Global meltdown to affect placements in management institutes

New Delhi: With the global financial crisis hitting several sectors, top management institutes are worried it will adversely affect the job prospects of their students, who are expecting a drop in the number of offers and the pay packages.

Several top notch companies have already conveyed their intention to freeze campus placements, while some have decided to hire limited candidates in final placements.

Top management institutes fear that the hike in average pay packages could be down by 20%, whereas students are apprehensive of a more severe downturn.

“Market meltdown will definitely affect the final campus placements with indications that companies would squeeze their requirements to a bare minimum. Companies, which had recruited 5-6 students during last campus placements may now restrict the number to one or two,” Prof Sourav Mukherjee, placement Chairman, IIM, Bengaluru (IIM-B) said.

The situation has also forced IIM-B to invite more companies to take part in the placement drive.

“This year we are approaching more companies from non-financial sector,” he added.

With lesser chances of investment banking companies — the worst hit by the crisis — seeking campus selection, institutes are turning to greater number of companies from the non-financial sector.

About 30% of the companies that annually come for campus selection at IIM-B are from the financial sector.

Investment banking sector, which used to bring in hefty pay offers, may also refrain from recruiting this year and this could pull down the upper limit of pay packages.

“With chances of investment banking companies coming for campus selection diminishing, students may not get big pay package offers,” said Prof Prashant Salwan, Chairman (Placements), IIM Indore said.

He was, however, confident that passouts would suitably be placed in other sectors.

“Pay packages for fresh students may not be as attractive this time. For the last five years, the increase in annual package offered to fresh graduates used to be in the range of 20-30%, but now it could be in the range of 10%, average salary being Rs14 lakhs,” said Prof Sushil Kumar, placements Chairman, IIM Lucknow.

Ameet Padiyar, convener, placement committee, IIFT, New Delhi said: “Some companies have indicated that they will not come for recruitment this season as they are reviewing their requirements and placements will be on freeze till they complete the review.”

With four more months to go for the placement season, others are still in the process of gauging the impact.

Students, on the other hand, are expecting a drop of almost 30-50% in the annual pay-package.

“We are in stress because the meltdown is going to affect our careers badly. This time we expect pay package offers less by 30-40% than last year.

“Last year 173 students received 367 offers and average annual pay package was Rs13.7 lakhs”, said Sachin Sharma, a third semester student of IIM Indore.

Normally, about 4,500-5,000 jobs are offered to the 1,600 odd pass-outs from the seven IIMs alone. Besides, there are several other institutes like IIFT, XIM & XLRI, Symbiosis, ICFAI, Mudra and SPJIPMR, whose pass-outs also get a good number of job offers.

View Source

Foreign B-school alumni on top

Have A look at the crème de la crème who grace the top seats of IT companies and you would be fascinated to know that there is a predominance of those who sport foreign MBA degrees. Kelloggs School of Management, the Chicago Graduate School of Business (CGSB), Santa Clara Business School — these are some of the popular schools which have thrown up some top talents in the IT industry . Their success stories throw up some interesting facts.

Says Jeby Cherian, head, global business solutions centre, IBM: “Chicago varsity has over 81 Nobel Prize winners on its campus. Surely, when you put 81 Nobel laureates together with students, the effect is astounding. We even had Olympic Games winners as part of our class”.

Both Prabhakar Tadepalli, managing director, Asia Pac, tyfone, and Jeby, say: “CGSB teaches you how to think. They don’t teach you marketing strategies there. They just answer your question with a question” . Jeby was among the 25 of the 30,000 employees chosen by PricewaterhouseCoopers (his previous employer) to pursue an MBA programme with CGBS.

Jeby, who started as a chartered accountant, now heads a team of software engineers “which was not once part of my functional discipline” . “With a relentless focus on meritocracy and with very highly accomplished people as your co-students , business skills get honed,” he says.

However, country director, Synopsys (India) EDA, Subhash Bal, an alumni of Santa Clara Business School, California, feels: “Interaction with chiefs of business houses helped a lot. These are people who know what is going on.

Academicians are theorists, while it is on-the-job guys who can teach you what the market really needs.” “The entire system in US business schools is based on innovation. They teach you how to sell a product which the market has never seen and not just how to manage a company,” he adds.

Siva Ramamoorthy , group director (marketing), Tejas Networks , however, feels that Indian B-schools are equally good. “What you finally bring to the table is important. The synergy between the business goals of a company and the acumen of the business leaders is crucial for a company,” says Siva, an alumni from the Kellogg School of Management, North Western University.

