Holistic grooming adding value for your money time and efforts. (The unique & unconventional special development aspects)

SCMLD grooms its students to bring out the best in each one of them. It has several processes which are unique and special that are not available in any academic institution of higher learning as far as we know.

Intellectual inputs - a course curriculum delivered through class sessions, case studies, seminars, assignments, book reviews and so on-are available at most of the institutes. This leads to improvements in students at the knowing level. However leadership is competency, context and execution centric. To be competent one has to be physically fit & healthy, mentally alert, emotionally stable, intuitive, creative, positive, intellectually sharp, scientific, analytical, enthusiastic and risk taking. This calls for total development of the individual. A leader is the one who has a vision, can convert it into specific missions, objectives and action programmes and through people & processes make things happen and keep them happening the way they should be. This calls for total grooming rather than teaching and testing, knowledge alone.
The two years at SCMLD can make students shed inhibitions, accept realities as they are and work effectively through teamwork and partnership to make things happen.

Holistic Health Workshop
Every batch will be put through a two / three day holistic health workshop conducted by qualified, experienced and accomplished medical practitioners who are also persons of high spiritual attainments  working towards a better society.

The 10 Day  Vipassana Camp
In the month of September/October, students will undergo an inner journey of 10 days at the Vipassana International Academy, Igatpuri to experience the true being of oneself and gain freedom from the fallacious past, illusions of the present and anxieties of the future. If one utilises these 10 days in silence with a childlike innocence, attentiveness and being non-judgemental but exploring oneself, it will be a rebirth towards enlightened leadership.

Dynamic Meditation, Art of Living, Siddha Samadhi Yoga  and Kriya Yoga
Students may be exposed to these systems as well, for one to keep the one method or technique which one likes most, to practice daily in life. Every system has its own benefits and advantages in addition to the universal benefit of being with oneself.
According to WHO “Health Is more than absence of disease”. Health is a state of optimal well-being. Optimal well-being is a concept of health that goes beyond the curing of illness to one of achieving wellness.

Talent Displays
The third Saturday of every month is for students to express themselves. Winning is not important. It is contextual. But playing 100% and performing to one’s best are more important. Seeking appreciation means one is slavish to someone else’s approval. But if one does appreciable work, appreciation is spontaneous. Manufactured appreciation is not appreciation. Therefore if one keeps expressing oneself 100% in positive activities, what one deserves will come searching for him.

Out Bounds
On the fourth Saturday of every month, students will be taken to the lap of nature to facilitate connecting to it and learning from its perfection and mysteries. ”Clean up your mirror and nature will reflect in full, for you to see. You don’t see does not mean it is not there. Probably it did not appear to you”. It is a real learning experience. Nature is ’Guru’ to all of us.

Continuous Industry Interaction
As mentioned earlier, to develop reality orientation and practical insights it is important to be nearer to the practitioners of the profession. Therefore SCMLD has the following.
•   Mini Seminars: Scheduled for the first Saturday of every month, these expose the students to professionals from different organisations with years of diverse experience and expertise.
•   Entrepreneurs Meet / CEO’s Dinner: Scheduled for 13th & 14th of January every year, it takes the students through the wisdom of entrepreneurs, to learn from successes and failures. This is also to develop an entrepreneurial perspective. Functional specialisations without fundamental business perspective will not make one sharp and wise.
•   Pre-Convocation National Seminar on leadership: Scheduled from 8.30 AM on 13th April to 5.30 PM on 14th April every year and to be managed by the junior batch working together, it gives the students an opportunity to showcase their organisational skills. Stalwarts and inspirational leaders of action reinforce that things are possible and one can chart one’s future being absolutely ethical. It is a gift to the senior students from the juniors.
• Foundation day & Functional Management Seminar: It is an industry - academic panel discussion. Scheduled for 13th & 14th of July every year, this brings around 30 - 35 industry experts from diverse fields - marketing, finance, systems, manufacturing, supply chain management, etc. - to share their experience and insights. This is another great learning opportunity offered on a platter to the students.
• HR Meet: 13th & 14th  of October every year wherein about 25-30 senior HR professionals from corporates are brought together to deliberate on human related issues in management and share their experience. This is an intellectual treat for the students. It is of great learning value.
• Ex-Students Mentoring: Through regular contact and small group activity, students will be encouraged to interact with former students (now corporate executives) of Prof. M. S. Pillai to learn from them. E-mentoring through an interactive website also is being planned.
• Workshops & Guest Sessions: This is an ongoing process. A total of 165 professionals in addition to the speakers of the 10 seminars were brought to address and interact with the students during the last 43 months.
• Executive Development Programmes : SCMLD offers unique and customised EDPs for organisations. Students will be actively involved in these for learning opportunities.
• Participation in Outside Seminars : Students will be sent to participate in seminars and conferences organised by CII, NIPM, NHRD Network and other institutions, to gain applied insights interacting with professionals. There are certain conditions to be fulfilled to get nominated.

