invest time in B-schools during Slowdown

MUMBAI: More and more graduates seem to think that it could be the best time to pursue a B-school degree that could be handy in a tight job market. Applications for various full and part-time management courses rose by more than 20% this year at most business schools. Also, there was a renewed interest for more than 60% of the part-time programmes and nearly 70% of executive programmes.

According to Sujata Khanna, founder of Career Launcher, said, “The reason for a surge in applicants is the factor of economic slowdown as one perceives the job market will be tight for the next two years and hence, people want to invest the time in education.”

Something similar happened in 2001 after the dotcom bust, when the number of applications had touched a peak in B-schools. “A year after Y2K, we saw a 40-45% increase in students, who wanted to prepare for various B-schools entrance examinations,” said Ms Khanna.

Jamanalal Bajaj Institute, a leading business school in Mumbai, has recorded a 25% jump in applicants for the MH-CET entrance test scheduled in February. The institute takes 120 students for the post-graduate degree.

Students feel that it makes sense to be armed with an MBA or a post-graduate degree in such times, so that when the market rebounds they would be better placed than others, said an official with the Jamnalal Bajaj Institute of Management.

Narsee Monjee Institute of Management Studies (NMIMS), which conducts the NMAT entrance test for its full-time MBA courses sometime December-end, has received approximately 46,000 applications for its 360 seats. It’s a 21% rise over last year. “If you’re an admissions officer, it’s a great news, because it means you're going to have a lot of decision-making power and have a richer pool of applicants,” said VK Sreedhar, registrar of NMISMS.

Another leading business school in Mumbai, Wellingkar Institute of Management, has also seen a rise of 12% in online applications this year as against last year for its 3-year part-time masters degree. Similarly, applications for Symbiosis National Aptitude Test (SNAP), which is going to be held on December 21, has shown a significant rise.

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MBA's appering for civil exam

JAIPUR: Neeraj Mathur, a final year finance student had purchased geography and general knowledge books last week. After, he failed to grab a decent job in a campus placement session held in his college in a midst of an economic slowdown. "Now I have decided to appear for civil service exam. Its no lesser then a suicide to wait for a job in a present scenario," said disappointed Mathur.

Like, Mathur hundreds of MBA graduates studying in city B-schools are disappointed by the lukewarm response from the corporate due to recession. Many of them have given hopes of getting a lucrative job. Now they are eyeing on the competitive exams like IAS, Bank PO and other government jobs.

Another MBA student Trilok Khandelwal, from Purnima College is busy revising his commerce books to clear the fundamentals of accountancy before he appear for Bank Po exam in the coming months. "I have taken a loan for my MBA programme. The instalments would commence from April next year. The worry is if I failed to get a job by them who would pay the instalments" added Trilok.

The students are left with less options. Either they can wait for the recovery of market or they could grab a job which ever is available, suggested many management schools to their students. Rajesh Kathori, director Podar Management College agress that "Though the market condition is not favourable at present. There are jobs available only for the competent ones"

This year sudden spurt in students appearing for the Civil service and other competitive exams due to the implementation of Sixth pay commission. It has attracted many students from management and science background to appear for the exam. "Government sector jobs have become very promising with the implementation of commission. Now, the salary of a MBA graduate is present scenario is much lesser then a government scribe," Mahesh Vardhman.

Students also opined that uncertainty in private sector is also a reason that over the years working executives left their jobs for government sector.

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Slowdown affects placements at ISB

The simultaneous slowdown in the US and Asian economies is going to affect the placements at the Indian School of Business (ISB). Information technology and information technology-enabled services (IT, ITES) firms, finance and real estate companies are especially not expected to recruit large numbers this year.

These sectors combined made 280 job offers out of the total 657 made for the Class of 2008, which had 421 students. The Class of 2009 has 440 students.

ISB dean M Rammohan Rao said: “We do not expect the companies to recruit in large numbers, as they did last year. But that will not mean that the students will go job-less. We are inviting more companies to the campus this year for campus recruitment.”

The institute is asking its students to set realistic salary targets. Last year, 230 companies participated in the placement drive. The average cost-to company (CTC) package for an international offer stood at $ 144,812. For a domestic offer, it was Rs 19 lakh per annum. The financial sector made 95 offers last year, IT and ITeS sectors made 148 offers and real estate made 37 offers.

The dean added these sectors are in turmoil now and this year might see a spurt in offers from telecom, pharma and health sector companies, which are growing at a healthy rate. Airtel, the largest private cellular operator, has assured a campus visit during the placement season. “It is not just Airtel, but other cellular operators will also visit the campus,” Rao said at a strategic seminar held last week.

