Centre for Excellence in Retail Management at Great Lakes Institute of Management launches First of its Kind Executive Program in Retail Management

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                             

Centre for Excellence in Retail Management at Great Lakes Institute of Management launches First of its Kind Executive Program in Retail Management
-        The Centre for Excellence in Retail Management aims to help retail organizations to achieve growth and profit targets

Mumbai, April 23, 2014: Centre for Excellence in Retail Management at Great Lakes Institute of Management, one of the leading B Schools in India has launched a first of its kind two-year Post Graduate Executive Program in Retail Management (PGXP–RM) . The program has been developed in close consultation with leading retailers and academics from India& beyond, and will be taught at Mumbai and Chennai.

The program has an international pedigree and is evolved from similar such best programs from around the world and will be led by Dr Nitin Sanghavi, professor of Retail Marketing and Strategy at Manchester Business School, and founder and director of MBS Retail Center,one of the world’s largest specialist Retail executive education providers.

The 2 year PGXP-RM program will not only cover the basic building blocks of a good post graduate executive program with retail relevance, as and where appropriate, but will focus exclusively in the second year on retailing including key functions, agents of change as well as emerging national/international trends with live projects and relevant case-studies.

Great Lakes Institute of management launched Centre for Excellence in Retail Management earlier this year and shall start the first batch of PGXP-RM starting August 2014. Top retail companies like Trent, Titan, Shoppers Stop, Vishal, Hypercity etc., are forerunners to show interest in nominating their Mid& Senior level managers for this program.

Prof Bala V. Balachandran, Founder and Dean, Great Lakes Institute of Management said, “The PGXP – RM program being offered by the Center for Excellence in Retail Management will provide world class practices, exchange of ideas, solutions to industry problems by training middle/senior level managers.”


Addressing the media, Dr. Nitin Sanghavi, Director of Center for Excellence in Retail Management at Great Lakes Institute of Management said, “India has one of the highest numbers of retail outlets in the world accounting for over US$ 500 billion in spend and employing about 12 mn people. The growth in the retail/retail related sectors& Family owned businesses will result in demand for quality retail professionals. The PGXP-RM program is designed to equip middle/senior level managers to enhance their skill and empower them to apply the learning into workplace in a seamless manner& help achieve organization growth and profit targets going forward.”

“The program is designed with a unique engagement framework keeping in mind the real time market needs of the retail industry. The objective is to create a learning environment which develops management competencies and prepares them to take leadership position in retail organizations.” added Dr. Sanghavi.

Commenting on the need for Retail Management course, Mr. Kumar Rajagopalan, CEO, RAI said, “With changing needs in the consumer demands in India, companies today are launching new products to lure consumers. As the business grows there is a need for skilled and potential talent at a higher level for giving strategic inputs and leading the brand. An executive program like this will be an edge to the industry as there is a dearth of right talent and hiring industry trained talent will be a boon to the industry. A platform like this will nurture and give confidence to the Mid/Senior level managers and contribute in the overall growth of the retail industry.”

Launch of PGXP-RM in association with RAI witnessed the presence eminent personalities from the retail industry like CEO and MD of Shoppers Stop, Govind Shrikhande, Mr. Neel Raheja, Mr. Kumar Rajagopalan, CEO, RAI, Mr. Sanjay Rastogi, Head of Corporate HR, Trent Ltd.  etc.

PGXP-RM aims to helping leaders and managers to identify, understand, assess and leverage the fast changing dynamics of Indian retailing and consumers to their advantage. It will help organizations to have the management team, which is capable and knowledgeable to not only lead the change but also be able to create business opportunities both nationally and internationally.

Currently Great Lakes offers programs in various segments exclusively for corporate like program in Management, Working Professionals Management, and Energy Management, through its various centers such as Kotler Srinivasan Center for Research in Marketing, Yale Great Lakes Center for Management Research, Union Bank Center for Banking Excellence, Center for Excellence in Technopreneurship (CET) and Centre For Excellence In Business Analytics & Business Intelligence

About Centre for Excellence in Retail Management
The centre for excellence is to provide best world class practices and to facilitate research, exchange of ideas, solutions to industry problems and offer guidance to leaders and managers as well as key policy makers. The aim of the center is to help organizations' leaders and managers as well as policy makers to identify, understand, assess, and leverage the changingdynamics of Indian retailing and consumers to their advantage. It will help organizations to have a management team, which is prepared and knowledgeable to not only lead the change but also be able to create & leverage business/ commercial opportunities both nationally and internationally.
About Great Lakes Institute of Management
Great Lakes Institute of Management is a leading B-school in India founded in 2004 by Prof. Bala V. Balachandran J.L. Kellogg Distinguished Professor of Accounting and Information Management Northwestern University, USA. The campus has been built on sprawling 27.5 acres and is LEED Platinum rated .The institute has academic alliances with Stuart Graduate School of Business USA, Yale University USA., Nanyang Technical University, Singapore and Bordeaux University to name a few. In a short span of 10 years since inception, it is ranked in the Top 10 B Schools of India in 2013 (Outlook & Business Today)