Recently, spent half a day talking about Insurance Analytics at Great Lakes Institute of Management on their Gurgaon campus. Interact with students / working professionals who want to create a career in Analytics has always fascinated me, in the same way as the interaction with this group.
How I receive many inquiries about this course, I deliberately put in extra time after the conference and met with the program directors to write a full review for the help of our audience.. Then, here is the detailed review about this program. Hope this helps all those who are deciding which program works best for them.
Course positioning:
Graduate Program in Business Analytics from the Great Lakes Institute of Management aims to create business professionals who can use and understand analytics to make data-informed decisions. Briefly, the learning outcome, as established by the faculty and curriculum, is the ability to observe unstructured data problems, solve them using appropriate analytical tools and techniques and link them to tangible and actionable business.
Class audience:
The typical audience for the course has 3 a 12 years of work experience, with an average work experience of just over 9 years. About the 20% of the class has experience of more than 10 years and the highest is 25 years. The class features a fair mix of people from multiple backgrounds: TI, management consulting, entrepreneurs, etc.
Program structure:
The program runs differently in both places: Gurgaon y Chennai. Gurgaon offers it as a weekend program and caters mainly to people from Delhi NCR. Chennai, Besides, runs a residency program for 5 days every alternate month, enabling you to serve people outside of Chennai (as an example, Bangalore, Hyderabad, Pune and other cities).
All lectures are recorded, so students who cannot attend classes have the option of viewing them later.
When entering the program, The program teaches you various concepts that a manager needs in their roles during the first few 4 months: customer relationship management, finance, marketing, etc. After this stage, The course begins to introduce statistical concepts and business analysis concepts and instills structure by thinking of various assignments and exercises.
Most of the members I spoke to mentioned that the workload is significant, especially since they already have work commitments outside of this course. When I discussed this with the faculty, said the program is designed to be rigorous.
Faculty:
I was impressed by the great experience and knowledge that the course directors possessed. Prof.. Mukhopadyay completed his Ph.D. from ISI and has partnered with top B schools (IIM Calcuta, MDI, SP Jain) and has worked with government policies.
Prof.. Viswanathan completed his MBA from FMS, MS de Manitoba, Canada and Ph.D. from the University of Madras. He is co-author of 3 books on business statistics and market research. Both directors were full of analytics knowledge and have worked hands-on on various statistical tools such as R and SAS. I enjoyed my discussions with both of you and look forward to meeting Prof. Viswanathan way a way pronto.
Interaction of the industry and the Capstone project:
One of the things that impressed me was that throughout the course, the members pass the 40% of your time interacting with people in the analytics industry. Industry experts don't just participate as guest lecturers, They also teach courses in the Industry Application module, what happens in the last 3 months of the program. Industry experts from leading analytics companies train candidates in marketing analytics, retail analysis, insurance analysis, financial analysis and analysis of social networks and web. While teaching, they also play an active role in setting up the course, the design of the curriculum, the evaluation of the exams and, in conclusion, tutoring students with the Capstone project.
Throughout the final project, Members are mentored by industry experts and Great Lakes faculty. While some candidates pursue the project with their existing employers, for others the projects are provided by Great Lakes
Online content partner:
One of the distinguishing factors of this course is the association with Jigsaw Academy and it shows when you talk to the members. The association adds value and complements business-focused conferences with technical content.
Suitability / Program setting:
Given that most of the questions I receive have to do with the adequacy of analysis programs with people's careers, I thought I should include a short note on this:
- Profile 1 – People from top-level educational institutes / nivel I (quantitative background): People with this experience can use this course to make a switch to analytics and analytics consulting. If you have this experience and want to become a practical data scientist or analyst, get ready to take a few more self-study courses at the same time as what Great Lakes has to offer. You must use Great Lakes to expose yourself to live issues and interact with people in the industry.
- Profile 2 – People with 5 a 10 years of experience in BI domains / Consultancy / TI / Software: I think this is the group that best suits this course. These individuals can transition to analytical parallels at their institutions during or after the course. Again, you must plan a constant transition, as an example, if your experience has been in Sales of software solutions, it makes sense to transition to Analytics Solution Sales and then move to business roles or consulting roles.
I had a strategy consultant role prior to joining this program at Great Lakes and wanted to add the ability to include analytics offerings to my clients so that I can offer them a comprehensive solution.. This Great Lakes course has allowed me to make this change and now I can provide better solutions to my clients.
-Yash Rai, manager, The Smart Cube
- Profile 3: people with more than 10 years of experience in any domain: This course should be viewed by this group as a skill-building course rather than a pathway to a career in analytics.. A couple of entrepreneurs / senior managers I spoke with (that belonged to this profile) they were very satisfied with the course and the way it was helping them achieve their goals.
I have been selling IT solutions to various clients for 15 years. We want to include analytics in our product and, to do it, I had to develop a deeper understanding of various analytical techniques. Great Lakes has kept its promise to enrich me with this knowledge and we are now including analysis in our product offering.
– Ashok Kolliakal, entrepreneur with more than 15 years of experience
If you have another profile, use the guidelines above to find out how this course would fit you. If you still need guidance, feel free to send your inquiries through the comments below.
General verdict:
I enjoyed my day interacting with the students, teachers and program directors. The enthusiasm for creating one of the best analytics software for working professionals in India is manifested throughout the team. What I liked was the clarity and alignment of vision in the Great Lakes team, arrangements for granting access to material outside of class and intensive industry interaction.
The focus of the course is to empower its members with structured thinking and tools to help them make data-informed decisions in their day-to-day business roles and challenges.. I can gladly recommend the course to the previously mentioned profiles.
What is not this course?
This course is not intended to make you a technician in the analytics industry or a statistician. The objective of the program is to instill structured thinking in its members and provide analytics as a set of tools in its repository.. It is not intended to make you an analyst applying state-of-the-art algorithms himself., Rather, it prepares you to understand which algorithm should be applied to which business situation.
The program (like other programs offered today by various institutes in India), does not offer placements. Despite this, the program provides career enhancement support in terms of resume workshops, interview preparation and access to possibilities. In my discussions with Professor Bappaditya, mentioned how there are examples of candidates who have moved into analytical roles within their existing institutions or have moved to new institutions.
Final notes:
If you have any additional questions about the program, feel free to contact me and I will answer your queries or put you in touch with the right people who know the solution.
Divulgation: As part of this partnership with the Great Lakes Institute of Management, I have been paid as a visiting professor. This was not linked to the previously published review.. All opinions in this post, like all my other posts, are absolutely my own and to the best of my knowledge and belief at the time of publication.
