IIM-K, THE YOUNG RISK-TAKER

Early bets and new programmes have helped IIM-Kozhikode carve a niche among the biggies.

- Gina Krishnan

ESTABLISHED IN 1996 through a collaboration between Centre and state government, Indian Institute of Management, Kozhikode (IIM-K) is India's fifth IIM. Spread over 113 acres on two hillocks in Kunnamangalam area of Kozhikode in Kerala, it is among the most picturesque campuses in the country.

As a young business school after the Big Four -Ahmedabad, Bangalore, Calcutta and Lucknow, Kozhikode had to formulate a strategy to create an identity for itself. To begin with, it had a permanent faculty of only 17 professors. The rest was visiting faculty from other IIMS and industry. Diversity in faculty helped the institute offer a more holistic education and a number of firsts post-graduate programmes (PGP) in business leadership (2019), liberal studies and management (2020), and finance (2020). Its 17th doctoral Programme in Management (PhD) is full time, and residential. A PhD (Practice Track) was added in 2019 for working executives. The school offers executive MBA degrees through Interactive Learning Mode and Executive Post Graduate Programme, based out of IIM-K's satellite campus in Kochi. The first batch of 42 students in 1996 has now grown to over 1,600 across programmes.