Bengaluru: Jagdish Sheth School of Management (JAGSoM), one of India’s best AACSB- accredited business school, today announced the launch of The Specialist Brand School (TSBS)- India’s first institution dedicated exclusively to brand management education.
TSBS opens admissions to its inaugural batch for the Postgraduate Programme in Brand Management (PGP- BM), a one-year, full-time programme commencing September 2026.
A School Built Around One Discipline
While most management programmes treat brand as a subset of marketing, TSBS treats it as a core business discipline- one focused on long-term value creation, consumer meaning, and competitive differentiation. The inaugural batch is deliberately being kept small: 30 seats. Selection goes beyond academic scores, & final admission is through a personal interview with the Dean, assessing clarity of intent, intellectual curiosity, and genuine commitment to the discipline.
Anand Narasimha Named Dean
Heading the school is Prof. Anand Narasimha, one of India’s most leading voices on brand strategy. A two-time Cannes Lions winner with over four decades of experience, Narasimha has shaped brands including those for
P&G, Nestlé, Dabur, ITC, Britannia, Sony, Samsung, Hyundai, and HSBC, among others. He has been a faculty member at JAGSoM for several years. “Brand isn’t a toolkit. It is a way of thinking – a business weapon,” said Narasimha. “When you manage a brand, you are shaping meaning, influencing consumer choices, and driving growth. We created this programme to treat brand management as a serious discipline and craft.”
What the Programme Covers
The curriculum is built around three pillars: first-principal brand thinking, deep consumer understanding, and hands-on practice. A defining component is a three-month Brand Practicum, where students work on live industry challenges alongside practicing brand professionals. The programme is designed for fresh graduates and early-career professionals looking to build or pivot to a focused career in brand management.
Sanjay Padode, Founder of JAGSoM, said: “General management programmes continue to build strong, well- rounded professionals. What we are creating with the Specialist Brand School is an alternative for those with clarity on their path. Here, students build deep brand fluency from day one, moving beyond surface learning. As JAGSoM evolves towards AI-first specialist pathways, the idea is simple: find what works for you and go deep enough to create meaningful career impact with academic depth that you can apply to your practical context.”
The Specialist Brand School has built its curriculum with a singular focus on brand-led thinking, positioning it as a core business discipline. This has been driven by industry inputs by major players in India’s brand landscape, who have come onboard to guide and inform the curriculum to the program.
Distinguished Advisory & Academic Council
TSBS is supported by a council of leading brand practitioners:
Sandeep Nair, Co-Founder, David & Who
Dr. Sheetal Jain, Founder, Luxe Analytics
Rutu Mody Kamdar, Founder, Jigsaw Brand Consultants
Lulu Raghavan, President APAC, Landor
Hamsini Shivakumar, Founder, Leapfrog Consulting
“Building powerful brands today requires a blend of strategic thinking, consumer insight, and technological understanding. The PGP-BM program is thoughtfully designed to equip aspiring professionals with the skills needed to build and manage brands in the AI-driven era,“ Dr. Sheetal Jain, Founder, Luxe Analytics
“It’s time for us as an industry to step back and reevaluate our approach to brand-building education. By focusing on proven fundamentals rather than solely on tactical efforts, we can nurture well-rounded brand builders who understand the importance of building beloved brands that generate revenue in the real world. We need a ground-up approach for this, and TSBS is designed to do just that. I’m privileged to be an Advisory & Academic Council member for precisely this reason,” Sandeep Nair, Co-Founder, David & Who
-Based on Press Release
