A one-of-its-kind project saw a team of five students of a leading B-school in India pitching in to set up a would-be competitor.

With plans to set up business schools across the country, Institute of Management Studies (IMS) — better known for preparing students for big ticket B-school entrance tests — has roped in a band of boys from the Indian School of Business (ISB), Hyderabad.

The Praxis Business School, coming up on Bakrahat Road, off Diamond Harbour Road, will admit its first batch in July 2007.

Ajay Aravind, Alok Bhagwat, Nandan Savkur, Sarath Menon and Varun Gupta, students of the one-year MBA programme at ISB, are playing a key role in the fledgling B-school’s nation-wide roll-out plan.

“We have created a backbone strategy for market entry for IMS, along with a flexible financial model capable of simulating market uncertainties. We also formulated a sustainable growth plan for the institute,” said Varun.

The engagement with IMS is part of their experiential learning project (ELP), where they work in the industry.

Over a period of four months, the group conducted perception studies to find out about the needs from the marketplace.

The methods used included online surveys, focus groups and face-to-face interviews with prospective MBA students and also one-to-one interviews with industry leaders and academia.

Though IMS had initially sought advice from a professional consulting firm, it decided to get ISB on board at a later stage and the authorities are happy.

“I knew about ELP and knew that I would get quality work,” said Charanpreet Singh, director, formal education at IMS and deputy dean of Praxis, the first B-school of IMS to be set up in Calcutta.