We had ideological difference with T.I.M.E., so we parted ways: A Srinivas, co-founder, VistaMind

May 23, 2012 - PRLog -- Some of the core management and faculty team members at T.I.M.E., a reputed CAT and MBA entrance coaching institute, have parted ways and launched a new coaching institute, VistaMind, with centers across six major cities in India.

Most of the core team members at VistaMind have come from T.I.M.E. including Arks Srinivas, Ex Course Director, T.I.M.E. Hyderabad & Ex-Director, T.I.M.E. Mumbai; Balasubramanian S, Ex-Director, T.I.M.E. Chennai; Ajay Arora, Ex-Director, T.I.M.E. Bangalore; Rahul Reddy, Ex-Director, T.I.M.E. Kolkata; and Nishant Priyadarshi, Ex-Director, T.I.M.E. Lucknow.

The coaching institute has been launched with 21 centers across four states including 6 centers in Bangalore, 5 centers in Chennai, 3 in Kanpur, 3 in Kolkata, 3 in Lucknow and 1 center in Mysore.

“All the senior members at VistaMind have over 10 years of experience in setting up and running successfully the franchisee centers of T.I.M.E. at cities like Mumbai, Bangalore, Chennai Kolkata and Lucknow,” said A Srinivas, Co-Founder, VistaMind.

According to Srinivas, the group of senior members which are now part of VistaMind core team, parted ways with T.I.M.E. as they had ideological differences with the Top management at T.I.M.E.

“We have many cherished personal relationships with people in T.I.M.E. But we had some ideological differences. Some key issues included focus or the number of different courses a center should operate; and respect and growth options for people who had dedicated years of effort in the service of students,” he said, adding, “We also thought that investments in advertising, which we felt beyond a point, were wasteful.”

Mr Manek N. Daruvala, Director, T.I.M.E, however, said that it is not a strange phenomenon as “it is fairly common in the coaching industry for faculty members to start new institutes.”

Daruvala said that T.I.M.E. has faced and successfully countered competition ever since its inception. “We are confident that T.I.M.E. will not face any undue problems on account of one more competitor in a market as large as India,” he said, adding, “The quality of T.I.M.E. is based on a combination of systems, processes, and people. We believe that this will have no significant impact whatsoever on the quality of the coaching that we offer at T.I.M.E. The team at T.I.M.E. currently includes more than 30 IIM graduates.”

Srinivas admitted that building a reputed brand is a long process, but felt confident that the existing goodwill of the former T.I.M.E. members in the major cities will help VistaMind to expand nationally.  He said that VistaMind will focus on meeting quality targets in terms of teaching, and believed that the growth will happen automatically.

“We have some of the best faculty members at each of the centres, with almost all of them having thousands of hours of classroom and one on one teaching experience,” he said, adding, “At VistaMind, there is a system of mentored learning that focuses on tracking student learning and offers corrective guidance to the student, which includes creating and monitoring the home study plan of the student.”

He suggested aspirants to give more importance to the quality of faculty and trainers at the institute, and not to the brand of the institute while choosing for a coaching institute. “It is the people that matter not just the brand. After all, the entire brand does not come to class and teach you or solve your queries. Be it T.I.M.E. or Career Launcher or now VistaMind, wherever you have a good team of faculty and support staff, you will get quality teaching,” he said.

Talking on the future plans for VistaMind, he said, “We will soon roll out technology based initiatives like online classes across India so that students in all places including smaller towns can connect with best faculty and mentors across India.”

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