XIMB rural managers secure 100% offers

BHUBANESWAR: The global slowdown does not seem to have affected placements in the city-based Xavier Institute of Management, Bhubaneswar (XIMB). In fact, it has created a record of sorts by achieving 100% placements for the students of its rural management programme.

All the 59 students of post-graduate diploma in rural management have been placed in various organisations even before their course ends in the mid-March 2009. Companies including Deloitte, Monsanto, Tata Teleservices, Shriram Group and DevGen were the major corporations which came to campus for recruiting rural managers.

XIMB also remained a favourite hunting ground for micro-finance and development organisations like Microsave, Intellicap, Bandhan, Hands in Hand, Pradaan, ALW and ALC.More than 30 organisations participated in the process.

The highest salary offered was Rs 8 lakh per annum which was at par with the last year’s highest offer, while the average salary has gone up from Rs 4.2 lakh to Rs 4.46 lakh per annum.

“At a time when most of the management institutions dealing with sectoral management education are literally struggling for placements for their students due to unfavorable market conditions, we have been able to ensure 100% placement for students,” a XIMB faculty and a member of the placement committee Niraj Kumar told ET on Thursday.

“We have not only been able to keep our traditional recruiters happy with the quality performances by our alumni, but have been able to widen our base by reaching out to research-based organisations like IMRB and consulting organisations like Deloitte,” added Mr Kumar.

The B-school also has been able to place of all its first year rural management students for their summer projects. There too, new organisations have been added to the list and the project profile has widened.

Buoyed by the success, a beaming XIMB placement coordinator Saveeta Mohanty, said, “Yes, we could beat the market because of the consistent performance of our alumni and brand XIMB. The fact that Orissa has emerged as a preferred investment destination for many corporations and development organisations has also helped us considerably”.

The faculty and students alike were keeping their fingers crossed all these weeks. “We were not sure of this success as we were getting discouraging news from different institutions across the country where our friends are studying. Now that we have finally made it, we feel happy and proud,” said students placement committee coordinator S Shiv.

View Source

FT Global MBA Ranking 2009

1. University of Pennsylvania: Wharton, U.S.A.
2. London Business School, U.K.
3. Harvard Business School, U.S.A.
4. Columbia Business School, U.S.A.
5. Insead, France / Singapore
6. Stanford University GSB, U.S.A
7. IE Business School, Spain
8. Ceibs, China
9. MIT: Sloan, U.S.A.
10. New York University: Stern, U.S.A
11. University of Chicago: Booth, U.S.A
12. Iese Business School, Spain
13. Dartmouth College: Tuck, U.S.A.
14. IMD, Switzerland
15. Indian School of Business, India
16. Hong Kong UST Business School, China
17. University of Cambridge: Judge, U.K
18. Esade Business School, Spain
19. Yale School of Management, U.S.A
20. University of Oxford: Saïd, U.K.
21. Northwestern University: Kellogg, U.S.A
22. Duke University: Fuqua, U.S.A
23. University of Michigan: Ross, U.S.A
24. Emory University: Goizueta, U.S.A
25. Nanyang Business School, Singapore

(Source: Financial Times)

Corporates focus on social responsibility

LUCKNOW: The organisations which have integrated themselves with societies would survive against all the present challenges. This was the opinion of the hosts of delegates from the corporates and academicia on the second day of the annual conclave - Manfest - organised by the Indian Institute of Management, Lucknow (IIM-L) on Saturday.

JJ Irani, director, Tata Sons said that one way is that of following the corporate social responsibility (CSR) which he said was "the future investment for any company''. The CSR, he said, was not only about giving back to the community but also fostering an environment of strong corporate governance. The other dignitaries present on the occasion included Seema Arora from CII-ITC centre of sustainable development and Prof PD Jose from IIM-Bangalore.

Manfest also hosted the second edition of `Anjuman - The Corporate Luncheon' on Saturday where the dignitaries were seen sharing their thoughts with students, faculties and alumni alike.

In the event - Call for Arms - top 10 B-schools from the country pitted against each other to formulate business expansion plans for the Sahara City homes. The plans were subsequently presented to the top management of Sahara infrastructure and housing limited.

