Every year the 20-year-old SIES College of Management Studies (SIESCOMS), located in Nerul - a residential and commercial node of the city of Mumbai, becomes a battle ground of massive knowledge exchange between students and professionals. Hence, "˜Virtualities,' the management fest of SIESCOMS does not fall into the category of ordinary management events that take place across the country. "˜Virtualities' is designed to give students an opportunity to showcase their talents and skills acquired in various disciplines and it also provides them a forum to share ideas with the members of the industry. Every year, the festival offers a platform for over 200 corporate speakers to impart their knowledge and expertise to young management students. While "˜Virtualities' completes its 15th successful edition in 2016, SIESCOMS has been scripting a unique way of preparing the students to face the ultimate challenges of ever changing industrial demands through a world class application-driven curriculum with combination of classical and innovative pedagogy. "œThe lack of demand for MBA education and the absence of good jobs are some of the important pain points of MBA education in the country. This of course is accentuated by absence of relevant curriculum coupled with good faculty members. The answer is innovation on a constant basis," says Dr. A. K. Sen Gupta, Mentor, SIESCOM. Indeed, that is what SIESCOMS has been attempting: to create an institute with a difference and a view to be known as one of the innovative business schools always doing something new and creative, either in product or process. The institute has been doing so and the result has been obvious - SIESCOMS has always been the top of mind recall for both students and corporate, as a cherished business school: an institute that creates Indian managers-leaders with global outlook. To maintain the quality of education, the institute has taken several new initiatives like International Accreditation, introduction of skill-linked immersion program (SLIP), Global Immersion Program, leadership trait development program (LTDP). SIESCOMS believes in a differentiating strategy so as to stand out from other B-schools. One such strategy is the Leadership Trait Development Program (LTDP) aimed at developing leadership qualities through a structured intervention. "œOur objective is to develop leaders, not mere managers, who can take control of and lead business organizations in turbulent times. Hence, several specific initiatives have been taken here to develop certain definitive competencies among students," says Dr. Sen Gupta. While most of the MBA programs today are focusing more on knowing rather than doing, how to integrate skills with education has been one of the biggest challenges before a higher educational institution, more particularly a business school. To tackle this problem on a holistic basis, the institute has come out with a specific approach known as Skill Linked Immersion Project (SLIP) during which time the student only works on developing a particular skill. Divided into two parts, SLIP focuses on generic skills that are needed for any manager irrespective of specialization and specific skills, which are functional and domain specific. Offering immense support to SIESCOMS management to come up with innovative teaching methodologies are the highly experienced faculty members who bring 9-10 years of average teaching experience along with good amount of experience working with the industries. The blend of academic and industrial experience of faculty members has been a great help for students who want to undertake industry projects. "œWe are involved in a good number of industry projects undertaken by the students under the guidance of faculty or faculty themselves. These are through processes known as idea research, summer internship, live projects, capstoneprojects and consultancy assignments," claims Dr. Sen Gupta. The institute has signed MoUs with the following organizations in the area of Academic Delivery, Projects, Internship and Placements. Some such MOUs signed in recent times include Reliance Jio, AISEC, Pragmatix, Nucsoft, Newgen Software and TCS. Today, SIESCOMS provides 100 percent placement for eligible candidates with salaries ranging from Rs. 6.8 to Rs. 17.5 LPA, which can be considered as an extraordinary performance from a management college as the country is witnessing a massive skill shortage among its B-School graduates. However, SIESCOMS does not limit its training to produce domestic leaders for the country. While the institute is going global with it's recently launched Global Immersion Program (GIP) to expose students to foreign culture, language and economic environment, Dr. Sen Gupta concludes, "œSIECOMS aims to touch the lives of each student and make it different through the very strong value system which flows right from the top management till the front end office bearers. In the years to come, we will continue our good work that focuses on industry interactions, international collaborations, innovation, entrepreneurship and many more."