“The MBA course offers you a set of tools which you have to cultivate. Indian Bschools are fairly young when compared to foreign ones, which have over 100 years of history,” he says. Linda Darragh, director of Entrepreneurship Programs at CGSB, who is now leading a team of alumni on an international tour, says: “Almost 30-35 % of our students are from abroad and they join as part of the full-time or executive programme.

To be a business leader, you have to know many cultures . Africa, Russia and Asia are truly emerging destinations for business leaders. There is a huge alumni base in India” .

Talking of how Americans view Indian talent, Siva says: “Indians are considered analytical people, which is very important in investment banking. They are hardworking and sincere” . The advanced eco-system which the US provides also makes a marked difference.

“Proximity to the customer is a crucial factor which helps B-school students,” says Subhash. “Companies are yet to customise needs to the Indian market, the way they do abroad. But change is happening, especially on the advertising scene. Advertisers have been able to catch the true pulse of the Indian market.”

“Risk-taking ability is honed to perfection at B-schools abroad,” says Prabhakar. There is immense flexibility in curriculum and independence to do things on your own. The bar for taking risk is quite high. They teach you to pack your bags and start shop in another country in no time,” he says.

“Entrepreneurs in India rarely fail as they have a lot of social support,” says Jeby. Well, if these are some of the reasons, what really did tick in the words of Subhash is: ”We were at the right place at the right time”.

View Source

IIM A, B, C asked to double intake in 3 years

BANGALORE: Calling for massive expansion in admissions made by older Indian Institutes of Management, the IIM Review Committee headed by R C Bhargava, former head of Maruti Suzuki India, has asked the IIMs in Ahmedabad, Bangalore and Calcutta to almost double their intake by 2011.

Stating that the expansion of MBA capacity and increasing quality publishing are “important and urgent issues”, the five-member committee has asked IIM A, B C to admit 500 students each by March 2011 for the PGP programme, 100 students each for the executive PGP and an annual intake of 20 students each for the fellow programme. This year, IIM-A admitted 318 candidates for the Post-Graduate Programme, while IIM-B and IIM-C admitted 271 and 304 students respectively.For the IIMs at Indore, Lucknow and Kozhikode, the review committee has set a target of 250 seats each for the PGP and 50 seats each for the executive MBA programme by the end of three years.IIMs in Ahmedabad, Bangalore and Calcutta have also been asked to have at least 10 papers published in top 25 journals every year.

In addition, they have also been asked to make it to the top 50 ranking in international business journals by 2011.“The Boards of IIM may consider these recommendations and make suitable plans for each IIM, adding such other targets as they consider necessary. IIMs do need to keep in mind the benefits of economies of scale,” the reports says.
For the proposed six IIMs, the committee has prescribed an intake of 100 each for the two-year programme and five each for the fellow programme. It has said the annual admission capacity of an IIM should be restricted to 750 a year.

View Source

Opportunity for small institutes?

LUCKNOW: When giants like IIMs are apprehensive about their placements due to global economic recession, comparatively smaller institutes fear worse in coming days.

Be it the management courses in the Lucknow University (LU) or technical colleges like Institute of Engineering and Technology (IET), everywhere faces are grim. While students are worried about their future, teachers are busy assessing what impact the recession would bring in the Indian economy. The basic question is how such a large number of students graduating every year from the educational institutes will get jobs.

According to initial assessment the economic slump would dent the banking, finance, information technology and tourism sectors the most, whereas the impact would be limited in the mechanical, electronics, civil and instrumentation branches of engineering. Already, only 15 per cent of the graduates from technical and management institutes of UP, barring IIMs and IITs, are found to be employable in various studies because of poor quality education. The recession now will aggravate the situation further.

Rajiv Agarwal, a final engineering student, opted for information technology (IT) when he took admission to the BTech course four years ago. “At that time IT was going great and only toppers used to get the branch. But now we have come to know that jobs will be drastically cut in the IT sector due to this recession,” he said. Rajiv’s concern is not only how to get a job after graduation but also a decent package so that he can repay the loan taken for education.

There are over one lakh students enrolled in various courses in over 400 technical and management institutes affiliated to UP Technical University. Around 15,000 students graduate every year. The problem of placement would be more in the private institutes which have mushroomed all over the state. The pinch would be lesser in reputed government institutes like IET and HBTI.

Prof VK Singh, IET, said that meritorious students will get jobs in all the branches but the main problem will be for the middle rung and poor performers. “But then we have faced similar problems in 2000-2002 when companies refused to recruit students after campus placements citing economic recession at that time,” he said. This time, he added, it is predicted that recession would continue for next 4-5 years. “But I am sure things will revive and hope that the impact of the slump would be a mild one in India,” he said.

