MBA degree and recession?

As most coaching classes are busy preparing their call-getters to convert their initial calls, into final admits, news from B-School campuses keeps pouring in. 'Placements take a hit at top B-schools'. 'IIM students look up to PSU's for their placements'. These reports have been raising doubts in the minds of the call-getters, whether it is the right time to quit a secured job and go for something as uncertain as an MBA?

The fact of the matter is that this slowdown is not a recent phenomenon. We saw it coming last year itself, the year in which the IIM's witnessed the highest number of CAT applications - more than 2.80 lakh, about 25% over the CAT 2007 numbers. A similar jump was seen in the number of applications to other institutes as well. So why is an increasing number of students looking to beat the slowdown with an MBA degree?

The reason why most people opt for an MBA is not only because it gives very generous monetary returns, but also because it is important for making a career change. Different people have different reasons for doing an MBA - knowledge, a better position, shift of career and some do it even for status.

But the big question is, what is the right time to do an MBA? With jobs not available, pay-hike being almost negligible, many people believe that this is the right time to spend 2 years doing MBA and upgrade your skills and ability to get employed. If you analyze objectively, by the time you pass out, the business cycle may be on the upturn and you would be ready on time to take advantage of the situation.

Though the atmosphere at business schools may suggest otherwise, a point to be noted here is that it is only the salaries that have taken a hit - not placements. Most of the top B-Schools have recorded 100% placements or close to that. Earlier finance companies used to recruit students in bulk at higher pay packages.

Today, due to the economic downturn, finance companies are making fewer offers with lower pay packages and this in general has plummeted the average salaries at B-schools. But on the positive side, students have garnered the opportunity to work in diversified profiles across sectors and functions, profiles that would help in their career progression.

The two intensive years that you spend at a B-School campus equip you with knowledge in areas like finance, marketing, logistics, personnel and strategy. Also, through case studies you would learn to analyze different business issues faced by the companies.

You also get an opportunity for internship and projects, which help you gain that valuable real life experience. In short, an MBA from a top B-school gives you the flexibility to switch careers and also makes you more employable because of the mental grooming to face the challenges of the real world.

Though this might be the right time to do your MBA, you need to be careful about certain things. Go for the top B-Schools only. An ordinary B-School may not offer you all the benefits that we have discussed earlier.

Since you are trading off an earning opportunity to do your MBA, you should ensure that you get a good return on your investment of time and money. Secondly, in tough times like these, you might look forward to shorter MBA programs. There are a couple of good institutes that are offering a 1-Year MBA program. So, you not only get all the advantages of a good MBA program, but your earning cycle starts a year in advance.

However, whether it is a 1-Year program or a 2-Year program, an MBA degree does have the power to bail you out of the recession.

Why Value of MBA has declined?

Few MBA or executive training programs adequately address the importance of developing leaders. For the most part programs tend to be theory oriented and use the traditional tools of conceptual learning — case studies, lectures, films and discussions — relying on the contrast between managers and leaders actions. Which may be why the value of an MBA and the salaries of MBA students appear to no longer be what they once were.

The problem with many business school leadership programs is they teach ideas, not real behaviours, and the professors are chosen by virtue of their ability to publish detailed research, not their leadership experience. Understanding something intellectually often has little to do with being able to do it. Adult learners need experiences and coaching to turn concepts into leadership behaviours.

Henry Mintzberg, a professor of management studies at McGill University in Montreal, also argues that because students spend so much time developing quick responses to packaged versions of business problems, they do not learn enough about real-world experiences. Rakesh Khurana, a professor at Harvard Business School and author of From Higher Aims to Hired Hands, a historical analysis of business education, says business schools never really taught their students that, like doctors and lawyers, they were part of a profession with professional standards. In the 1970s, he said, the idea took hold that a company’s stock price was the primary barometer of a leader’s success. Among other things, this changed business schools’ concept of proper management techniques. Instead of being viewed as long-term economic stewards, he says, managers came to be seen primarily as the agents of the owners — the shareholders — responsible for maximizing shareholder wealth.”We can’t rely on the usual structure of MBA education, which divides the management world into the discrete business functions of marketing, finance, accounting, and so on,” he says.

For universities, business schools have been a means to an end — money. They are less expensive to operate than graduate schools are with their elaborate labs and research facilities, and alumni tend to be generous with donations. About 146,000 graduate degrees in business were awarded in the U.S. in 2005-06; roughly a fourth of the 594,000 graduate degrees awarded that school year,the U.S. Education Department notes. Still, there have been signs all is not well in business education.

A study of cheating among graduate students by Linda Trevino, Ken Butterfield and Donald McCabe, published in 2006 in the journal Academy of Management Learning & Education, found 56% of all MBA students cheated regularly — more than in any other discipline. The authors attributed that to “perceived peer behaviour” — in other words, students believed everyone else was doing it.

