The Indian School of Business (ISB), with campuses in Hyderabad and Mohali, launched its first ‘hybrid’ model executive education programme – ISB Biocon Certificate Programme in Business Analytics (CBA) - with the aim of creating the next generation of data management scientists. Supporting the ISB in this endeavour is Biocon Foundation which has extended full funding support towards developing and nurturing this programme.

Conceptualized and developed by ISB, CBA has inputs from some of the best minds from global academia, and business leaders from companies such as BA Continuum India (Bank of America), Cognizant Technology Solutions, Hewlett-Packard, IBM, MuSigma, Shoppers Stop, Everyday Health Inc and Tech Mahindra.

Announcing the launch of CBA, Deepak Chandra, Deputy Dean, ISB said, “There is an explosion in the data being generated in practically every sphere of business. With greater adoption of digital technologies, this is bound to grow exponentially. However, there is a dearth of available talent to help organizations make sense of this data deluge. Responding to this need, the ISB has introduced the ISB Biocon Certificate Programme in Business Analytics to help create professionals who can help their organisations derive value with the power of analytics. I am thankful to Biocon Foundation for supporting our efforts.”

Commenting on this development, Kiran Mazumdar Shaw, promoter Biocon Foundation, said: “I think this course will develop high quality Business Analytics, which will be a great value add to the industry. Biocon Foundation is pleased to offer financial support to ISB for this course as it furthers Foundation’s focus on improving the quality of Education. I believe this course will address some of the growing needs of the industry across sectors.”

CBA addresses the learning needs of both, professionals already working in the area of analytics, as well as for those who aim to initiate a career in this growing field. The course provides participants with the required academic rigour combined with practical relevance to give them a competitive edge. The courses and the final project are designed around the real-world integration of business disciplines.

Programme Highlights

• One-year, part-time programme with 430 contact hours
• Hybrid format with 66 % of the learning is classroom based and 34 % is technology-assisted
• Capstone projects  to help participants to apply their learning at their respective workplace simultaneously as they learn, that will benefit both the participant and the organisation
• Faculty from India and abroad
• Special module on Business Analysis & Predictive modeling by SAS.

During the course, participants will be required to stay on campus for a 5-day schedule of classroom learning every alternate month for a span of 12 months. The schedule will include classroom learning, apart from guest industryspeakers, workshops and group projects. The rest of the programme will be delivered online.

Inaugural Class Profile

The programme has already generated significant interest in the market with the school receiving about a thousand applications from around the country. The first class comprising 104 students commenced on September 14, 2013 at the ISB’s Hyderabad campus. Here is a snapshot of the class:

• Industries represented (indicative) - IT, Healthcare and Pharma, Finance, Manufacturing, Telecom, Defence, etc.
• Companies represented (indicative) - Accenture, Merck, Dr Reddy Labs, Amazon, Cognizant, ICICI Bank, Mckinsey, Microsoft, TCS, Tata Motors, Tech Mahindra, Vodafone, etc.
• Average age - 31 years
• Women participants - 15 %