About Great Lakes
Great Lakes Institute of Management was founded in 2004 with the ambition to build future-ready, socially conscious business leaders through rigorous management education, contemporary teaching, and strong business relevance.
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Why Great Lakes
Why senior professionals and organisations can use Great Lakes Chennai as an executive-learning partner.
About Great Lakes
Great Lakes Institute of Management was founded by Prof. Bala V. Balachandran and has built its management-education story around contemporary teaching, business relevance and an outward-looking institutional network.
What the executive audience sees now
The executive-learning proposition draws on an institution with two campuses, a 32-acre LEED Platinum Chennai campus, over 50 full-time faculty, a 14,000-plus alumni network, and a custom-learning engine that has already engaged more than 2,000 corporate executives.
Private review dataCampus, faculty, alumni, accreditation and institutional-scale metrics
Advantages of Great Lakes
The strongest institutional advantages are not generic prestige claims. They are the concrete reasons an executive participant or sponsor can trust the learning environment, the faculty depth, the network value, and the broader organisational fit of the experience.
Private review dataAccreditation, executive-trained, campus, faculty and alumni proof statements
Institutional quality with visible accreditation proof
Great Lakes carries an accreditation stack that signals internationally benchmarked management quality: AACSB, AMBA, SAQS, and NBA. For executive learners and sponsors, that reduces uncertainty and raises confidence in the academic backbone behind the offering.
Executive learning already tested with corporate audiences
The Chennai CLD story already points to 2,000-plus executives trained through custom learning engagements. That matters because it signals an executive-education engine with sponsor-side experience, not a theoretical extension of a degree institution.
General-management depth that broadens functional leaders
Great Lakes can bring leadership, finance, strategy, operations, economics, and digital thinking into the same executive conversation. That is especially valuable for professionals moving from narrow functional depth to wider business responsibility.
A campus setting built for immersion and reflection
The Chennai campus gives the executive route a residential-quality setting for concentration, peer discussion, and cohort intensity rather than a transactional classroom experience.
Network value that stays useful after the programme
A 14,000-plus alumni base across 30-plus countries and 15-plus chapters gives executive participants a stronger long-tail relationship with the institution after the classroom ends.
A footprint that combines local relevance and wider reach
With Chennai and Gurgaon campuses, a nationally visible management brand, and global academic associations surfaced by the institution, Great Lakes can position itself as both context-aware and outward-looking.
What We Bring to the Table
Why choose one of our programs? Because the value proposition is not one thing. It is the combination of broader management perspective, sponsor alignment, peer quality, and a more durable career or enterprise payoff after the programme ends.
Cross-functional management perspective
Executives rarely need one more siloed course. They need a broader frame that connects function, strategy, markets, teams, and execution.
Context-driven solutions
The executive-learning route can adapt to role transition, transformation, succession planning, digital change, and sponsor-specific business priorities.
Peer challenge that sharpens judgment
The right room changes what leaders hear, question, and refine. Great Lakes can use peer exchange as part of the value, not just the format.
Learning built for the next role
For executives and teams, the promise is broader business readiness. For organisations, it is stronger managerial capability with clearer business application.
How We Do
The executive-learning route should show a clear operating logic: read the business problem, shape the cohort journey, deliver with contemporary relevance, and bring capability back to work in a usable form.
- 01
Read the business brief
Start with the role transition, sponsor challenge, or strategic capability gap instead of jumping straight to content.
- 02
Architect the cohort journey
Shape the learning journey around audience level, faculty fit, format, and the decision themes that must stay visible in the room.
- 03
Deliver in applied formats
Use discussion, reflection, frameworks, and contemporary business context to keep the classroom credible for busy managers.
- 04
Bring the value back to work
Measure success by what travels back into decisions, communication, shared language, and execution quality after the programme.
Custom and Group Solutions
For organisations, Great Lakes should read as an executive-learning partner that can diagnose context, design for a cohort, deliver in flexible formats, and keep the conversation tied to business outcomes instead of isolated classroom activity.
Custom and Group Solutions
Great Lakes can frame enterprise learning around sponsor context, business priorities, and capability gaps rather than selling a fixed menu of topics.
- Leadership transitions and succession pipelines
- Digital transformation and cross-functional readiness
- Commercial excellence, governance, and execution
Flexible delivery architecture
The offer can be structured as short intensives, modular journeys, blended discussions, and cohort-based learning paths for organisations with different constraints.
- Open cohorts for executives and teams
- Closed cohorts for sponsor groups
- Campus-based, hybrid, and modular formats
Business-first sponsor conversation
The page should make it easy for a sponsor to move from curiosity to a concrete enterprise-learning brief with the executive education team.
- Audience and level mapping
- Outcome framing and faculty alignment
- Timeline, format, and business-use discussion
Rankings
The page should combine current-site recognition points with accreditation proof. Together, they tell a more credible story than rankings alone: quality assurance, institutional visibility, and recognised management-education standing.
Private review dataAACSB, AMBA, SAQS, NBA, Outlook India and NIRF recognition statements
Global accreditation marker
Great Lakes Chennai highlights AACSB among its institutional quality benchmarks.
International programme accreditation
AMBA is surfaced as part of the institutional credibility stack.
South Asian quality benchmark
SAQS appears in the current official accreditation profile.
National quality recognition
NBA reinforces Indian quality assurance visibility.