McCabe, writing in the Harvard Business Review, contends the prevalence of cheating among MBA students is because of the “get-it-done, dam-the-torpedoes, succeed-at-all costs mentality many business students bring to he game.” He describes an MBA student mentality of getting the highest GPA possible so they can get the highest paid jobs in the pharmaceutical, high-tech and finance sectors.

Some employers are beginning to question the value of an MBA. A research project that two Harvard professors released in 2008 found that employers valued graduates’ ability to think through complex business problems, but that something was lacking. “There is a need to broaden from the analytical focus of MBA programs for more emphasis on skills and a sense of purpose and identity,” said David Garvin, a professor of business administration and one of the project’s authors.

Students themselves may welcome an emphasis on character skills and personal development. In surveys that the Aspen Institute regularly conducts, MBA candidates say they are less confident now they will be able to resolve ethical quandaries in the workplace.

In fairness, several business schools are trying to revise their model but most have yet to realize they have a credibility problem. Business schools including the University of Toronto’s Rotman School of Management, Wharton, Yale and Stanford are overhauling their MBA programs, with a focus on better problem-solving, decision-making, ethics and social responsibility through experiential opportunities.

Angel Cabrera, President of the Thunderbird School of Global Management in Arizona, says that business schools are slowly beginning to move towards accepting the broader responsibility of management, citing the example of more than 200 business schools around the world that have endorsed the Principles of Responsible Management Education, a movement sponsored by the United Nations.

The challenge for business schools now is how to develop leaders not managers — people who believe business has bottom lines beyond shareholder value.

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ISB Placements rise by 33%

MUMBAI: The 2010 batch of Indian School of Business (ISB), Hyderabad, saw a 33% increase in total number of placement offers and an 11% rise in average salary over last year, the institute said in a media statement.

“This year shows a significant improvement over last year,” said dean Ajit Rangnekar. The class comprising 568 students witnessed offers from top companies in technology, consulting and finance increase by 116%, 40% and 30%, respectively, over the last year, making them the largest recruiters on campus.

Citibank, DBS Bank, Accenture Services, Arthur D. Little Asia, Cognizant Technology Solutions, Amazon Development Centre India, United Health Group and Dr. Reddy’s Laboratories are few of the 346 recruiters.

“Last year was a traumatic year, but we still matched compensation level of 2007,” said Mr Rangnekar. “2008 was a mad year, as companies were paying far too much money. There was gross over optimism in the market. Given that in 2009 there was undue pessimism,” he added.

This year’s highlight was first-time recruiters from the green energy sector like Schneider Electric India and Wipro Eco-business.

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Foreign MBA degree fetch a Good Job

Due to globalisation, liberalisation and privatisation, it has become feasible to pursue an MBA course from foreign universities especially in UK, Australia, USA and Canada.

Distance learning MBAs and online MBAs from foreign universities still have the same attraction. A foreign degree guarantees more exposure since students need to interact with fellow classmates and faculty to learn and evolve.

In a foreign MBA, students come with work experience in a variety of fields like finance, high-tech, marketing, poetry, films and other such artistic fields. The diversity in student body helps them develop a strong network across all countries.

So does a foreign MBA still have the same attraction as in the past decade? “A foreign MBA degree is still attractive for a large pool of people in India, though only few globally renowned institutes are great to get in, which include Asian Institute of Management, Philippines, London Business School, United Kingdom, Kellogg School of Management, USA, Harvard Business School, USA, and Wharton University of Pennsylvania, USA. One of the good points of a foreign MBA degree is its admission criteria which include 3-4years of corporate experience and case studies which are based on real time experience for students to learn the art of management,” notes Sunil Goel, Director, GlobalHunt, an executive search firm.

Says Jayaram K Iyer, Professor, Marketing, Loyola Institute of Business Administration, “Unfortunately yes and in fact gullible students are falling prey to glitzy advertisements and five-star-hotel fairs from foreign universities that seem to promise more and deliver a lot less; it is as usual the 'country of origin' effect: craze for anything foreign. Most of these foreign universities are here because they can’t find students in their own countries; it is business for them and no education can swerve from altruistic goals. Good foreign MBA degrees are restricted to a few top 30-40 b-schools in the world and the ranks are public information. However, one good aspect of all these foreign MBAs is that, the students get lot more culturally diverse exposure that moulds them to be more global in perspective. Of course, they also become more patriotic realising the worth of India.”

Does a foreign MBA give a better pay, position etc? “A foreign MBA degree from a renowned institute certainly gives better pay and position as it provides exposure, builds up strategic thinking, leadership ability and foremost, it teaches how to get culturally fit in an organisation.

Holding a foreign MBA degree from a renowned institute develops very high aspiration in a candidate as far as compensation is concerned, this might not be feasible in today's economic scenario,” adds Goel.

