An Interview with Mr. Anil Somani (Founder and Executive Chairman) of FOSTIIMA Business School, New Delhi

FOSTIIMA Business School, New Delhi was established in 2007 as a private, AICTE-approved and NBA accredited institution. FOSTIIMA Business School New Delhi courses include PGDM, PGDM in Marketing and PGDM Financial Management which are offered in full-time mode. Candidates having a valid score in XAT/ MAT/ CAT/ CMAT will be considered for FOSTIIMA Business School New Delhi admissions.

Careers360 presents you with an interview with Mr. Anil Somani enlightens you about the journey of FOSTIIMA Business School, programmes offered and its specialisation, placements available at FOSTIIMA Business School, and the selection criteria of the programmes. To know more about the FOSTIIMA Business School New Delhi, go through the interview.

Careers360: FOSTIIMA Business School was founded in 2007. Please share the journey along with the challenges and the achievements.

Mr. Anil Somani: So I don't know where to start from. I'll start from the genesis of why we set up FOSTIIMA Business School. We who passed out from the Indian Institute of Management, Ahmedabad, our entire class used to meet year after year at some exotic location every year. In around 2005, that was the time when I was exiting from my pharmaceutical unit. A couple of my other classmates were also exiting whatever business or corporate activity that they were in.

We were at an age where we thought that, well, yes, we still have a lot of life left in us. And we thought that we've had one innings of corporate life, which has been very successful. So why not do something for the society? With that objective we created FOSTIIMA Business School, a very clear vision of giving back to the society what we have actually acquired and achieved in our two years at IIM Ahmedabad and also in our corporate life.

There are many who have the potential in them, but they are not fortunate enough to have scored well on that fateful day of CAT and therefore cannot get admission in these premium institutions where we have actually had the chance to study in. So to educate such students, to groom them to their peak potential, FOSTIIMA was created in 2007. So we have seven friends who passed out in the year 1973 from IIM, Ahmedabad. And that has actually been the genesis also of the name FOSTIIMA, which is actually an acronym for Friends of 73 of IIM Ahmedabad. There is a message in this name, you know, that, well, yes, of course, the last four letters talk of our alma mater, IIM Ahmedabad. And so we actually wanted to give that flavor to our students.

That's why we kept that as a part of our name. And B was this letter F which is again a very important letter, a part of our name, that in 1973 we were friends and in 2007 also we were friends and in 2024-25 also we are friends. This is such a strong IIM Ahmedabad. So this message is there we want to give to all our students at FOSTIIMA and outside that, well, yes, have such friendships, build such bonds amongst your classmates, amongst your colleagues, which last you a lifetime. When all else give way, it is your friends who always come to help and support you. I think a longer reply than what you would have thought.

Careers360: So, could you share something about the challenges and the achievements of FOSTIIMA?

Mr. Anil Somani: Certainly. So, we who were the alumni of Indian Institute of Management and we had created FOSTIIMA to give that kind of ambience, that kind of flavor to our students. So, we actually also collected our faculty pool also from large part of it was from IIMA and the alumni of other IIMs. We thought that this faculty also, who've been to these premium institutions, who've been to the corporate world, they will give that experience to the students. So we were actually, we had a strong intellectual bandwidth, a strong intellectual capital, and we gave that, we wanted to give that and share that with our students. However, in our and in our confidence in our intellectual capital and bandwidth, we did not give too much importance to approvals, accreditations and affiliations.

And we were providing a distance degree initially to our students from Pondicherry University. This actually was creating a lot of challenges of sustenance in terms of student admission, in terms of numbers. So the initial years were slightly challenging because of our faith, our confidence in our intellectual capital, but the students especially in North India wanting the AICTE approval and accreditations which we did not have. And therefore, somewhere in 2014-15, I think, Initially, I would say, when we did not have the AICTE approval, when we did not have our own building, campus, infrastructure, we were

Confidence and belief in the mind of aspiring student that it is our intellectual capital is enough. Approval is really not required. In North India actually this mindset is there in the mind of students who are very keen and particular to have an approval. We actually relied on the model of the ISB Hyderabad that well yes, they also have intellectual capital but no approvals. The difference is that they had a 150 acre campus and we had a 50,000 square

Careers360: What sets FOSTIIMA Business School apart from the other business schools?