Then came the `Biz Quiz' which was conducted by Avinash Mudaliar, acclaimed as one of the most renowned quiz masters. The quiz ended with the team from Accenture Services winning the final event.

Next, it was the turn for the elimination round of `Hell raiser', the rock competition. In the final round there were six teams from various B-schools which vied for the top prize.

View Source

B-Schools and Globalisation

Robert Dolan, Dean of the Ross School of Business at the University of Michigan, tells a funny story about when he, a freshly minted PhD in Operations Research, was assigned to teach a course in marketing at the Chicago School of Business.

He didn’t know much about marketing , so he decided he would visit the offices of Proctor & Gamble to find out what it was all about: “I put on my suit and was making my way out of the campus when the dean spotted me and asked me where I was going, all dressed up.

When I told him I was going to Proctor & Gamble to learn about marketing, he asked me, ‘Do they have any Nobel Laureates in Proctor & Gamble?’ When I said ‘I don’t think so,’ he said, ‘Well, we’ve got dozens of Nobel Laureates. So you just stay right here’” .

You might want to take the story with a pinch of salt, the way the dean tells it, but it certainly does serve to reinforce that old notion of academia as an ivory tower. Especially since it’s set in the University of Chicago, which indeed prides itself on the number of Nobel Laureates it has on the faculty and more specifically, at the Chicago School of Business, which has always put theory ahead of application (at the other extreme from Harvard, which holds up its case study method as the most effective pedagogy).

Nearly 30 years have gone by since Dolan tried to visit Proctor & Gamble. Today, his counterpart might consider hopping on a plane and coming to India or China instead . Would the dean stop him? The present dean of Chicago School of Business is the enlightened Ted Snyder and he probably would not.

At the same time, Snyder is unstinting in his criticism of how business school faculty have coped with the phenomenon of globlaisation: “If you look at how industries and organisations have responded to globalisation , you’ll find business schools have responded less than anyone else,“ he says. “It must be asked: do our faculty understand globalisation ? Do they understand emerging markets?”

The way the dean leaves the question hanging while adressing the audience of academicians, students and corporate CEOs at the recent Strategic Management Society (SMS) conference at the Indian School of Business (ISB), the answer seems to be ‘no.’ The reason is not hard to find. “Faculty don’t get around much,” says Snyder. “Bschools tend to be location specific and the faculty like to be rooted in one place for their research.”

No wonder then that the faculty of IIM-Ahmedabad has produced a surfeit of research on companies headquatered in Ahmedabad and ISB Hyderbad has tended to give undue importance to the now discredited Ramalinga Raju of Satyam Computers, who was invited to address not one, but two plenary sessions at the SMS conference.

At the Ivy League American b-schools , which are supposed to be more global in their outlook, research on emerging markets has come into vogue only in the last decade. Not surprisingly, faculty of Indian and Chinese origin, who happily find themselves in the right place at the right time, have taken the lead in publishing books and papers.

CK Prahalad, the prime mover of the SMS India Conference at ISB, plans to push the trend. “We have to ask ourselves , how can emerging markets be a source of inspiration for scholars?” he says. “The general view is that there’s nothing to learn from emerging markets, that innovation always flows from developed economies to developing economies. We have to challenge the tyranny of this dominant logic.”

View Source

B-schools on top

As admissions across B-schools in the country have shown, intake of students has gone up. Recession, say industry experts, is bringing with it the much needed stability in markets.

An aspiring MBA joins a B-school to gain new skills, get new insights into the managing of organisations, to meet new people and to learn the skill-sets needed to become a good manager. In reality, most aspiring MBAs join B-schools to enhance their job prospects and earn a tidy remuneration package.

In India, management graduates had it going for them in the last three years. Salaries touched all time highs and recruitment drives on most B-school campuses saw an over drive.

Considering the current volatile market scenario, many aspirants are being made to believe that this may not be the right time to pass out of a B-school or the right time to get into a B-school. With recession playing havoc on the economy and several sectors taking pay cuts and lay offs, is it wise to pursue an MBA?

"Salary packages for MBAs are stabilising after a period of escalation," says Sujata Khanna, Chairperson, Career Forum.

The market was to stabilise at some point industry insiders feel and the recession is just bringing on the stability.
Moreover, as most experts believe, the skill sets one gains are useful to any individual regardless of the market situation, as is evident from the number of multi-disciplinary students from medicine, engineering, arts, media etc who are pursuing MBA to boost their corporate careers.

