Barely 6 months at the helm of affairs at Jaipuria, Lucknow, Dr. Ashraf Rizvi is rather pleased with his tenure so far. While business schools across the country – including some of the IIMs – have reportedly been struggling to place their graduates, Jaipuria Lucknow has already recorded a placement of more than 95% by the beginning of May, 2015.

“More than 290 companies expressed interest during the recruitments at Jaipuria, Lucknow, of which 155 were first timers,”says Dr. Rizvi, clearly pleased by the numbers.“The sheer variety of companies which participated in our placement process covered the entire spectrum of industry, including Banking and Finance, Research & Consultancy, Sales and Marketing, Human Resources, Information Technology, E-commerce, FMCG and Retail.”

What’s more, the quality of jobs and packages offered hasalso seen a significant rise. Some of the prominent companies that recruited from the 2015 batch of Jaipuria, Lucknow are Asian Paints, ITC Ltd., LG, Videocon, Blue Star, Capital IQ, Deloitte, Berger Paints, Colgate-Palmolive, Emami, Wrigley’s, Jhenson & Nicholson, Nestle, Dun & Bradstreet, Royal Bank of Scotland, ICICI Bank, Mahindra Finance, Axis Bank, Federal Bank, XL Dynamics, Vodafone, and Airtel, to name few.

“The one thing that makes students of Jaipuria Institute of Management, Lucknow stand out from others is the fact that we do not train run-of-the-mill managers. We develop socially sensitive leaders who can make a positive difference with their ethical and proactive approach. It is what makes Jaipuria Institute of Management, Lucknow one of the top B-Schools in UP.”

Dr. Rizvi comes from an exceptionally strong research background. A corporate trainer and executive coach par excellence, he has designed and conducted innovative management and leadership development programmes for public and private sector companies, including LG India, ONGC, Alstom, GAIL, Thomas Cook, Honeywell, Birla, Eicher, Godrej, NTPC, Vodafone, Reliance, Bharat Petroleum, EIL, SBI Life, PNB, and several other companies. Dr. Rizvi’s teaching and research interests include Business Communication, Negotiation, Problem-Solving, Assertiveness, and Leadership Development. He has designed, taught and coordinated programs for students, executives, civil servants, and academic administrators. Dr. Rizvi has delivered various lectures, presentations and keynote addresses at premier institutes around the world like the IIMs, NITs, Preston University, Sharjah, American University of Emirates, UAE, MARA University, Kuala Lumpur, BITS Pilani Dubai Campus, and Sultan Qaboos University, Muscat, to name a few.

“Management students need to be trained for research, and Jaipuria, Lucknow does this by providing students opportunities to be part of research-intensive projects that expose them to different nuances of research in management. The curriculum of Jaipuria Institute of Management is dynamic, and it focuses on the requirements of the corporate world and the industry. Our curriculum is designed in such a way that it develops the knowledge, insight, and skills needed for making businesses profitable, sustainable, and scalable in the changing competitive business environment.”

Dr. Ashraf Rizvi’s 27 year career spans several institutes, including IIM Indore, ISM Dhanbad, Sultan Qaboos University Muscat, and Lal Bahadur Shastri Institute of Management New Delhi. Dr. Ashraf Rizvi has served in a range of leadership positions, and comes to Jaipuria, Lucknow after an immensely fruitful tenure as Dean, Academics & Executive Education, LBSIM.He had earlier held leadership roles at IIM Indore as the Chairman of Executive PGP Programme, and was also a Member of the Executive Board while at ISM Dhanbad.

“Management education is very important today as the maximisation of resources to achieve the desired output has never been more important. And this is precisely what a management education does. It provides the best framework to maximize output by utilizing available resources effectively. Management education develops the ability to provide profitability, sustainability, and scalability to business.”

Dr. Rizvi is the author of eleven books published by top publishers, like McGraw Hill, and his research has been published in leading journals. He is on the Editorial Boards and Review Panels of many journals including Profile: A Journal of Columbia University, Asian Case Research Journal, National University of Singapore, How: A Colombian Journal For English Teachers, Columbia, SEARCH Journal, Malaysia, Indore Management Journal, and IMT Case Journal, India.