The IT and telecom sectors have been losing their position to other sectors in the last three years. For instance, if 56 per cent of the total offers made to Class of 2006 were from IT and telecom companies, it was 50 per cent for Class of 2007 and dropped to 36 per cent for Class of 2008. The trend is same with financial services. The number of offers from the sector fell to 14 per cent of the total offers made for the Class of 2008 from 17 per cent for Class of 2007. Both sectors peaked respectively for the Class of 2004.

Companies from real estate, which boomed through the years 2006-07, made six per cent of the total offers for the Class of 2007 and six per cent for Class of 2008. During the last placement season, 50 per cent of the students changed both function and the industry, 21 per cent changed the function and 10 per cent moved to the new industry. This year, there could be a shift in industry segment.

Though ISB has been promoting entrepreneurship, this year it further decided to place some students of Class 2009 in the start-up companies set up by the ISB alumni. “It would be easy for the start-ups to find people who would align with their thinking and business vision. Also, the students, apart from finding a job for themselves, would have the opportunity to learn from their peers,” said deputy dean Ajit Rangnekar.

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B-schools feel the placement pinch

'We have been asked to take a practical approach and not look only at dream jobs'— Student from Institute for Technology and Management.

Saurabh Gupta, an engineering student from Thane, Mumbai, got himself a job at an IT company at a monthly salary of Rs 7,000. Had he graduated last year, Gupta would have been drawing around Rs 25,000 a month.

All the same, Gupta is not complaining. Many of his batch-mates are still looking for jobs and some are even settling for salaries as low as Rs 5,000 a month.

“I decided it was better to take this job and gain some experience rather than be jobless," said Gupta. He paid Rs 2 lakh for a three-year Master’s degree in computer engineering.

Out of 60 students, Gupta's institute has been able to place only eight so far. Last year, half the batch had found jobs by this time.

The situation at various second-run management and engineering institutes is no different, courtesy the slowdown that has impacted even their better-known counterparts like the Indian Institutes of Management (IIMs) and Indian Institutes of Technology (IITs).

In fact, average salaries for final placements at some second-rung B-schools are expected to fall as much as 35 per cent with some schools finding it tough to achieve a 100 per cent placement.

For instance, at SIES College of Management Studies (SIESCOM), Navi Mumbai, the average annual salary has dropped almost 33 per cent from Rs 6 lakh last year to Rs 4 lakh so far. The highest salary last year was Rs 12.5 lakh; this year, the institute expects it to peak at Rs 8-10 lakh.

The lowest salary has dropped 50 per cent from Rs 4 lakh to Rs 2 lakh this year.

"With the tier-I B-schools also approaching other companies beside their regular recruiters, many companies have withdrawn from the campuses. This is affecting placements at tier-II B-schools," said Jharna Lulla, placement manager, SIESCOM.

Another B-school, the Institute for Technology and Management (ITM), has seen a 30 per cent drop in its highest salary from Rs 10 lakh last year to Rs 7 lakh this year.

The lowest salary was Rs 3.5 lakh, and the institute has decided not to allow any company on the campus that offers less than this. ITM thinks it will manage 80 per cent placements this year.

"Companies are taking advantage of the financial meltdown and quoting lower salaries. We have asked students to be patient because the situation might improve in the next few months,” said Arun Saxena, placements chairperson, ITM.

For its 2007-08-batch of 360 students, ITM had placed around 90 per cent of the students by January 2008. This year, the institute so far has been able to place only 30 per cent of the students.

"Students who wanted placements in the financial sector are going for sales and marketing jobs. We have been asked to take a practical approach and not look only at dream jobs," said a student from ITM who requested anonymity.

At another engineering institute, only six companies have visited the campus so far against 20 companies last year. The institute says software companies have declined to come for placements this time.

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research is key for excellence in B-schools

Foreign educational institutions are bound to be allowed to come in to establish institutions either on their own or as joint ventures, so the competition will intensify

The report of the committee to review the functioning of the Indian Institutes of Management (IIMs) which was submitted to the Union ministry of human resource development (HRD), has been facing criticism within the IIMs since October. One of the biggest criticism was that the panel’s recommendations interfere with the autonomy of the IIMs. The panel in turn finds the B-schools’ management development programmes eroding the quality of their teaching and research. The ministry has now invited public comments on the recommendations.

Former Maruti Udyog Ltd. chairman R.C. Bhargava, who headed the panel, speaks about IIMs‘ autonomy, faculty MDPs and of dealing with intensifying competition from private business schools in an interview with Mint.

Excerpts:

The IIMs have turned out to be leaders in business education in India till now and they attract the brightest of students, both boys and girls. At the end of two-year post graduate programme, they are very much in demand, both inside and outside India. That’s the measure of the quality of education at the IIMs.

What we felt as a committee is that now they face a challenge from private investment in business education. It has been growing rapidly and will continue to grow because everyone has seen there is a big gap between demand and supply of good business education in this country—for 1,800 odd seats at the IIMs, about 2.5 lakh candidates take the exam every year. People invest where they see demand.