Outlook India top standalone institution
The SPA already uses this current-site recognition point in the executive-education context.
NIRF top management institutions
The SPA already surfaces this NIRF placement as an institutional recognition marker.
Methodology
Executive learning should be contemporary, discussion-led, cross-functional and application-oriented. Great Lakes can present its methodology as a professional learning design rather than a generic classroom promise.
Great Lakes Executive Education adopts a systemic approach to executive development.
Successful solutions align sponsor context, faculty design, participant experience and post-classroom application rather than treating delivery as a standalone event.
Develop mindsets
New business perspectives unlock new executive capability and better leadership choices.
- Use fresh business frames to widen strategic perspective.
- Challenge inherited assumptions before they harden into habits.
- Build the mindset needed for broader leadership responsibility.
Stimulate action
Executives stretch through experience, reflection, and clearer confidence in applied decisions.
- Move from insight to deliberate action in the workplace.
- Use reflection to test what should change next.
- Translate classroom energy into managerial movement.
Generate impact
Impact is treated as systemic, data-aware, and visible beyond the classroom itself.
- Track change through business-use signals, not abstract satisfaction alone.
- Keep sponsor priorities visible through the learning journey.
- Define success by what returns to work after the programme.
Innovate
Fresh thinking and meaningful technology use help create value in complex business settings.
- Use technology where it improves the learning experience meaningfully.
- Invite experimentation rather than static content consumption.
- Encourage leaders to adapt methods as context shifts.
Our 5 Es
A repeatable executive-learning operating cycle
Values
Values matter when they visibly shape the leadership proposition. Great Lakes can position its executive-learning experience around responsibility, rigor, innovation, and collaborative growth rather than treating values as a footer note.
Responsible leadership
The leadership story should connect business performance with long-term value creation and stakeholder awareness.
Rigor with relevance
The page should present Great Lakes as academically credible without losing business immediacy for working executives.
Innovation and entrepreneurial energy
The institution positions itself around future-ready leaders and entrepreneurs, which should remain visible in the executive-learning narrative.
Collaborative growth
Executives and organisations should feel that learning at Great Lakes is built through dialogue, exchange, and community rather than one-way instruction.
International Collaborations
Great Lakes surfaces a set of international academic associations and collaboration signals across its institutional pages. The map below turns that outward-facing footprint into an interactive reference point for executive audiences.
Private review dataInternational partner names, relationship descriptions and status
Global academic and executive-learning linksChoose a node to inspect the collaboration signal
Great Lakes ChennaiChicago Booth
Great Lakes publicly highlighted a custom-programme relationship with Chicago Booth to jointly offer customised executive solutions for the Indian market.
Custom executive solutions | USA- Anchor
- Chennai, India
- Signals shown
- 7 international nodes
Institutional Collaborations
Alongside international association signals, the Why Great Lakes route should present the networks and collaboration channels that strengthen local relevance, executive access, and sponsor-side credibility.
Private review dataMMA, CII, IWN and Chicago Booth relationship wording
Madras Management Association (MMA)
User-provided collaboration: position Great Lakes as connected to a well-known Chennai management network for executive dialogue, events, and business-community visibility.
Confederation of Indian Industry (CII)
User-provided collaboration: frame CII as an institutional route into business-community relevance, sector dialogue, and organisation-side executive conversations.
Indian Women Network (IWN)
User-provided collaboration: present IWN as a meaningful institutional touchpoint for leadership, inclusion, and women-in-management development conversations.
Chicago Booth custom-programme link
Great Lakes publicly highlighted a customised-solutions partnership with Chicago Booth for executive solutions in India, which strengthens the route's collaboration credibility.
Alumni Benefits
The alumni promise should feel like a live executive benefit: network continuity, chapter access, event re-entry, peer exchange, and a reason to return to learning across a longer career arc.
A network that stays active after class
Great Lakes alumni span more than 30 countries and 15-plus chapters, giving executive learners a continuing network rather than a one-time classroom contact list.
Chapters, events, and reunion touchpoints
The alumni proposition can be presented as a rhythm of regional chapters, institutional events, and community re-entry moments.
Peer access across industries and roles
Executive participants should feel that the value of alumni access includes informal advice, peer exchange, and long-tail business relationships.
Lifelong-learning continuity
The alumni story should connect naturally to future solutions, thought leadership, and return-to-learning moments across a career.
Our Locations
Great Lakes should close this page with a clear two-campus view: Chennai as the immersive residential base and Gurgaon as the second strategic footprint for executive reach.
Private review dataCampus acreage, LEED status and geographic positioning
Primary executive-learning base
Chennai
A 32-acre LEED Platinum campus designed for immersion, reflection, and executive cohort experience.
Residential-quality learning environment
Second campus presence
Gurgaon
A second campus footprint that adds geographic reach and broadens how Great Lakes can position itself nationally.
Two-campus institutional footprintWhere to go next from Why Great Lakes
Use the cards below to continue through the institutional story, programme pathways, or the people behind the executive-learning experience.
About Us
Return to the main About Us route and continue through the broader executive-education story.
ContinueCustom and Group Solutions
Move from institutional strengths into the way Great Lakes shapes sponsor-facing learning design and executive outcomes.
ContinueExplore Solutions
Browse open pathways, programme confirmation-led formats, sponsor solutions, and flagship leadership routes.
ContinueMeet the Team
See the executive education leadership, outreach, design, and delivery teams behind the experience.
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