Mr. Anil Somani: So there are many differences between FOSTIIMA and the other business schools. And the first difference, of course, is, I would say, that of the chairman believes in leading from the front that the chairman of first time our business school believes that the students are there. He is always available 24/7, 365 days a year for the students at the campus, trying to solve their problems, giving them solutions, helping them, guiding them, and keeping their eyes on the ground. So I would say I'm probably the only chairman who is so grounded

This is one. Second is, we try and give a total IIMA flavor to our students. So, I told you our founders are all from IIM Ahmedabad. Our management team, the top management team is also all from IIM AIM. Our faculty, large part of our faculty pool is also IIM alumni. And for placing also we use the IIM PAN, IIT PAN. This is the first difference. The second difference is our entire management team is also from IIM Ahmedabad. And the third is that our large faculty pool is also from IIM Ahmedabad or the others and the this entire placement also an important part of NEB school. So which I tell all my students that well yes, if you talk of cricket, the Indian cricket team has coaches like Ravi Shastri, Rahul Dravid, etc. And so if you have to learn cricket, you learn

Similarly, if you have to learn dancing, then you learn from somebody like Madhuri Dixit. And if you have to learn management, then who better than the alumni of the IIMs? And we are the largest group of IIMA grads anywhere, any business school outside of IIM. So basically, it's like this that all these schools will have some graduates, one or two, from the IIMA. And if you want me to tell you in greater detail what this difference is, I often tell my students that what is it that I learned in my two years at IIM Ahmedabad.

And basically it is, apart from marketing, finance, HR, etc, that we were talking to the IMA, the important thing that we learned over there was amazing decision-making skills. So why today 70% of corporate India is led by the alums of IIM Abdawal is because all of them have learned at the institute how to take the right decision at the right time. And this actually has been achieved by the originated from Harvard Business School, brought to India by IIM Ahmedabad and from there proliferated to all business schools. But there is a difference at IIMA. At IIMA in the cases, we actually never focused on the solution.

We had a 20-page case which was given to us, which we used to do pre-reading the night before the actual class in which it was going to be discussed. And when we were reading it, we would search for the solution inside the pages. And then we'd go into the classroom. The faculty, the teacher, they would not talk of the solution at all. We would keep searching the entire class hour. We'd keep searching for the problem.

And I once asked my teacher, you know, that my faculty, so what is it that you are doing? And then he explained to me that, well, I'm not here to give you a solution. Solution is something which you have to find yourself. I am only a facilitator. I only give you the way how you can search and find the problem. And then it dawned on all of us that, well, yes, if we go to the or where the solution is. I'll give you an example. That if you are in a hospital and you are unwell, unless there is proper diagnosis that what is actually wrong with you, no matter, no amount of treatment is going to set you right. And the moment the hospital is able to diagnose what your actual ailment is, immediately a targeted medicine will be given to you and you will get all right. So, till the time we actually reach the root cause, the core of the problem, no solution can really emerge. Once we have done that, the solution emerges like a flower in the jungle.

Careers360: Please give us the eligibility requirements for the PGDM course and is work experience a prerequisite?

Mr. Anil Somani: So the second question answer first, work experience is not a prerequisite. We accept students who are continuously into studies, but then we find that there is a good number of students who have across B-schools abroad and now also in India, that if a student has 12 to 24 months of experience, then his learning at a business school is greater, his level of seriousness is also greater, and since management is a practical education, therefore he actually can absorb

We do not admit anyone. But apart from that, we also prefer students who have 60% throughout in their academics, 10th, 12th, and graduation. That's our first preference. As far as the CAT score is concerned, we take CAT, XAT, SNAP, and then MAT as a score, and CMAT as the last option. We do not take an entrance examination, we take the scores of these. We pay a lot of emphasis on communication skills. We have two rounds of interviews in our process. One is more like a general awareness and communications round and the second is a technical round in which we test the mental capability of the student, his memory level and his subject knowledge. It's a very comprehensive interview process that we have devised and after the two rounds of interviews are over, then the selection letter is given to a student and basis is performance, basis is a pre-committed placement at the time of joining.

Also See: Watch an exclusive on Youtube with Mr. Anil Somani

Careers360: Please elaborate on the selection parameters and the weightage considered.