Foreign educational institutions are bound to be allowed to come in to establish institutions either on their own or as joint ventures so the competition will intensify. There is already some competition from private business schools but IIMs are still way ahead.

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XIMB expects 25% growth in PPOs

The premier B-school has already received 32 PPOs this year from top companies like Hindustan Coca Cola Beverages, Tata Group HR, JP Morgan Chase, Cognizant, Axis Bank, Hindustan Times, Godrej, Britannia and Genpact to name a few. More PPOs are in the offing as companies are expected to make offers till the end of this month. Last year, XIMB had bagged 32 PPOs.

Apart from PPOs, the management institute has also been able to secure summer internships for nearly 90 per cent of the first year students of its PGP (post graduate programme) in management. The institute is now gearing itself for Xuberance, the final campus recruitment programme for the 2007-09 batch of PGP students which is scheduled for January 15-22 next year.

Over 100 companies are expected to visit the XIMB campus during this year’s final placements as against 62 companies which visited last year. In last year’s placements, the recruiters across different sectors made a total of 218 offers for the 118 students. Last year, the highest international offer was $85,000 per annum and the highest domestic package stood at Rs 16.5 lakh per annum with the average salary on offer being Rs 10.12 lakh per annum.

Talking on the final placements for the current batch, Sabeeta Mohanty, head, placements committee, XIMB said, “The growth in average salary is likely to be stagnant during this year’s placements owing to the prevailing economic downturn. However, none of our regular recruiters have indicated that they will be hiring lesser students this year”. It may be noted that XIMB has recorded about 100 per cent growth in its average salary over the past three years.

“Many companies are yet to make any final commitment on recruitments as they have kept their fingers crossed over the impending third quarter results. This year, the banking and financial services sector is unlikely to emerge as the top recruiter and we are expecting more recruitment from other sectors”, she added.

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Pink Slip and Jobless

JAIPUR: Life was sailing smooth for 25-year-old Shobit Saxena (name changed) till early September, when the real estate major he was working with asked him to shift base. He was asked to move to Chandigarh from his hometown Jaipur where he was comfortable earning Rs 10 lakh per annum. Taking it as a regular transfer Shobit, shifted base only to find that his monthly salary cheque came with the most feared pink slip' and is jobless today.

Sixty-year-old Ashok Kumar (name changed), took a demotion from being a general manager at a country resort in Delhi to become deputy general manager with a home developer firm, only to be with his family in Jaipur. Little did he knew that the happiness would be short lived. Kumar lost his job within a year and is living on his savings as he searches for another job.

These are just two examples, but as more and more pink slips are being rolled out, professionals are leading a life in fear. Dealing with depression within and that in the market place is taking a toll on them. As Dr Shiv Gautam, additional principal, SMS Medical College, puts it, "Unprepared to take any stress, these youngsters who feel secure after bagging a lucrative job put themselves at the biggest risk of facing trauma in any adverse situation."

Experts feel that one on the contrary should realize the gravity of the situation and take a realistic approach towards one's professional profile. If you are less experienced or don't possesses adequate skills, it will be tough to sustain.

"In a booming market, even dirt sells at a price of gold, whereas in recession it's hard to sell gold. Don't panic, build up your skill sets," is what Dr Rajesh Kothari, director, R A Poddar Institute of Management tells the aspiring professionals.

Psychiatrists are of the view that a growing number of professionals in the age group of 20-35, primarily from IT and ITES, and marketing are seeking professional help to bail them out of fatigue, irritation and anxiety.

"The first advice we give is to ask them to take a realistic perspective of the situation, hold what is on their hands and the act," says Dr Gautam who feels sharing one's thoughts and practising yoga can help a person calm down and take a fresh stock of things.

Keeping a positive outlook and converting threats into opportunities might sound the biggest clich?d jargon in these tiring times, but experts feel taking a sabbatical and looking for alternative streams can actually help.

"The education sector is still booming and with the growing number of engineering colleges and B-schools there is a dearth of good professionals and those with industry experience can get good bargains there," says V Raghunathan, managing director, GMR industries. "These might not be a full time solution but they certainly act as parachutes that might help you keep afloat," he adds.

Apart from the job woes, it's the investments that aren't paying the desired results. The reason, according to Raghunathan, is the very fact that we haven't yet adopted to live in a free market.

"While most of us enjoy the luxuries that a free market economy offers, we are yet to come to term with its hardships. We are yet to come with terms of its basics that for every fives years of boom there might be a year of lull, for which we should save beforehand," says Raghunathan.

Despite the sensex failing to show any great advances, experts feel that when it comes to making money in the stock markets, it is going the Warren Buffet way, buy when the world is selling.'