The 2008-10 batches of students at IIM Ahmedabad and IIM Calcutta consist of about 90 percent engineers.
Students who had enrolled for a MBA programme in 2006 had not the faintest clue about the economic slowdown. Although they may face the heat now, the situation is bound to improve as the economy picks up.

For aspiring MBAs this is the best time to pursue a programme. When they graduate in 2011, the economic condition will have improved again. Mid-career personnel looking to enhance their skills with a MBA should also consider pursuing an MBA at this point.

As admissions across B-schools in the country have shown, intake of students has gone up and some B-schools have also increased the number of seats from 2009.

IMT - Ghaziabad and Indian School of Business - Hyderabad (ISB) have reported an increase of 10 percent and 40 percent respectively in the applications received. FMS, Delhi has received 75,604 applications for 2009-11 admissions which is a rise of over 14,000 from last year.

Moreover, as industry experts claim, even during an economic crisis a corporate house does need people. Recruitments take a drop but do not stop.

The top B-schools continue to attract recruiters, despite the recession as is evident from the summer placements of IIM Kozhikode for class of 2010. 261 candidates have been placed across 102 national and international firms, up from the 66 who participated last year according to a report carried by this paper in November last year.

The bottom line is that opportunities remain even in tough recessionary times.

View Source

Techno-MBAs - need of the hour

The existing compartmentalised approach to management education has inherent limitations to be able to walk hand-in-hand with the fast changing global business scenario.

Today's technological civilisation needs rapid and radical changes to tackle issues. Hence business management programmes that connect with technology, design and innovation are indeed critical.

Survival as a manager in today's techno savvy work environment depends largely on your ability to innovate - and technology provides tremendous opportunities to innovate and differentiate.

The MBA of tomorrow therefore needs a strong foundation in technology.

Does this mean that one has to learn programming or be an engineer? - No. What is required is an understanding of the available technologies, their strengths and weaknesses, possible applications of these technologies to real life business situations and the ability to visualize newer solutions as an integral part of business planning. Equally the MBA needs to be able to harness this technology effectively and therefore must have good project, process and change management capabilities.

We are slowly but surely moving to an era where all business is becoming e-Business.

Recognising this need many B-schools started adding a few subjects such as e-commerce, MIS and IT for Management into their MBA syllabus. These subjects are usually handled as very elementary courses on technology and the management aspects of technology.

With the growth of IT and ITES businesses, the need for techno-MBAs is increasing by leaps and bounds.

From my recent years in helping students in placements I find that company's, both IT service providers as well as user industries looking for MBAs for traditional business roles seem to prefer MBAs who have some knowledge of technology.

Some B-schools, apart from having systems as specialisation, which is more suited for roles in the technology domain, provide the possibility of dual specialisation or a major/minor combination between functional and systems. This is an interesting way of addressing needs. Students who take finance or marketing for eg. can take these as their major and take a few subjects such as CRM or ERP or E-commerce as part of the Systems Minor.

Since many of these industry relevant courses and indeed the manner in which they are offered do not fit into the sometimes rigid framework of traditional educational systems such as Universities etc, the MBA aspirant must remember that the industry today evaluates based on the students' demonstrated talent and content of the courses and not merely affiliations to universities or government agencies. It is relevance which matters most.

Design and Innovation Management - imperative for future.

In this era of uncontrolled growth, not only of population but also products, services, scientific and technical information, how does one make sense of human needs and aspirations?

Emerging unarticulated needs and realities need new approaches. We feel management education can play a very crucial role in creating a new genre of managers who are attuned to these realities.

All forward thinking business leaders agree that innovation is the only way forward. Design that delivers sustainable solutions will play a significant role in business transformation.

We need a separate genre of managers who are trained not only to manage but also innovate, looking at the human, social and psychological needs of the users of their products and services, to make better profits in their line of business.