“The global recession, if continues, will definitely cut jobs, particularly in banking and insurance sector, where our students were getting maximum placements in recent years,” said JK Sharma, director, Institute of Management Sciences, Lucknow University, which runs 12 management courses in various disciplines such as business administration, e-business, tourism management, retail management, international business, finance management, human resource etc.

Nearly 720 students graduate from these 12 courses every year. The pay packages offered are between Rs 3-6 lakh per annum. Often placements are not 100 per cent. Situation had improved in last couple of years. But now global recession has left students worried.

Sharma, however, also sees an opportunity. “Companies going for cost cuts may offer more jobs to middle rung institutes instead of recruiting from IIMs on hefty packages,” he said. “But we will have to adopt an aggressive approach this year and target more companies,” he said. Earlier, few companies used to recruit in bulk but now the trend may change.

Manoj Dixit, director, tourism management programme, also feels that job opportunities in retail, insurance, banking and tourism sectors will come down due to the recession. “Situation will become clear after a month or two. So far we even don’t know how long this recession would last. The depression was predicted to start from 2010. Nobody had imagined that it will take the world into its grip two years in advance,” he said. However, he said, India will survive the depression because of its strong consumer base.

Ritesh Srivastava, a student, said that most of the students have taken loans for studies. “No jobs would ruin families,” he said. Rimjhim, another student, however, felt that there was no need to be cynical because it would be premature to predict anything. “Let’s wait and watch,” she said. Students said that university authorities should come up with a strategy and start working now.

View Source

IIM Lucknow students develop one stop consulting portal

In an attempt to bring consulting related fields at the forefront, three students of Indian Institute of Management Lucknow have developed a one stop consulting portal.

Christened as ‘learn2consult.com’ the portal is dedicated to the consulting profession, to help students and professionals at the start of their consulting career. Earlier as a start to Learn2consult, two live case competitions were organized in IIM Lucknow and IIM Kozhikode.

According to Karan Ahuja, one of the founders of the portal and student of IIM L (2007-09), Learn2Consult aims at clearing all myths about consulting and it provides a platform to help students get oriented towards consulting. Learn2consult has been designed keeping in mind final and pre-final year under-graduation students, MBA students, and people in very nascent stage of their consulting careers.

“We aim to make people indulge in collaborative learning by contributing their opinions and suggestions through case discussions and submissions of relevant articles,” he added.

The portal provides information and career alternatives in different sectors under consulting that student have no clue about. To provide the expert perspective, it has associated with industry experts.

View Source

Countdown to CAT 08

Expert Advice by Mr Gautam Puri - For D-Day:

"One of the biggest pitfalls is that as students we always search for short cuts, asking 'which is the easiest way out and which are the easiest questions?' A critical issue here is the tremendous urge to skip questions.

We tend to lose concentration at different stages during the exam and tend to skip questions because of the pressures of time. But things get better if you follow a couple of golden rules. If you want to identify the questions to attend, it is imperative that you read all the questions.

Prioritise

Start with the shorter questions. The advantage with short questions is not that they are easier, but that it will take you less time to identify whether you can do them or not.

The short questions are not just one-liners or two-liners. So read all the questions and quickly decide which ones to attempt.

Be decisive

Decide in two readings whether you are going to attempt the question or not. This is perfectly normal and don't let it bother you. It will take not more than 15 seconds, at a very leisurely pace, to read a question. But if you read the question faster, you would have saved a few seconds. These can then be spent on understanding the question.

While reading the question, your attitude should be, 'let me give everything I have.' Concentrating for those two and a half hours is not easy, but imperative.

Another good approach is to attempt questions that you are comfortable with. The second issue is about the maximum marks per page.

Ask yourself, "If there are five sheets, can I get three marks in every sheet?" If the quant paper is covered in five sheets, it forces you to remember that you have to get so many marks on each sheet and not get stuck on the first sheet. Realise that you need to move on.

Here and now

This is also the time when students have to appear for other MBA entrance exams. For IRMA, XLRI, IIFT and others, the one section where you need to work on is general awareness and business aptitude. Good reading habits help. But right now, focus on CAT till November 19 and nothing else.

In the last month, people are under a lot of tension. Reading the newspapers will not only give you that daily dose of news, but also help you relax.

The DI Angle

Let's talk about the Data Interpretation (DI) section for a moment. If your basic fundas are clear you will immediately understand the question. And out of a set of five questions, at least three are bound to be easy.

Learn the art of skipping questions in DI. The misconception is that you have to solve the whole set before you move on to the next set.