Invest in the best shares as they are available at never before prices is a unanimous expert opinion. According to Pawan Parasher, chairman, Institute of Chartered Accountants of India, Jaipur branch, "Don't go by the word of mouth, do some research before investing in stocks and go by the real value of the share as in the net worth of the share, dividends it has been offering and company profile."

His pick is the infrastructure sector. They always do good in the long run' whereas he feels parking your money in the IT sector can be a bit dangerous in the present situation.

These are difficult times, but there is light at the end of the tunnel. So calculate your moves and keep walking is the mantra.

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Job-hunting IITians turn to start-ups

MUMBAI: The global slowdown has arrived at the IITs too. And campus placements have taken a big hit. From vying for the very best in the corporate world, students may have to scale down their ambitions and career plans, at least for now. Alarmed by a significant downturn in its campus placement scenario, IIT Bombay is approaching start-up companies to beat the recession heat.

According to a source close to the development, IIT Bombay's placement record, which was extremely impressive last year with nearly 100% placements, has posted a 40% dip in the first phase of campus placement in the current academic year.

The poor response has forced the authorities to extend the date of placement for this academic year till April. Earlier, the placements used to close in two to three weeks in previous years. "The number of recruiters who used to visit the campus has come down and also the offers. We have started to approach start-up companies for placement," said a placement coordinator from IIT Bombay, who did not wish to be named.

Last year, out of 74 students in the computer and engineering division, all got campus recruitment offers except two. But this year, out of 94 students, only 50% students have got offers so far, he added.

"We are now focusing on phase 2 of the placement process in this academic session and are approaching start-up and services-based companies in the country," said another source.

However IIT Bombay professor incharge Subash Babu told ET that there is a marginal impact on campus placement due to the economic meltdown. "We were expecting a slowdown in placement, considering the present economic downturn. This year the ratio of placement till now is 4:4 compared to 4:5 last year." 300 students have got placements in various companies in nine days of placement process, Mr Babu said. However, he refused to divulge the total number of students who had applied for placement.

According to an analyst from a leading consulting firm, there has been a drastic cut in hiring at the junior level. "There is a cut of more than 60% at the freshers level and this is adding to the woes of the engineering graduates," he said. Even after an interview, the probability of getting a job is very less, the analyst added.

Some of the big companies who have been regular at IIT Bombay placements include the Tata Group, Godrej, e-Clerx, Cadbury, Marico, Citibank, Accenture, Infosys Technologies, Wipro, Bristlecone, Anand Group, Mahindra British Telecom, GECIS, JP Morgan Chase, SBI Caps and the SBI. Nearly 80% of them were present this year as well. In 2007, around 200 companies visited the IIT Bombay placement campaign organised by the institute.

Over 100 candidates benefited from the campaign. Many students from IIT Bombay also received international offers from global companies.

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Options after the CAT

New Delhi: Almost 270,000 students took the Common Admission Test, or CAT, this year, aiming to study at one of the prestigious Indian Institutes of Management (IIM). But with only 1,800 seats and official results not due until 9 January, candidates can’t celebrate just yet.

Many MBA hopefuls are preparing for the next round of exams since entrance tests for a dozen other B-schools, such as the Faculty of Management Studies, or FMS, Delhi University, and XLRI School of Business and Human Resources in Jamshedpur, Jharkhand, are scheduled for later this month and early January.

“I was quite nervous for the CAT,” says Swati Paliwal, a student in Delhi who hopes to join a business school next year and is also applying to XLRI, Narsee Monjee Institute of Management Studies, or NMIMS, in Mumbai and Symbiosis Institute of Business Management in Pune. “I want to give my best in these exams.” Others are considering options that include pursuing an MBA abroad. “I just want to go and do my MBA, so if not the IIMs by any chance, then I will probably go ahead with Singapore,” says Adesh Gunjan in Mumbai, who adds that while he is happy with his performance in CAT, he is worried about his score in the English paper. He says that connections outside India might help him find a job after school since many global companies have their regional headquarters in Singapore.

John Gabriel, chief marketing officer for test prep company IMS Learning Resources Pvt. Ltd, says he counsels students who are set on the IIMs, but fail to make the cut this time, to try again next year.

Beyond the IIMs, others cater to different areas of expertise, he says. For those interested in exports and imports, the Indian Institute of Foreign Trade, or IIFT, is a good option. For those looking to get into human resources management, the Tata Institute of Social Sciences, or Tiss, in Mumbai and XLRI offer better possibilities. For others interested in social organization and non-profit management, Tiss or the Institute of Rural Management Anand, or Irma, in Gujarat are more relevant.

While the entrance exams for many institutes are similar, each test is tailored to attract students who best fit its profile. “While the IIMs check out how well you are aware at the interview stage, (others) do it at the exam stage,” says R. Shiva Kumar, director of research and development at Career Launcher India Ltd, referring to the current affairs section in the IIFT entrance test.

