Background: About the Organising Institutes

The Centre for European Business Studies (CEBS) is a joint centre of ESB Business School of Reutlingen University in Germany and S.P. Jain Institute of Management & Research (SPJIMR) in Mumbai, India. It is funded by the European Union (EU). It was inaugurated in November 2009 by Baden-Württemberg’s then Minister President (Chief Minister) and current EU Commissioner, Günther Öttinger. CEBS intends to enhance Indo-European understanding, academic exchange and business awareness.

The ESB Business School as part of Reutlingen University, Germany is one of the leading business schools in Europe. A vibrant international dimension, excellent teaching, and a healthy balance between theory and practice are central elements in its vision of providing forward looking and interdisciplinary degree programmes. The high quality of these programmes is confirmed by regular top positions in all the leading university rankings in Germany. ESB Business School is one of Germany’s largest business schools with 60 full-time faculty members, more than 100 lecturers and some 2300 students.

The S.P. Jain Institute of Management & Research (SPJIMR) is a constituent unit of Bharatiya Vidya Bhavan, an educational and cultural charitable trust of national eminence. It was founded in 1981. With its relentless focus on innovative learner centric, holistic and cross functional KSA based and “Learning beyond the Classroom” approach, SPJIMR was placed in the top ten B-Schools in the country in the very first rating exercise in the country and since then it has been consistently ranked in the top ten. SPJIMR has promoted five centres of excellence in Continuing Management Education, Family Managed Businesses, Development of Corporate Citizenship and Entrepreneurship Development and for Services, Science Management and Engineering. In addition, it offers a two year full time PGDM Program, an eleven-month full time PGPM, an Advanced Certificate Program in Project Management, and in-company Management Programs. In line with its twin missionary objectives of “influencing practice” and “value based growth”, SPJIMR believes in social relevance and responsiveness, concurrent cooperation and competition and naturalizing as the edifice of its educational pedagogy.

As a part of its initiatives post inauguration, the Centre for European Business Studies (CEBS), together with the S.P. Jain Institute of Management and Research and the ESB Business School at Reutlingen University has organized the first (and then inaugural) Conference on November 26-27, 2010 at S.P. Jain Institute of Management and Research, Mumbai.