President Smt. Pratibha Devisingh Patil inaugurated the Contributor Development Lab (CDL) at Prin. L. N. Welingkar Institute of Management Development & Research on 13 March, 2012. The CDL is a unique pioneering platform created by We School, to recognize, create and nurture its students as contributors to society. It aims to bring about self-awakening among the students inspiring them to embark on a life-long journey of contribution. The President also inaugurated the ‘dmagics’- Design for Management and Growth in Corporations and Society Exhibition - set up by We School to showcase socially beneficial innovative business concepts developed by its students.
Stressing the need for development of vocational and entrepreneurial skills for creating large scale self-employment opportunities, the president commended the contributions of WeSchool. “Converting thoughts into action by offering practical innovative and technology-driven programmes is perhaps an indication of the approach required in the country,” she said. Mentioning a quote by the Greek philosopher Socrates, President Patil went beyond skill development and said, “Education is as much about learning to deal with life, as it is about character building. Hence, educational institutions have a responsibility to nurture the future generation with knowledge, culture and values that will help them achieve their full potential and be responsible citizens.”
Explaining the idea behind the CDL and ‘dmagics’ exhibition, Prof. Dr Uday Salunkhe, Group Director, Prin. L. N. Welingkar Institute of Management Development & Research (We School) said: “Time has come to go beyond giving degrees to nurturing - not just manager but global citizen managers with global mindsets. Coming to the worrisome issues of growing ‘trust deficit’ in the society and heightened global economic uncertainty he said, “These require nurturing people who have the urge to make a difference; whose contributions are not restricted by one's designation in an organization; the Contributor Development Lab (CDL) and ‘dmagics’ exhibition are steps in this direction.”
At the Contributor Development Lab (CDL) the students are encouraged to create business enterprises that serve a social purpose. This is based on the realization that there is an urgent need today for redesigning management education to be responsive to the needs of the society at large, via the business enterprises route. Along with academic excellence, management students here are mentored through practical insights, and encouraged to have adaptive flexibility and social responsibility.
The ‘dmagics’ exhibition showcases the innovative, workable design solutions devised by We School students to transform goods and services to better address the market needs. The exhibition of projects done with the design thinking philosophy portrays the role of design thinking in enterprises. We School students have used design thinking to develop innovative business concepts, new business strategies, products and services in different industry sectors that would have an impact on the society and growth in the industry. Usually design has traditionally been associated with products and thereby seen largely as an input function to the manufacturing industry but design has much more to it than the value it creates when applied to tangible products.
Design is a thinking process that is applicable to all manmade creations; whether it is a new business model, a new process, new financial product, new marketing strategy even designing new services. And the exhibition drives that point home very efficaciously. Simply put dmagics is an effort to institutionalize innovation at We School. It takes business ideas closer to the industry across the different business verticals and sectors with a view to benefit the society, build concept prototypes, complete business plans and create actionable and sustainable strategies.
For more details please visit www.welingkar.org