The entrance tests for NMIMS and Symbiosis, he says, focus more on advanced arithmetic. The XAT, which is required for admission to XLRI, requires more analytical thinking and the Joint Management Entrance Test, or JMET, designed for engineers, tests for high school math. “The CAT is essentially class X maths,” says Shiva Kumar, “so it is a little more democratic.” For MBA aspirants looking abroad, business education experts offer a different frame for students to consider. IMS’ Gabriel describes two types of MBA colleges in India, one that create leaders and the other that act more like finishing schools. For students who can’t crack the first type, Gabriel often steers them to institutes outside the country.

Since most B-schools abroad require work experience from applicants, Singapore, in particular, is an appealing choice for Indian candidates. Most are one-year programmes and students are admitted on academic record, rather than entrance tests, so these are more accessible options for fresh graduates.

Also, Gabriel says that since Singapore is culturally closer to India, it is a better choice for students who have never been outside the country. “If India’s top business schools total around 5,000 seats,” Gabriel says, “for the 5,015th guy, it’s unfortunate, so we talk to them about the world.”

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IIM-A tougher than Stanford, Harvard

AHMEDABAD: Is the Indian Institute of Management, Ahmedabad (IIM-A), the country’s premier business school, better than the best international management schools like Stanford or Harvard when it comes to the executive management programme? The answer is yes if the comparison is based on the GMAT scores required for admission.

The minimum GMAT, or the Graduate Management Admission Test, score required for admission in IIM-A’s one-year post-graduate executive management programme (PGPX) for the 2009-10 batch was fixed at 722 out of 800. This figure exceeds the score required for admission in prestigious institutes like Harvard or Stanford, where the GMAT cut-off is between 710 and 715.

While the IIMs use CAT (common admission test) scores for admission in their flagship management programme (PGP), they accept GMAT scores for the one-year executive management programme. GMAT scores are accepted by all top universities globally for taking in executives for management training.

“We have invited 85 candidates for admission to the 2009-10 PGPX course. The GMAT cut-off score required for admission in IIM-A is higher than those required by even top global B-schools such as Harvard and Stanford,” Arvind Sahay, IIM-A faculty & chairperson for the PGPX course, said. Last year, the GMAT cut-off for the course was 728.

Apart from a good GMAT score, IIM-A also looks for a good academic and career record in candidates interested in joining the course. In the current batch, candidates represent sectors like power, FMCG, financial services, government services, IT/ITeS, consultancy, manufacturing, media, shipping, telecom, healthcare and BPO.

The institute had introduced the diversity criteria for selecting candidates that led to the number of candidates having experience in the IT/ITeS sector — who dominated PGPX batches — coming down significantly. While around 50% of the candidates in the current batch have a background in IT/ITeS sector, the new batch comprises just 30% of such candidates.

“We have tried to make the sectoral profile of candidates more diverse than before, which might be a reason why more non-IT/ITeS candidates made it to the final list. Such candidates did well in the interview round, too,” Mr Sahay added.

There has also been an increasing trend of executives settled abroad joining the course as a stepping stone to begin careers afresh in the country. Close to 25 of the 30 students of the 2008-09 batch — who were working abroad and are enrolled for the course — have made up their minds to settle down in India.

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Personal Interview Tips

Your academic skills were checked in the entrance test, your people skills in GD. Now, comes the turn of gauging you on your own standards. The B-schools want to know how much you are aware of yourself and how much you relate your goals to your personal self.

Students spend most of the time in going through course books whereas 90 per cent of the interview questions are based on you. But answering questions on yourself can catch you in a tight spot. There can be some rules set when it comes to GD because there are certain expected etiquettes, but there can be no rules set for the interview because everyone has sui generis personality. The best way to tackle interview is to sit and know yourself in and out. Think why you want to pursue an MBA. Make a list of your strengths and weaknesses. Not only will it help you analyse your personality, but will also help you prepare for many other questions for the interview, including:

Why do you want to do MBA?
What are your personal goals?
Where do you see yourself 10 years down the line?
What are your hobbies?
What are your strengths and weakness?
Tell us about yourself.

Who wins?
Those with:
Self awareness: You should be able to delve on each and every aspect of your personality, family background, the city you come from and the institutes you have studied in. If you are aware of your strengths and weaknesses, you will be able to justify them. For example, the panelists may ask someone about his poor academic record. As long as he knows why he under-performed, he can come up trumps.

Goal clarity: You should know how the MBA programme will help you achieve your long-term goals. There might be different reasons for doing MBA, for different people, and even for one person there can be more than one objective to do MBA. But you should analyse it beforehand rather than doing it in front of the panel.

Ability to remain calm: The real you comes up when you are under pressure situation.The panelist will try to grill you on your weakness or on the answers you are giving. They want to put you under pressure and see whether you lose your calm once put under pressure.