Risk taking

If you do the question correctly, you get marks. If you do it wrong, you get penalized. The negative marking is broadly speaking 1/4th of a mark. Since you don't lose a mark if you leave the question, one should avoid really wild guesses. Which brings us to a controversial area: What should you do when you know that the two choices are wrong and that the correct answer is among the other two? You could mark one of the two as the answer. But if you do not have the appetite to take that small risk, leave it. But also remember that intelligent guessing is a part of the game. As long as it is an educated and intelligent guess, it will benefit you. Often by this stage we also know our effective at intelligent guessing, this is where the regular test analysis comes in, especially checking questions that I got right and analyzing what is it that helped me get it right. If you are a poor logical guesser even when down to two options – invest time in seeing why you consistently go wrong. This could pay huge dividends in the long run.

Expect surprises

The surprise is more in terms of format than spirit. They will change the structure somehow. CAT is traditionally known to check how students deal with ambiguity because it is necessary to be a good manager in real life and the IIMs are very clear, they are looking for the best of the best of the best.

Ease up Learn to relax

Many a time, very high potential students have not made it to the IIMs because they could not handle the pressure. So unwind, go for movies, do things that help you relax, go for walks, meditate… do all that it takes keep your head clear. Get back to those tougher sections after CAT, when you are ready for yet another lap for other management schools. People, who stick it out, hang in there and continue to peg away will make it."

View Source

Fear is the word at IIMs too

KOLKATA: The global financial crisis seems to be sparing no one—not even the golden kids at the premier Indian Institutes of Management (IIMs).

Fewer offers, lower salaries and lesser foreign jobs are just some of the problems these students are likely to face as they gear up for what IIM circles fear could be one of the worst years in terms of placements after the dot-com bust.

“We could be looking at a 15-20 % fall in the number of offers,” IIM Lucknow placement incharge Sushil Kumar said.

“The situation will not be that bad in the summers but overall, pay packages are likely to be affected, though everyone will get a job. We will definitely not be seeing the 18-20 % growth in highest salaries which we see every year,” Mr Kumar added.

The financial sector, of course, is set to be the worst hit. “Lehman Brothers has withdrawn pre-placement offers (PPOs) at most locations, except New York. Merrill Lynch is yet to confirm. PPOs offered by other investment banks still hold but we are apprehensive in case some are withdrawn later,” said IIM-C external relations secretary Debtosh Mishra.

According to Mr Mishra, pre placement offers are still coming in, but they have slowed down somewhat. However, he added that summer placements are likely to be impacted marginally as most companies have already come in for the pre-placement talks (PPTs).

While IIM circles are confident that they, of all b-schools , are likely to be least affected by the slowdown, they nonetheless anticipate a drop in the number of offers per student. They feel a lot of companies will be coming to campus to maintain the relationship they have with the institutes but will be hiring in smaller numbers.

“We are weighing more options this time around. Usually, we call about 70-80 of the 500-odd companies who want to come during the final placements. But this time, we plan to call around 100-110 ,” said IIM Kozhikode’s Sashank Malakapalli of corporate relations cell.

“As expected, students are a bit apprehensive seeing the current market scenario. But at the same time, everyone knows that recruiting might not be severely affected. However, there is still likely to be a 14-15 % drop in the number of offers per student as compared to the 2.7 offers per student we had last year. Foreign jobs too, might take a 20-30 % hit,” he said.

Falling prey

Premier b-schools may see 15-20 % fall in the number of offer in the coming placements.

Lehman Brothers has already withdrawn pre-placement offers (PPOs) at most locations.

This year, IIMs don’t expect 18-20 % growth in highest salaries seen every year.

Job offers in the financial sector, of course, will be the worst hit.

Summer placements, however, are likely to be impacted marginally as most companies have already come in for the pre-placement talks.

View Source

Four components of a perfect B-school application

Chennai: The four dimensions of a perfect business school applicant are leadership, innovation, teamwork, and maturity, write Omari Bouknight and Scott Shrum in ‘Your MBA Game Plan: Proven Strategies for getting into the top business schools,’ revised edition (www.landmarkonthenet.com).

The authors explain that, since business schools want to be known as institutions that produce leaders in their fields, admission committees look for applicants who display leadership ability in all facets of their lives.

“Candidates who successfully demonstrate leadership in their applications exhibit how they have provided others with direction, shown initiative, and managed difficult situations in their professional, personal, and academic careers.”

The second dimension, innovation, is a combination of traditional intellectual ability and creativity, with the former reflected in the hard statistics such as your GMAT score and grade point average. Example for the latter can be newer solutions to everyday business problems.

