Thiagarajar School of Management, Madurai

History

“Service to Education is Service to God”

Shri. Karumuthu Thiagaraja Chettiar affectionately called “Kalaithanthai” meaning “Father of Arts” founded the Thiagarajar School of Management (TSM) which was the first of its kind institution in the southern part of Tamil Nadu. The textile honcho “Shri Karumuthu Thiagaraja Chettiar”, popularly known as “Karumuthu”, was born in the year 1893. After completing his Education in India & Ceylon, he started his career as an assistant editor in the Ceylon English daily “Morning Leader”. He fought for the rights of Tamil labourers in plantations in the then Ceylon. He contributed articles and also published a book titled “Indian Immigrant on Ceylon Estates”. His persistent efforts made the Government to offer better working conditions to the labourers. This was a phenomenal achievement at the age of 22. He returned to India from Ceylon in 1916 and joined the Congress in 1917 and became President of the labour wing.

He established Meenakshi Mills Ltd. in Madurai in the year 1921 and went on to establish as many as 18 Textile Mills. Besides, he also acquired sugar factories at Pandiarajapuram and Thanuku in South India. Subsequently the renowned P.ORR & Sons Pvt. Ltd, Chennai came under his wings of effective management. He also ventured into other industries like Banking (Bank of Madura), Insurance (Madura Insurance which after nationalisation merged with United India Insurance) and News Paper (Tamil Nadu).

During one of his business trips to Calcutta, he visited Shantiniketan, where he met Sir Rabindranath Tagore. Inspired by Viswabharathi University, he started many charitable trusts, like Thiagarajar Endowment, in 1944, Thiagarajar Dharma Vanigam in 1948, Thiagarajar College Endowment Trust in 1951, the Thiagarajar Charities in 1962, and Thiagarajar Educational Trust. In 1947, he started “Visalakshi Kalasalai” in his native place A. Thekkur. In 1959, the then Prime Minister Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru inaugurated the spacious building as well as the adjoining hostel accommodation of this institute.

About Us

Established in the year 1962 by the great philanthropist and industrialist, Shri. Karumuttu Thiagarajan Chettiar, Thiagarajar School of Management (TSM) began with the aim to impart professional education to managers who had a burning desire to scale up their career potential with better managerial skills. “TSM”, as it is popularly called, ignited its institution building with an Executive Development Programme (EDP) to enhance the skills of the practicing managers and entrepreneurs in the vicinity of Madurai. The success of EDP and the accolades received from the industry provided the impetus to kick start the Master of Business Administration as a part-time programme in 1972. A full time MBA course started later in 1986 became a quick success drawing the attention of people from various paths of life.

TSM offers PGDM and MBA programmes which are approved by All India Council for Technical Education (AICTE) and accredited by National Board of Accreditation (NBA), New Delhi, and has been conferred autonomous status by the UGC and Madurai Kamaraj University (MKU). TSM has also got the candidacy status for Accreditation with ACBSP (Accreditation Council for Business School & Programs). TSM’s admissions are based on all-India tests such as CAT and MAT or the State Government selection based on TANCET, with a uniform, transparent fee structure and a zero-capitation fee. As TSM is a part of the Karumuttu Thiagarajar Chettiar founded institutions managed by Loyal textile Mills Ltd. group and run as a philanthropic institution, the fee structure is low enough not to be a barrier for deserving students. In addition, part /full scholarships are available from the Trust for deserving students.

TSM has constituted three committees namely; Management Committee, Board of Studies and Academic Council with the required membership profile.

This 50-year-old institute is located in the heart of Madurai city, in a lush green 17- acre campus with global standard infrastructure. TSM has a high ratio of full-time faculty to students, with most members of faculty holding Doctorates from prestigious institutions like IITs and IIMs. Eminent faculty members in the areas of Marketing, Finance, Human Resources, Production and Systems impart rich, global and deep insights with incisive analysis both in theory and practice to students. Motivated students can get to assist and work with faculty in research and consultancy as well.

In a world where competition multiplies every second, placements have become a benchmark for excellence. Students of TSM are exposed to variety of functional areas like Marketing, Finance, HR and Operations and industry verticals like Software, Finance, Banking, FMCGs, Manufacturing and Consulting. In our desire to be the best we have always believed in building everlasting bonds with our corporate partners. The placement process starts with 3 months of summer internship for PGDM and 2 months for MBA at the end of first year. The recent years have witnessed a number of new companies on campus both for summer internship and final placement which resulted in dual offers for many final year PGDM and MBA grads.

To keep pace with the challenges that the global environment poses for businesses across the world, apart from rigorous and dynamic course curriculum, the pedagogy has a strong focus on building analytical and problem-solving approach with methods ranging from quantitative analytics to a more qualitative and holistic case analysis. Continuous training is provided on soft skills, spoken Hindi. Crash course on Statistics and Computer application is offered for Arts students and Accounts offered for engineering undergrads during preparatory to put them in common platform.

TSM believes that the training imparted to the students would enable them to keep pace with the fast-changing business trends and become the ignition for growth, development and talent building.

The students of TSM realize that if they are to achieve the objectives of the institution, they must lead by an example and thus every student of the TSM is fully committed to

• Adhere to high ethical and professional standards
• Be able to work in high performance teams
• Strive for continuous improvement
• Enhance quality of management skills
• Respect the values and contribution made by teams and individuals