IPMI offers the professional way to an MBA
IPMI offers the professional way to an MBA
The 40 students leaned keenly over their desks at the Indonesian Institute for Management Development (IPMI) business school and listened to Roy Budidharma talk about his experience as national sales manager for DHL and as a marketing director for Citibank.
It was the first time that Roy had lectured as a guest at the school in Kalibata, South Jakarta, where he had graduated with a Masters of Business Administration (MBA) and a nationally accredited Magister Manajemen degree.
Roy said last week that the degrees had helped him gain his job at Citibank, which was looking for a person with a "masters degree with a global perspective".
"The case discussion helped me broaden my mind and how we look at things," he said, referring to the Harvard Case Study method which is the backbone of the school's curriculum.
"Strategic planning, that helped me to broaden my horizons because it involved a lot of international companies."
Many executives like Roy follow IPMI's Executive Weekend program to gain an MBA in two years without disrupting their careers.
They enroll at IPMI business school to broaden their horizons, improve their careers and gain an internationally recognized MBA from Australia's Monash Mt. Eliza Business School.
Some students, like Geodi Naim, attend the school full-time. Geodi has taken a year's unpaid leave from a French petroleum company to gain an MBA within a year.
He said he had joined IPMI's program because he wanted to switch to another department in his company without having to travel overseas to gain an internationally recognized MBA.
"Rather than travel to Australia, I stay here and I get everything I need, including the language," Geodi said.
"My background is in geophysics. I have been working for four years and I want to broaden my view, especially to anticipate globalization."
Anticipating the effects of free trade on Indonesian business is the main aim of the small, exclusive school which was established in 1984.
Dr. Wagiono Ismangil, the school's executive director and a professor of economics at University of Indonesia, said IPMI aimed to train world-class managers.
"IPMI is positioning itself to develop managers who are prepared to deal with globalization problems.
"IPMI graduates have to be equipped with the tools necessary to recognize the issues and formulate opinions or strategies concerning those issues," Dr. Wagiono said.
"IPMI positions itself to develop managers who are prepared to deal with the globalization problems.
"And for that reason, we use the Harvard Case Study method as a means of teaching. The case study approach will put the students in an active learning situation. He or she is then learning during their time here at IPMI through experiencing business problems and their solutions.
"The globalization challenge in terms of quality teaching is already here," Dr. Wagiono said.
IPMI's discussions and text books are in English. The school uses English as a teaching medium to ensure that its graduates can communicate well in boardrooms all over the world.
The school emphasizes class participation. Presentations and other class participation make up about 40 percent of student assessment, with exams and assignments making up about 60 percent.
The MBA program includes units on financial and management accounting, organizational behavior, managerial communication, economics, international finance, management information systems, international marketing, comparative management, production and operations management and corporate environmental management.
One unique feature of the program is business simulation, which is a computerized business game in which students are asked to apply what they have learned by managing a simulated corporation.
The school's campus in Jl. Rawajati Timur has the best facilities available for business students.
Students can communicate easily with lecturers in the school's two theaters, which each seat about 60 students.
Twenty-four small discussion rooms are also open from 8 a.m. to 10 p.m. for students to work and discuss their group assignments. Each room has a computer.
The school's local faculty staff have studied in some of the world's best universities and have extensive business experience.
Visiting professors come from the University of Washington, Darden Graduate School of Management-University of Virginia, University of Santa Clara and from Monash Mt. Eliza Business School. IPMI also invites leading business professionals to act as guest lecturers.
One of the visiting lecturers, Professor James Moulder of Monash Mt. Eliza Business School, said companies were going to have to start recruiting people who were better managers because of the pressures of international free trade.
"There is a very strong worldwide trend towards competition because trade barriers are being reduced or in many cases abolished," Professor Moulder said.
"They are just going to have to be better managers, it's as simple as that.
"One of IPMI's strengths is that it has a solid relationship with the Monash Mt. Eliza Business School, which consistently ranks in the top 20 business schools in the Asia-Pacific region," he said.
The Monash Mt. Eliza Business School has a campus in Hong Kong and Fiji and three in China
Both Professor Moulder and Dr. Wagiono believe that education should not be limited by national barriers.
Dr. Wagiono said, "My vision for IPMI is that it will become a regional institution ... to help people develop their awareness of the business culture here.
"Last year, we had one student from Sweden and one from India," Dr. Wagiono said.
Professor Moulder has big plans for regional education and is especially interested in "scenarios for the 21st century and how this will impact on business".
Professor Moulder, who is at IPMI for three months to lecture on business ethics and set up a distance-learning, multimedia course, said he was impressed by IPMI students.
"They have an enormous commitment to the idea of being professionals in their area of management," he said. "They want to be good."
The average full-time student at IPMI is 29 years old with five years work experience in junior management positions or as department heads.
Students can also graduate for the dual stream MBA and Magister Manajemen by studying on weekends for two years. Students in the Executive Weekend program attend classes every Saturday from 8 a.m. to 6 p.m. This program aims to cater for local and expatriate executives working in Jakarta.
The weekend students tend to be older and hold more senior positions, such as company managers or directors. The average Executive Weekend student is 34 years old with eight years work experience.
All students must complete 20 units to graduate for the MBA and Magister Manajemen program. The units range from financial and management accounting to international marketing and field projects.
The field projects take up to six months to complete, and are assessed by IPMI teaching staff and the companies sponsoring the projects.
Groups of about five students act as consultants to a company and give a final presentation to its board of directors, who will help assess them.
It is this hands-on approach that Dr. Wagiono hopes will put his students ahead of graduates from other local or foreign business schools.
IPMI has many strong links with big, reputable companies.
One of these companies is ARCO Indonesia, which puts two of its staff through the Executive Weekend MBA program each year.
ARCO's president, Leon Codron, said IPMI's program helped ensure that his staff were "given the tools to stay one step ahead".
"They come out of the program with a certain enlightened maturity and a real sense of confidence," he said.
ARCO is so happy with the program that it sponsors awards for student excellence.
At each graduation ceremony, IPMI announces awards for students who excel in specific units. The awards, sponsored by more than a dozen companies, include cash prizes of between US$1,000 and $2,000.
The sponsors also include multinational companies such as British Petroleum, Hongkong & Shanghai Banking Corp., American Express, Ericsson, KPMG, Shell companies and Philips.
Local sponsors include Bakrie & Brothers, ORIX Finance Indonesia, Rahajasa Media Internet and Sriboga Raturaya and Ficorinvest Bank.
IPMI also offers short-course company programs and courses for graduate diplomas and certificates. Its latest initiative is to prepare an in-house company program for 30 employees. This two- year part-time program is expected to begin in July.
IPMI actively participates in local and regional forums through its affiliated organizations, which include Ecolink Center for Business and Environment, IPMI Center for World-Class Manufacturing and IPMI Center for Strategic Alliances.
For details on IPMI's program and how to enroll, please call the school's marketing department on 7970419 or fax your enquiries on 7970509.