Who loses?
Those who:
Give practised answers: You have your own strengths and weaknesses. But while attending the mock interviews, you were told how some students gave impressive answers and got selected. If you try to give the same answers, you might be caught.

Lie to the panellists: They are very experienced people and can catch you if you try to bluff them on your academic record, or on a fact-based question, or when you try to answer the question even if you don’t know the answer.

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IIM-L to call 100 firms for 45 students

For the first batch of the International Programme in Management for Executives (IPMX) — the one-year residential executive programme at Indian Institute of Management-Lucknow (IIM-L)—final placements in April 2009 will happen against the backdrop of the global slowdown. To counter this, the institute will call nearly 100 companies for its batch of 45 students to its Noida campus.

The institute is expecting companies in the infrastructure and manufacturing sector to take the lead in making offers.

“Unlike the two-year post graduate programmes, there is no placement week in this programme. Recruiters to our programme prefer to have a couple of meetings with the student before making an offer. Finance offers could be affected due to the economic slowdown, but we are seeing a lot of interest from infrastructure, manufacturing and IT companies to hire students for higher managerial level positions,” said Punam Sahgal, Chairperson IPMX at IIM-Lucknow’s Noida Campus.

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Group Discussion Tips

A group discussion is generally a 20-to-30 minute process whose larger objective is to select those candidates who have the ability to perform in a team. Apart from this, the kind of topic given, also helps panelists to know various traits of a candidate’s personality. In most of the GDs’, you are made to sit in a semi-circle and discuss a given topic.

What matters in group discussion is your stand on the topic, your ability to analyse, your awareness about the topic, and the way you present it. One person from the group is asked to introduce the topic, what follows is the discussion and the conclusion. The focus here is more on leadership and decision making, because in a GD you may or may not reach a consensus since the issues given to you are debatable. The end result of GD will not always be to reach a consensus, but to assess your people skill.

Who wins?
Those who have:

Good listening skills: Listening doesn’t mean hearing. It means understanding what the other person is saying. If you have good listening skills, you will be able to keep a track of where the group discussion is moving. You will know different points that have already been raised and you have to bring in some new point.

Knowledge of the topic: Earlier it was just about discussing pros and cons of an issue, but now knowledge gathered from various sources, analysed and presented in a structured form, holds the key to success in GD.

Reading newspapers, magazines, and going through Economic Survey would help in enriching the content of GD.

Confidence: You might have all the knowledge and good listening and analytical skills, but if you do not have confidence to assert what you are saying is right, that might prove to be detrimental.

Introduction: Introducing the topic can make or break the situation. Explain the topic, don’t read what is written.

Say what you think of it. People think that taking a stand in a GD might go against them. But there is difference in being assertive and in being rigid. You are expected to give your point of view.

Who loses?

Those who speak a lot: Of course, not speaking in GD will not take you anywhere but speaking too much can also make you lose the GD. Remember, it is not a one-man show. It is a group discussion. If you try to grab the attention of the panelists, cut other person short, it shows that you are not a team player. If you do not speak in the entire GD, but give valid points twice that can add value to the discussion, then you will be appreciated.

Those who become emotional: There are topics that involve some sensitive issues. You have all the valid points to support that women make better managers, but bringing in the element of argument and accusing other persons in the group will only get you rejected.|

Those who over-dominate: You are taking and managing the group discussion well, listening to the arguments, giving your point of view and letting everyone speak. Everything is in your favour and suddenly you decide to be a godfather of somebody who has not spoken at all and who doesn’t have one single argument to present.

Cutting short somebody who is making a valid point and asking the silent one to speak, can actually go against you.

Poor placement response forces IIT students to fend for themselves

With final placements at the premier Indian Institutes of Technology (IIT) being a very tame affair this year, IITians are planning to approach companies on their own. Though this violates the policy which states that students cannot do so till placements on the campus are over, many students do not want to take chances.

"If the placements do not pick up by January, we are planning to approach the companies on our own,” an anxious student from one of the IITs told Business Standard. Students are also planning to take up higher studies in engineering or pursue a management course to better their job prospects.

“Our problem is not about students taking time to get placed. What we fear is if these companies change their hiring plan by next June and take the offers back,” said an IIT director on condition of anonymity. He added: “The offers must be slightly lower this year but the situation is not that bad. Companies are recruiting, though, in fewer numbers. The IIT directors will be meeting at the end of this month and if the situation does not improve much by then, we will take a call on what to do.”

Placements on the IIT campuses, which began this month, have suffered due to the economic slowdown. The IITs that are into the first four days of their placements have received a lukewarm response from the corporate world. So much so, that few of them are planning to extend the placements till April. The placements for IITs begins in December and will go on till February. But poor response from companies has forced the IITs to extend it.