The authors, therefore, advise candidates to strive and deliver “application stories that speak to adding something new to their selected career paths, rather than merely becoming middle managers in mindless business conglomerates.”

Teamwork, the third dimension, is about basic social skills and a willingness to share successes and take accountability for failures, say Bouknight and Shrum. “While top business schools are certainly known for being competitive environments, operating in teams has become an integral part of conducting business, and as such is a key aspect of the business school experience.”

Maturity, the fourth dimension, comes as a result of candidates’ work experience, which may be five years, on average.

“Top business schools are in search of candidates who present multilayered experiences inside and outside of the workplace. An important aspect of the business school experience is that students teach one another based on their backgrounds.”

View Source

Global meltdown panic echoes in the corridors of IIM-Lucknow

Lucknow, October 11 The students of the country’s B-schools are keeping a close watch on the global financial crisis that was triggered by the problems in the US housing mortgage. Their interest, however, doesn’t end here for they are aware of the repurcurssions such a meltdown can have on their placements.

When the discussion moves on to the topic of placements, the management students of IIM-Lucknow seem to be speaking with a desperation in their tones.

This year, five major investment banks will not arrive at the gates of the B-school. “We are not expecting global investment banks, which earlier offered exotic job profiles at international locations, to come for recruitment this time,” said Sumit Garg, a second-year student of IIM-L specialising in finance.

Debojyoti Chakraborty, who interned at Lehman Brothers, was expecting a pre-placement offer. But with the firm declaring solvency in the US, he is now looking for other options. “I will look for job opportunities in Indian investment banks such as Edelweiss and Kotak,” he said.

The future of the Finance subject, which till this year has been the most coveted specialisation at the B-school with 40 to 50 per cent students of IIM-L’s final year opting for it, seems to be bleak. “Now many students may switch over to other specialisations,” said Vipul, a professor at IIM-L.

Sharat Chander, a first year student at the institute has decided to choose general management or strategy as his specialisation instead of finance, which was his initial choice. “The current financial crisis made me change my mind about specialising in finance as jobs are going to be scarce in the sector,” he said.

Though this may affect the graduates in the coming year, they might not suffer as much as their working counterparts, according to professors. “They will be able to flexibly reorient their career paths,” Vipul added.

For those who had set their sights on a career in investment banking, the expert opined that the situation would get better with the passage of time.

View Source

Business schools ready to respond to change

Signals that the UK and US economies were heading for testing times recently moved from the fringes to centre stage. With established investment banks failing in both countries, some are questioning whether what was first believed to be solely a financial crisis may spread to the wider economy.

Business schools are making sure they are ready to respond and lead in this climate. Research will inform future policy to try and avoid a similar situation reoccurring. Through management education, like the MBA, leaders are taught approaches to cope with both today's issues and future developments that will require new insights and novel solutions. A highquality MBA programme is one that provides an enduring education, through everything a graduate will encounter in their working life.

At times of economic difficulty a number of things happen to employees. Most obviously, some are made redundant and are presented with the opportunity to retake control of their careers. Others decide that its high time to move into a new area of working, enabled by an MBA programme. We also quite often see applicants with a great idea wanting to start their own small or family business - becoming an entrepreneur.

Overall application numbers to the full time Imperial MBA have risen over 40% on last year. The number of applications for the MBA programme from candidates with a finance background has increased this year. Most are still working in senior positions at reputable financial organisations but decided that it's a shrewd time to begin a move out of finance.

A higher calibre of student is applying, suggesting that for those considering a place in a top business school - things are only going to get tougher in the coming years as competition for places increases.

The range of candidates is as diverse and colourful as previous years - something that Imperial has worked hard to establish:

A collaborative culture doesn't just happen by mistake. We bring in the right applicants and encourage certain ways of behaving. We're always looking for people who can work with others and who bring alternative views to any discussion or task. If a CV or application matches our cultural 'wall paper', it's obvious. They are comfortable and capable of leading a group but also have the experience to know when to step back and support others. We don't believe that a pool of piranhas is the best environment in which to learn and innovate.

Graduates tend to move into four broad areas: consultancy, service or manufacturing industries and entrepreneurial ventures. What all seem to share is an understanding of the importance innovation and discovery. The candidates that perform best on the MBA want to find the most challenging questions and embrace change. The reward is simple: a view of the world that will unlock value and generate the ideas, income and collaborations, so vital to a modern company.

It seems that regardless of where applicants are coming from, or where they want to go, one thing is clear. There's never been a better time to invest in your own skills.

(The author is from Imperial College Business School)

View Source