• INNOVATION
• INTELLECTUAL AMBITION
• PRESENCE
• ASSIMILATION

The above four priorities have directed our efforts at Taxila Business School for 18 years now, proposing a roadmap for how Taxila might position the School for unrelenting leadership in business education. Added in our topmost objectives of training leaders who make a transformation in the world, these priorities have encouraged us to follow bold new initiatives. They also replicate our core and continuing values, from a trust in the transformational power of our educational programs to our quest of revolutionary ideas that shape the practice of business and management.

Most of you who think of Taxila Business School think of our PGDM Program. The School’s footing breaths on this program, and it remains at our core as each year we welcome a new cohort of approximately 120 students to engross in a rigorous two-year study program.

The benchmark of the PGDM Program for decades has been the case method, through which students learn—by putting themselves in the shoes of leaders facing real-world opportunities and challenges—an endless assumption of business situations, as well as the tools, skills, and wisdom required for effective and ethical decision making. Recently, we introduced the field method as a means of reinforcing this “knowing” with the “doing” and “being” of leadership. During January and February every year through our Field Immersion Programs, students cultivate a deeper understanding of their leadership physiognomies and gain experience in actually implementing their ideas with partner organizations and NGOs. Through this work, they can mix their classroom-based learning with the intricacies of working with others to get things done, while functioning in an unacquainted global environment.

We have also developed a method for delivering powerful learning opportunities through our Taxila Business School Online platform. Before students arrive on campus, for example, those who need to strengthen their knowledge in areas such as business analytics, economics, and financial accounting can take one or all of these modules.

Of course, we continue to pay attention to what our students learn, too, and this year I am particularly excited about the new initiatives in the PGDM Program. The first is a new course offering called the Capacity Building, a course that spans 5 th term of the 2 nd year Required Curriculum (RC). How does a leader effectively influence others and build trust? How does a leader bring out the best in others? Through exercises, simulations, and tools, and utilizing repetitions of learning, reflecting, and discussing, this focuses on helping students develop the skills and capabilities required to build effective human relationships in the workforce.

The second is a course in first year that focuses on data analytics and artificial intelligence (AI).These efforts reflect at a macro scale the improvements we strive to make every year in the curriculum: developing cases and other content that are timely and relevant, and that improve the leadership capabilities and capacities of our students.

One needs to walkthrough the corridors of Taxila to believe this!