“While recession was adding to the fear of the placements being a not-so-great affair, the terror attacks on Mumbai has also had an impact on our placements. Companies that were to visit us from Mumbai have either cancelled their plans or postponed them,” said professor P K Jain, placement chairperson at IIT Roorkee.

IIT Roorkee has had only two companies on the campus with only eight offers made so far against 45 offers made on day one last year. At IIT Bombay, the situation is no different. The institute on day one has had only 33 offers so far as compared to 93 offers made last year.

On day two the students had received around 27 offers against 41 last year. IIT Madras says recession has impacted them in terms of number of students being taken by the companies. “There have also been cancellation of visits in some cases,” says the institute. Questionnaires sent to other IITs on December 2 remained unanswered.

Observers are drawing parallels between the current job scenario and situation in the year 2002 that was particularly hard on the software industry, when most of the companies took their offers back. For placements in 2002, companies started approaching the IITs in July/August 2001 (beginning of the semester) but took back their offers around May-June 2002.

“Some companies paid a severance bonus and asked people not to join. Many students opted for further studies at that point. Some of them joined other companies hiring but paying lesser salaries. This is also the time the high-end outsourcing industry became big. So several people ended up joining companies in IP/business research,” explained Rahul Gupta, from 2003 IIT Bombay batch. Gupta now heads a start up called Vakow!

The situation at IITs, however, is starkly different from what the Indian Institutes of Management (IIMs) witnessed a month ago. Despite the global economic slowdown, students managed to bag diverse offers for their summer internships due in April 2009. However, it remains to be seen how the IIMs fare when it comes to final placements.

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Secrets of success for B-School entre

There is no set of rules that can teach you what to, and what not to do in GD/PI. This is because it is a process to assess a candidate’s personality, and you cannot apply the same set of rules to every individual. What becomes important in such a scenario is to understand the ‘why’ and ‘what’ of GD; and arrive at your own rules that fit your personality.

The first things first — why

B-schools conduct GD/PI when students have already gone through an acid test. Isn’t clearing MBA entrance test enough to show that you are worth it? The simple answer is NO, because B-schools are not simply looking for walking dictionaries or logarithm books.They want candidates who can be trained and polished to be managers.The entrance test is just one stage where they see whether you have the basic acumen to understand the course that will be taught during the MBA programme. In that, too, some parts of personality, like ability to take decisions, ability to perform under pressure, and analytical and logical thinking, are assessed. But in order to get a complete idea of a candidate’s personality, B-schools go through this long process.

Group discussions and personal interviews are accepted tools to select a student, because in a limited time they can give a fair idea to B-schools whether a candidate can become a manager or not. This brings us to another question: are managerial traits natural or can they be acquired? If they are natural, what is the need to do MBA?

An MBA course teaches students how to achieve larger goals and it polishes those personality traits. But there are some basic traits that a candidate should have to go through the MBA process and to know that, institutes conduct GD/PI.

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Bollywood biggies to teach at IIM-A

Ahmedabad : Even if it's not exactly boom time at Indian Institute of Management, Ahmedabad (IIM-A), it'll soon be dhoom' time! Bollywood biggies are going to descend on campus soon and don the hat of professors.

The first-ever course on Bollywood at the institute will roll out on December 23. Confirmations from Sanjay Gadhvi, maker of Dhoom 2' and more recently, Kidnap', and Apoorva Lakhia, director of Shootout at Lokhandwala', have been received and Aamir Khan and Madhur Bhandarkar have also shown keen interest.

The course has met with overwhelming response with 86 students registering for it. This will make it a class even bigger than that of Dr APJ Abdul Kalam!

"I'm happy with the interest students have shown in the course. The reason for launching it was to study the Indian film business as an industry. Plenty of research has been done on relatively new industries like transportation, telecom and retail. I took this opportunity to explore film industry," says Tejas Desai, faculty in-charge of the course titled Introduction to Contemporary Film Industry'.

The course will give students an insight into economics of the industry at various stages of filmmaking production, financing, distribution, marketing and much more, he elaborates. Prof Desai has prepared a case study on Madhur Bhandarkar's Corporate'.

"With this course, I'm also hoping a whole new industry will be opened for students as far as placements are concerned. National and international companies, like Sony, UTV and Big Entertainment, can offer our students good opportunities," says Desai.

The course has been offered as an elective to second-year students of postgraduate programme in their last term at the institute. At present, the schedule is being chalked out and a brief on topics to be taken has been sent to the two directors who have confirmed their involvement.

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B-schools need to shape mindsets, not just placement agencies

The global economic crisis has thrown up many challenges for our higher educational institutions, especially business schools. This meltdown is not only about greed or irresponsible judgement in using other people’s money by those at the helm in some institutions; it is also a manifestation of a deeper crisis in capitalism. B-schools can play a role in addressing this crisis. Besides shaping the mindset of the students, they also need to set a new direction to the research their faculty is involved in.

