IIM Ahmedabad And Cowrks India Private Limited To Engage In The Areas Of Executive Education, Startup Support & Incubation And IIMA Alumni Engagement

Indian Institute of Management Ahmedabad (IIMA) and CoWrks India Private Limited have signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) to engage into a long term strategic partnership that would involve collaboration in the areas of Executive Education, Startup Support & Incubation and IIMA Alumni Engagement. The MoU was announced at an alumni event, held in Bangalore.

The Co-working spaces owned by CoWrks will be used to organize activities in the aforementioned three areas to further the objectives of the two organizations. IIMA would collaborate with CoWrks to conduct research/develop case studies on mutually agreed upon subjects. These subjects may include the gig economy, future of work, workspace design, workforce productivity, impact of co-working and freelancing on urban work etc.

IIMA will provide the academic and training expertise for the programs while CoWrks will support the successful implementation of the programs with its infrastructure and operational expertise. IIMA has wide network of distinguished alumni, offers a variety of executive education programs and is well known in the incubation and entrepreneurship space through the work of its Centre for Innovation, Incubation and Entrepreneurship (CIIE). The Institute will use CoWrks centres in Bengaluru, Mumbai, Delhi, Hyderabad, Chennai and other upcoming locations to offer executive education programs. This will be done in a phased manner, depending on market response and other factors. IIMA-CoWrks engagement will also help CIIE conduct boot-campus, discussions, seminars, talks, mentoring sessions/clinics, pitching events, accelerator programmes and other Startup support programmes or events and locate its incubatees in CoWrks centres. Over time these centres could evolve/develop into hubs for IIMA alumni engagement. All these activities will create a much more collaborative and dynamic engagement between CoWrks Members and IIMA Alumni.

Speaking on the occasion Prof. Rakesh Basant (Dean-Alumni and External Relations) of IIMA said, “IIMA plans to expand its activities in the areas of executive education and entrepreneurship and at the same time deepen its engagement with the alumni. The IIMA-CoWrks partnership is ideal to implement these plans in a synergistic fashion as alumni can use various centres of CoWrks across the country to meaningfully engage with each other and also contribute to executive education and entrepreneurship related activities of the Institute. We are pleased to get such an active strategic partner.”

“At CoWrks, we are invested in the success of all our members, looking beyond just offering premium quality workspaces. CoWrks being the preferred choice for large enterprises and Startup unicorns, we're looking forward to offering cutting edge, continuous support to our pan Indian community in collaboration with IIMA. We are excited to foster this shared purpose of supporting entrepreneurship and business with the best university in the country.” Said Nruthya Madappa, Managing Partner, The CoWrks Foundry and Director - New Products, CoWrks.