Convocation
Scheduled from 6.15 PM to 8.30 PM on 14th of April every year, it will also be organised entirely by the junior students. This calls for trust, faith, accuracy, and extreme sense of responsibility. The last exam would have happened barely ten days before the convocation. The CGPA calculations, transparency of the process, handling queries, selecting awardees and prize winners, wording certificates, styling, presenting and organising the ceremony etc. will take the teams through the toughest challenges of maintaining accuracy, patience, perseverance, commitment, time management and all what it is to be, to be an effective and proactive executive.

Participation in Sports and Cultural Activities
Participation in events hosted by other institutions and organisations is for broadening perspectives and to learn from peers and build relationships.

Placements
This is a very important, expensive and time consuming activity. A team of students will have to work hard under the overall supervision of the director and an officer in charge, to ensure that all students seeking final placements and summer training, secure it by January every year.

Ex-Students  Association
More than 1000 of the 2500 plus ex-students of Prof. Pillai have come forward to support actively the cause of SCMLD. Lot of interactions will be organised between these ex-students and the current students.

Website Development and Updation
A student team will look after and manage this under the supervision of the director.

Management Journal & Publications
SCMLD Journal “Indian Excellence” will be a publication brought out by the students under the supervision of the director and faculty. Students will conduct research and source contents, edit, design, oversee the copyrights, publish and distribute it. This publication will feature innovative ideas, stories of achievers, processes, events and organizations of excellence to get them noticed. A few audio-visual case studies have already been completed for training / leadership development / paradigm shift.

Social and Community Work
Every student is expected to clock a minimum of 20 hours of community work approved and monitored by the institute, per trimester. This forms a two credit course and it is an essential part of learning. This is to develop responsible and responsive leadership, social sensitivity, awareness, humaneness and respect for life and the life sustaining environment. SCMLD students, staff and faculty together have taken up responsibility of maintaining the 1.5 kms stretch road passing by the SCMLD premises, clean and green. Every day between 2:00 and 2:30 pm all of us sweep the road clean.

Knowledge Centre
A knowledge centre has already been setup to act as a repository of the wisdom gained from our valued workshop faculty, seminar speakers, book reviews, guest sessions, summer project reports etc. Question banks, essay topics, presentations etc. will also be included for students’ benefit.

Involvement in Entrance Examination Process
Will expose students to the importance of trustworthiness, sense of responsibility and commitment to the organisational purpose. They will experience ’extreme transparency’ being practiced. This is to embolden them to be so in life.

Surveys
Every student has to undertake a survey (Consumer, Household, Dealer & Retailer, Lifestyle, Consumption surveys) during 16th-30th April. Survey like Discover India - Reality survey, Performing India, surveys etc. will have to be done during earlier trimesters.

Clean, Green Campus
Students will be assigned zones and areas in and around the campus, for maintaining those areas clean and green at all times, to make the campus one’s own.

Celebration of Festivals
Students can organise region and state specific festival celebrations. These expose students to the wonderful diversities of culture, tradition, taste and ethos of our country.
Fellowship dinners, lunch / hi-tea etc. will also be organised periodically to celebrate individual or collective achievements or otherwise. 60% of the expenses are by contribution.

Open House System
This system for tackling issues is an example of our efforts on continuous improvement and collective responsibility. It promotes openness, transparency, clarification and communication. It makes students assertive and expressive. It also solves issues on the spot. Nothing will be hidden from students at SCMLD. We believe ”people” make the institution and not buildings.

Hurt / Feelings Management System
Gives an opportunity to students to express their feelings / hurt, if any. It clarifies and liberates students from carrying the burden of unclarified and unverified assumptions, judgements, beliefs and conclusions. Human beings keep hurting themselves because of words, deeds, events and behaviour of others, which are not as expected. We want our students to be free from resentment and re-cycling bad memories. Most often ”one manufactures one’s own miseries”. One must throw that garbage out.  Right or wrong is not the issue. Not carrying resentment and hurt is more important. Hence this system at SCMLD.

Gift Box / CRITICISM
It is kept at the office. It is to receive suggestions and criticisms. Anyone can, drop what one wants to express, in the box. We shall use it for our improvement. The institute belongs to all of us.

Compulsory Attendance system
Attendance requirement is 100%. (10% exemption is given if ill and to deal with other unavoidable problems / emergencies). It is to make the students responsible, punctual, focussed and utilize time for the purpose of learning.

Transparency
Right from drafting of the advertisement, entrance process to merit preparation, CGPA, ECGPA, convocation, selecting students for awards and prizes and so on has students’ involvement as partners. This gives a sense of ownership, develops trust and applied insights in students besides them experiencing responsibility and the ’truth’ aspects of  managing. (See Students’ Audit Board )

Rapid and Proactive Changes
SCMLD will change curriculum and processes as and when required. This is to make the students face challenges of change and thrive in unstructured and unpredictable situations. This is also to keep re-inventing SCMLD to stay ahead and be a role model.