The subprime mortgage crisis in the US could not have caused such havoc worldwide had the regulators and the rating agencies done a better job. Valid aspersions are being raised on the integrity of these rating agencies that converted the bad debts of some financial institutions into investment-grade products and trapped other financial institutions. Some even attribute it to an unholy nexus between rating agencies, regulators and financial institutions. The disturbing aspect of it is that most of these organizations are run by products of some top B-schools.

Unfortunately, the role models for most B-school students are those graduates who earn the biggest pay packets; and their dream destinations have been companies that pay the most—even those that borrow heavily to do so or whose directors don’t mind getting fat bonuses even as their firms bleed. Wall Street icon Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc., which was highly leveraged and collapsed in mid-September, was also one of the highest paymasters.

Even media overplayed the placement performance of B-schools by publishing misleading data. This overemphasis on placements in the last few years has had a great impact on shaping the mindset of students. Many faculty members at some top Indian B-schools have told me how they see the quality of students deteriorating every year. From the day they enter campus, their focus is more on getting high-salary jobs than on improving their capabilities. Students are increasingly viewing B-schools as placement agencies rather than learning centres. This creates an environment where making money gets primacy over hard work, ethics and social responsibilities.

After the Enron Inc. crisis, it became the fashion to include ethics as a subject in B-schools though I have my doubts on whether ethics can be taught at all—particularly at this stage of education. In my view, the best way of inculcating ethics in students is to promote an ethical culture in the institutions. Faculty and management should be role models for ethical behaviour.

This is where many of our B-schools falter. Misleading advertisements, backdoor admissions, hiring incompetent faculty, siphoning money from the system and tolerance for unethical practices among faculty and students by management have a corrupting influence on students.

This, in turn, is often reflected in their alacrity in taking short cuts to complete their projects or in making money. Reversing this trend would be a big challenge for our educational institutions.

The present economic crisis is not only about the failure of some financial institutions, it is also symptomatic of the breakdown of the capitalist system. Like the command economy of the erstwhile Communist countries, it too has failed to keep up with the needs of our growing population and its growing aspirations. It invested much more in fuelling consumption than on investing in creation and application of knowledge in critical areas such as food, fuel and the environment.

Most of the research in the financial sector, too, has facilitated consumption on borrowed money. For example, securitization, the process by which loans of one institution are sold to other institutions as pools of debt, has in a way resulted in irresponsible lending that has significantly contributed to the present crisis. Even the poor are treated more as a market for different products, including debt, rather than as potential wealth creators. This is precisely where research in our educational institutions should now focus—to increase the productivity of the poor, especially those in rural areas. Before treating them as a market, their productivity should be increased by leveraging innovations in technology.

For this, our educational institutions should first believe that they can play a leadership role in transforming society. As of now, most of them are content with being just teaching outlets and placement agencies.

Premchand Palety is director of Centre for Forecasting and Research (C fore) in New Delhi, from where he keeps a close eye on India’s business schools. Comments are welcome at businesscase@livemint.com

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Persistent determination, the basis of business

What is the fundamental nature of business? It is true that the foundation of a business revolves around the notion of profit but this is not all. The successful operation of a business depends on many other factors apart from this. One of these factors happens to be persistent determination. This is not only essential but also motivates a person even at the hours of distress. Are you a student of MBA? If you are, you have surely gone through many case studies related to this. But now you can have something in your home.

How? Have a chat with RK Krishna Kumar, the Vice-chairman of Tata Group’s Indian Hotels and see his self-esteem and steadfastness even at this worst situation in the history of Taj. The person is fully committed towards the reconstruction of the structure of Taj and proposes a toast to the spirit of the employees of the hotel. Never forget that this trait should be present in every management although the bulk of the Indian companies are found to be devoid of this.

He has also criticized vehemently, while talking to the media persons, the deadly attack on the city of Mumbai and two of its iconic landmarks — the Taj and the Oberoi. According to him, this is in no way a stray incident and a simple continuation of the previous terror attacks for the liberation of Kashmir or other demands. On the contrary this is a daring attempt to halt the economic progress of India and her emergence as a global power.

In the context of Taj the rebuilding of the age-old institution will start as soon as the present crisis ends. What’s more he is confident that the management is enough competent and will restore it to its fullest glory. What should be the level of the reconstruction? This can be clearly understood for the fact that the entire top floor of the hotel has gone up in flames.

You will make a huge mistake if you consider RK Krishna Kumar as the only vigilant person of the management. Mr. Tata is also conscious of the entire happening and its gradual developments. What does this indicate? The illustrious dedication of the Taj group originates in the determination and consistency of the management. The self-sacrifice of Taj’s employees is an outcome of this age-old yet effective ideal.

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