With the focus on entrepreneurship , NHRD honors WeSchool for its flagship program ‘Global Citizen Leader’ at its recent  5^th – HR Showcase 2016 in Bengaluru

The NHRD HR Showcase, a signature event of the NHRD Bangalore Chapter, is shaped to bolster the enduring spirit of the HR practices in the true sense of the word. It is a platform to present HR excellence, spanning a range of unique sensibilities, from an intellectual re-imagining of concepts and cultures to an intuitive adaptability for significant business impact.

This 5^th – HR Showcase ,a two day national level expo held at the Palace grounds, Bengaluru,  honored  the thinkers and doers, the barrier breakers, bridge builders, and  radiating forces of change by bringing them under the limelight  in areas like  Corporate HR Best Practices ,HR Research Best Papers , Innovation in Business Schools Best Practices ,Corporate CSR Best Practices  and Best HR StartUp during the grand finale recently . WeSchool with campuses in Mumbai and Bengaluru won the top honor for its ‘Best Innovation In Business School Practices ‘ by  showcasing its flagship program; Global Citizen Leader (GCL).The honor in the form of  a trophy and cash prize of Rs One lakh was received by Prof Dr Madhavi Lokhande, Dean, Prof Dr Anil Rao, Senior Dean & Vice President-Strategy & Branding, WeSchool (Bengaluru) and their  team mates at the hands of Mr Raj Narayan ,Sr VP & Chief of HR ,Titan company Limited, amongst loud cheer and applause.

“Global Citizen Leader program at WeSchool is a 4 month long project to engage students in the process of developing a socially relevant and impactful enterprise and to help students to lead themselves, work effectively with others to enact creative and conscientious social change”, said Prof Dr Madhavi Lokhande, Dean, WeSchool (Bengaluru Campus) after receiving the award. The GCL program conducted in collaboration with USA based, Center for Creative Leadership (CCL), under their “Leadership Beyond Boundaries” initiative had the young students  across programs like PGDM -Ebiz, Business Design etc at WeSchool working on various challenges shared by corporates, government bodies, associations that took them through the learning journey of stakeholder mapping, gathering observations and insights, prototyping and finally arriving at an offering that is not only commercially feasible but extremely useful to all  the stakeholders. A six -month program, delivered as part of the management program, GCL engages students in Live projects in the Social impact and Business impact zone.

The aim of the program is to develop young leaders and finding innovative solutions that make a difference to the society and business. The unique aspect of this initiative is that it involves real-time stakeholders, designing solutions, prototyping them and testing it for feasibility and sustenance. The entire project works with student teams and faculty mentors. The program has over the last 5 years, seen 1400 students working on 220 projects. They work   on various challenges shared by corporates, government bodies, associations that took them through the learning journey of stakeholder mapping, gathering observations and insights, prototyping and finally arriving at an offering that is not only commercially feasible but extremely useful to all the stakeholders.

Out of the 22 entries received by   NHRD   for   Innovation Practices From B-schools, showcasing Collaboration with implementation partners, Contribution beyond funding, corporate engagement, student engagement, curriculum design, faculty engagement/development etc, 9  were shortlisted and given the opportunity to showcase their best innovation practice at NHRD conference. The Evaluation by eminent jury members Prof Dr William W Kooser Associate Dean for Global Outreach at the University of Chicago Booth School of Business and  Ms. Rupande Padaki, Director,  P & P Group was based on: Current scale of program , Impact inside/outside the Institution ,Availability of measurable indicators, Long-term sustainability of program and  Future Scalability /Reliability .

While congratulating the faculty and students on receiving the honor, Prof Dr Uday Salunkhe, Group Director, WeSchool said, “With the  convergence of design thinking, technology and empathy, supported by world class faculty, result oriented teaching techniques and experiential learning ,we have always strived hard  to develop an ecosystem  to  nurture  the  futuristic glocal leaders to  lead India in its growth story .With the collaboration with the  Center for Creative Leadership (CCL), our aim is to mentor the citizen leaders that possess a heightened sense of empathy and responsibility, are  driven to work with passion  to use their talents for the hundreds of millions in India whose lives are a struggle, and are instrumental in creating a win-win situation for all stakeholders in spite of a turbulent socio-economic environment.This endeavor not only changed their lenses but also tested their ability to accept failure and turn it into opportunities for higher degrees of success. “