There are several organisations that have innovation centers/innovation hubs that focus on internalising design and innovation at all levels in the organisation. Some of the roles one can expect to play as persons with business and design knowledge are:

l Design Strategists / Design Interface Managers
l Business Analysts / Solution Architects / Information Architects
l Business and Organisational Architects
Certainly new output needs new input and therefore the pedagogy used while inculcating design and innovation thinking include unlearning workshops, integrated teaching and hands-on learning.
Your future success lies in selecting institutes and courses which have demonstrated their ability to deliver such as a blend of management, technology, design and innovation.

View Source

Lateral placement at IIM-A

Ahmedabad (IANS): The lateral process to place experienced students from various programmes in IIM-Ahmedabad at non-entry level positions in different sectors has officially begun, a statement issued by the institute said on Saturday.

"The objective of this particular process is to provide our experienced students with a wide gamut of opportunities. As in previous years, our focus will be to match students' experience with higher level (non entry-level) positions within firms," a statement from the IIM-A said.

As the students eligible for lateral placements have a depth of experience, a wide range of firms across sectors such as finance, consulting, marketing, general management, operations, IT and telecom are being looked at, it added.

The statement said that recent media reports had speculated that lateral placements were being postponed, but this is not so.

"Companies are in the middle of their placement process on campus and this is scheduled to continue for the next two months. In fact, many first time recruiters have expressed keen interest in being part of placements at IIM-Ahmedabad this season," the release said.

"We believe that there is demand for quality talent, even in the current market environment. While certain firms may choose not to recruit or recruit in lesser numbers in the present situation, our endeavour continues to be to give students maximum choice with respect to firms and roles," the release said.

"IIM-A has built a relationship over the years with recruiters and we believe that the relationship will continue to be strong," the statement added.

View Source

CAT 2008 Results

The results hosted on the website http://results.catiim.in

To receive the results by SMS, the candidate must type in his/her CAT registration number and send it to 57333.

In addition to the IIMs, more than 50 B-Schools across the country admit students based on their CAT scores.

All the Best

Salaries drop at IIFT

The Indian Institute of Foreign Trade(IIFT),one of the premier B-schools in the country, has seen a 30 to 40 per cent drop in average packages offered at its lateral placements that concluded about a fortnight ago, and expects a similar trend in the upcoming fresher placements in January, owing to the downturn.

Around 50 students appeared for the lateral placements this year out of a total strength of 180 across the two IIFT campuses in Delhi and Kolkata and the institute has tasted 70 per cent success including pre-placement offers. "While the average package for lateral placements in the last academic session ranged between Rs12- 15 lakh per annum(pa), this year the average package offered is down to Rs 6 to 8 lakh pa. This could further go down during the fresher placements in January.", admitted K Rangarajan,head of IIFT Kolkata campus and Centre of MSME Studies at the institute. "As businesses try to focus on reducing overhead costs including expenditure on human resources, the package sizes offered have gone down.", he added. Sources in IIFT claimed that corporates are also trying to make the most of the current situation to avail cheaper manpower. Some students, it is learnt, have turned down offers.

"Around 40 to 45 per cent of the visiting companies are from the manufacturing sector this time.This is significantly more compared to other years when the balance was steeply in favour of service sector firms that comprised nearly 80 per cent of the portfolio.", Ranagarajan informed.

View Source

Recession: MBA graduates eye competitive exams

JAIPUR: Neeraj Mathur, a final year MBA student, purchased text books for geography and general knowledge last week after he failed to grab a decent job during a campus recruitment held in his college. "Now I have decided to appear for civil services exam. It's no less than a suicide to wait for a job in the present scenario," said a disappointed Mathur.

Like Mathur, hundreds of MBA graduates in the city's B-schools are disappointed by the corporates due to recession. Many of them have given up hopes of getting a lucrative job. Now they are eyeing on 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 fail to get a job, I won't be able to pay," says Trilok.

The students are left with less options. Many management schools had told their students to either wait for the recovery of market or to grab available jobs. Rajesh Kathori, director, Podar Management College, agrees: "The market condition is not favourable at the moment and jobs are available only for the competent ones."

This year, there is a sudden spurt in students appearing for the civil service and other competitive exams, mainly because of the implementation of Sixth Pay Commission recommendations. It has prompted many students from management and science background to appear for the exam. "Government jobs have become very promising with the implementation of pay commission recommendations. Now the salary of an MBA graduate is much lesser than a government officer," said Mahesh Vardhman a student.

View Source