Mr. Anil Somani: So, alright. So, it is like this that 25, 30% weightage is given to communication skills, I would say 10% weightage is given to extracurricular activities, 10% is given to subject knowledge, 10% to general awareness, 10% to mental capabilities and 20% to the academic score. So this is actually the weightage which we consider and I just told you about the select group that we have actually created. In the select group we are giving, if a student is good, we can offer him good learning, good education and a very good placement and a very good corporate career and future.

Careers360: How does Costana Business School revise its culture?

Mr. Anil Somani: So when we first started a business school, we actually referred to the curriculum of some of the best B schools in the world, which included Harvard, Stanford, and IIM Ahmedabad. We took their curriculum. They are all available in the public domain. And we took parts and pieces from that and devised our curriculum. This is the first year initial years thereafter we have meetings with the corporate world every year and we have the discussions in the new developments which are taking place and accordingly incorporate that in our curriculum for instance i'll tell you some time back what was a very was fading out and giving way to digital marketing.

So we incorporated digital marketing in our curriculum. Gradually over the year, the emphasis on digital marketing, which was barely being taught for one semester, it has gone from one to two, two to three semesters. Similarly, thereafter we incorporated analytics related subjects in our curriculum. So now we almost have a specialisation which focuses on analytics which include business analytics, which include big data analytics, predictive analytics, all the related software, starting from SPSS, R, Python, Hadoop, et cetera.

All these softwares are being brought. Then after now, the new thing, which are the emerging technologies, over blockchain, augmented reality, virtual reality, machine learning, is now centered around AI, generative AI, open source coding, et cetera. So we have incorporated that also in our curriculum. And if things go as we expect them to go today, although there is still a lot of gray area, then we may soon have a specialisation in AI. Then we, at FOSTIIMA, have dual specialisations. So I mean, there are many specialisations, to choose two specialisations, both of which have equal weightage.

We believe that management is a holistic education. A person who is studying management has to develop an all-rounded knowledge of the business activity and therefore you cannot, there are no watertight compartments, you cannot bind a student or a management or a manager to a single domain. So therefore we believe in dual specialisation and a holistic kind of knowledge which we give to the students.

At FOSTIIMA, we have 100% summer internships for our students. It is a part of our curriculum and if a student does not do summer internship, students who do summer internships are offered pre-placement job opportunities, pre-placement intents by these corporates for getting absorbed in their companies after they complete the PGDM programme.

Careers360: Please give us insights into the latest placements, roles, companies and the salary packages being offered.

Mr. Anil Somani: So, at first time our business school the placement which happens is that we start mapping of our students right at the beginning and in semester one and two and we see what are their interests, what are their likes, what are their capabilities and accordingly we sort of give them jobs. Most of our jobs range in the range of around 10 lakhs of rupees to 11 lakhs of rupees and which is our average and median about 11 lakhs is our average in CTC, as a matter of fact, is a very confusing word. And different companies, different institutions have different methods of computing CTC. So one is the fixed component of the salary. Add to that the variable component, and then the benefits and the out-of-pocket expenses. If you put all of that and the intangibles together, that actually constitutes the CTC and this CTC normally turns out to be 10 to 15 percent higher than what the student actually gets in hand. So our CTC is in the range of 11 lakhs.

Most of our students get jobs in that range and there are some who are outliers who get lower and there are some who we have created, there are some high value jobs which actually come to our institute, but then they go with zero selection. We have actually created the select group for students with high caliber who can actually crack these high value jobs and do well in finance, in consulting across the domains and across the industries. We have banks, financial institutions, consulting companies, FMCG companies, engineering companies, all kinds of companies who are actually coming to FOSTIIMA for placement.

Careers360: What is the mission and vision of FOSTIIMA Business School?

Mr. Anil Somani: I think I explained my vision and mission right in the opening remark that the very clear objective was to give back to the society, that's one, by giving them world-class education comparable to the best in the world and we are committed to that. We are passionate about that. As a matter of fact, I say that with a thought and I can promise you, I can assure you that nobody can teach him better, nobody can endure him better, nobody can place him better, and nobody can give him a career better. That's my commitment, that's my promise, that's my assurance to every MBA aspirant.

Disclaimer: This content was distributed by FOSTIIMA Business School New Delhi and has been published as part of Careers360’s marketing initiative.