According to a recent survey, India stands out as the second largest nation in human resource and the 7th largest in economy and size. In fact, India has controlled nearly 20% of the World’s GDP 5 centuries back and it is time for us to rise again through the biggest advantages such as demography, diversity and democracy. Shaping young minds of the nation is no mean feat while well-educated education leaders of India have been constantly striving to mould better citizens for tomorrow. One such passionate education leader is Dr. Thomas George who is popularly known as Thomman and an Entrepreneurship & Life Guru. He has been asking and instigating this question in management circles – “Why can’t we rise up and dream of bettering Harvard, Stanford or MIT? What is stopping us?” Dr. Thomas adds, “This is not a wild dream but should be a part of a solid dream with a deadline for our generation. India has the human resources, facilities and natural inclination for that!”
Redefining the Education System:
For two decades since the commencement of his training organization – Turning Point, Dr. Thomas has been taking sessions for engineering and management colleges as a professional trainer and educator. He has been extensively travelling across various universities globally and understanding their best practices in inculcating soft skills too. Early on, he identified that the major gap in our nation and education system was “Management education with Global Standards”. That’s when he decided to initiate a new MBA system and culture.
Dr. Thomas articulates, “We need to create an eco-system of entrepreneurship, networking, problem solving and providing solutions. I had also led various associations including PMA, NIPM etc. I could experiment with all new trends in this arena and learn from the experts. When some of my students told me about the Guinness Record, I wanted to go for it because that proves an ordinary man like me can achieve extraordinary feats with dedication and hard work”. Today, he outclasses as an inspirational leader who has won the Guinness World Record and his passion for mentoring future entrepreneurs has resulted in a world class institution in India – LEAD College of Management. He has also trained and mentored more than 300,000 students over a period of two decades.
Gaining international accolades, LEAD College has emerged as one of the top institutions through its innovations and has hit the national headlines, made various top MBA schools follow its practices and positions India in the ‘World Map of MBA’ education. It is a state-of-the-art, standalone MBA institute, approved by AICTE and affiliated to University of Calicut that was established in 2011. LEAD is an acronym derived from 'Leadership & Entrepreneurship Academy, Dhoni'. LEAD envisions in creating an academic environment where highest standards of academics and professionalism are met and besides the expectations of all stakeholders are consciously addressed.
Free MBA for Entrepreneurs:
Dr. Thomas believes that the coming age is the era of entrepreneurs and innovators. Many people are afraid to take initiative, they procrastinate, shy away and shirk responsibilities. LEAD will be handholding them in funding, mentoring, resource mobilization with mental & moral support too. Dr. Thomas wanted to do something really bold, useful and appealing to help micro, small and medium enterprises recovering from the blow of pandemic. Hence, he has earmarked 2 crore rupees as a beginning to assist entrepreneurs. Despite the rate of success of start-ups being as minimalistic as 1%, he and his team of avid experts at LEAD are on the mission to bring a change and envision higher success rates of start-up ventures and ecosystem.
“Opportunities are everywhere, but you need an entrepreneurial eye to identify them. Many sectors boomed during this pandemic, too, like EdTech, e-Commerce, surgical equipment, and others. The core skill of an entrepreneur is to identify the gap and bridge it to move ahead. LEAD college makes it a core point to inculcate this inner entrepreneurial eye”, adds Dr. Thomas.
At LEAD, the cause of 'experiential learning' is seamlessly championed and the philosophy of 'learning by doing’ is propounded. Having designed and created many new-age learning games,Dr. Thomas envisions that these are the most powerful tools of learning for a student along with proper debriefing. LEAD college ignites students’ inner potential by creating an environment for developing decision-making capacity, problem-solving ability, and crisis management. The education leaders at LEAD also help students to grab jobs in their areas of interest through various internships as well as provide them with an Entrepreneurship Incubation Centre and PhD Centre. LEAD envisages creating LEADERS for tomorrow!
In a nutshell, the primary objectives of LEAD College are – Committed to deliver carefully designed blend, which includes rigorous learning from international academicians, regular exposure to thought leaders, entrepreneurs and industrial experts; Provide more scope for student driven initiatives, peer learning, experiential learning, community service, and numerous other societal activities that make ‘LEAD’ experience a transformational one for our students; To make the students realise and utilise their potential to the maximum.
A Prosperous Future!
Dr. Thomas believes that the next 25 years belong to India, China and the emergence of Africa. He asserts, “West is facing a decline in both demographics and entrepreneurship. India is uniquely poised to reap the advantages of the past 50 years. Beyond Left / Right, it is the duty of our socio-political establishment, educational institutions to harness the rising tide”. His immediate focus is to cultivate the culture and milieu of entrepreneurship among youngsters of our land by investing big time in it. He also ensures supporting other institutions and Govt agencies. After all, victory for 1 is victory for all!
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