programmes. On the contrary, the newly-launched initiative signifies the commitment of the organisation towards inculcating a habit of learning in each employee, he said. In the first phase, the MBA programme covers around 500 employees selected from the offshore centres of UST Global. The company promised to bear the entire expense of the programme for its employees, and also announced its long-term project to sponsor handpicked students from the economically backward sections who will be given the opportunity to earn management degrees through the same programme.