So the question is, Is a foreign MBA essential to fetch a good job? “Finally, one needs to decide what he/she plans to do after an MBA. This is probably the most defining factor to take a decision. If one is planning to take up a job abroad, one can opt for a foreign MBA. If one plans to return to India on completion, one should think through. Compared to foreign B-schools, Indian institutions offer cost advantage, making them more attractive if one is planning to build one’s career in India,” feels Ajay Oberoi, director general & trustee, AICAR Business School.

The quality of education at top-ranked Indian business schools is at par with some of the best in the world. But that applies to only a handful of business schools across the country.

In India, most of the MBA students are fresh out of college and have no work experience. This is not the case with the foreign MBA institutions.

Students come with work experience in a variety of areas and this helps them broaden their perspective. Whatever the route, a foreign MBA degree from a renowned institute certainly enhances one’s chances of fetching a good job and gives one an edge over other candidates.

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Management Education Flaws

It is tragic that education today churns out graduates unmindful of the requirements of the industry that will employ them. In boom times, most organisations grab whatever employee they can and then invest heavily in training, for want of an alternative. We have heard of the training campuses of large companies. I was involved in training for new recruits at Lehman Brothers when they set up their back office in Mumbai. 

Also, an investment banker was in discussion with me once to set up a mini-university within his company. The objective: crash the time it takes a new recruit to be productive, from nine months to 45 days. 

No depth

The problem with our management education is fundamental. Most MBA courses, for example, are marketed on the basis of a stated number of credit courses. Some are compulsory while others are elective. Each credit course on paper is well laid out with quizzes, presentations, assignments, reading and end-term examination. The process of evaluation is expected to assign marks for class participation as well.

So, topics like elements of finance and derivatives may each have one course. Naturally, a more complex subject like derivatives takes a beating, having to be covered in a short time-span. Before a faculty can warm up to the subject and establish rapport with the students, the course is over and finished. There is neither an effort nor a desire to grill the students in the fundamentals and ingrain some depth of knowledge such that when he enters employment, he is ready to contribute.

In my interactions with students undergoing super-specialisation in different aspects of finance such as wealth management or investment banking, it was appalling to see them struggling with basics. What is their specialisation and what is super about them is anybody’s guess. In most of these institutes, we still have the concept of a teacher coming and lecturing, students taking down copious notes and later regurgitating the same in an end-term exam, passing with marks upwards of 90% but with little assimilation of knowledge. The institutes have learnt to avoid investments in libraries and the tech-savvy students, heavily reliant on Googling, have adjusted very well, rarely making visits there. They all want handouts, for reading multiple books is an activity for which they have no time. 

Education is viewed as a very profitable business, where your cash flow is upfront before the product is delivered, and admission is driven not by quality of education but by placement and remuneration record. Higher the placement record, better the average pay offered, greater the intake of students. The institutions are structured to cater to this formula. They use marketing skills and personal relationships with HR managers and somehow push placement for the students. Many even dump a certain syllabus on the students, make them learn a few jargons and unleash them in the market to wreak havoc. Most students in finance would have no clue on any practical aspect of what they learn. 

They don’t get to see a Reuters or Bloomberg screen, rarely visit active markets during the course — all this despite the internet and other trappings of modernity being available. In fact, most teachers themselves must be surviving without actually visiting the live markets.

No exposure

What is taught is determined by the academicians who rule these institutions and not on the basis of what the recruiter would like to have. While some do invite practising professionals to come as visiting faculty, that exposure is minimal. Rare are those institutions who invite practitioners on a professional basis to conduct a full-credit course with complete practical orientation. 

The general approach ingrained in the average MBA course seems to be that the students need to have a broad overview of the various subjects and not necessarily in-depth knowledge in any sub-topic. This has reduced it to a farce, with the students throwing sophisticated phrases with little understanding of concepts. You scratch them at the surface and they start to falter. I have seen this at different levels in different situations. 

Students in finance complete the course without a clue on how products are structured or traded, why the arbitrage taught in a classroom rarely works in practice, how bid-offer spreads and liquidity can kill all that theory mugged up in a classroom. The pity is that most don’t care, so long as there is a job at the end of the course. 

Low-paid teachers

Emmanuele Darman describes this in his book My Life as a Quant: “During my last few years at Goldman Sachs, I interviewed undergraduates applying for jobs in investment banking, and I was often surprised at how little of their coursework some of them recalled, how little a sense they had of the essence of their field. I met juniors majoring in statistics who couldn’t define standard deviation and students who had taken several courses in electromagnetic theory but couldn’t remember Maxwell’s equation. What I had learned, I had learned well. Theirs’ sometimes seemed a wasted education.”

 

Rarely is teaching a choice of pursuing a passion. While there are some faculty members who have opted for it despite the low remuneration, in most cases, it is by default. I have never been able to reconcile the expectations from low-paid faculty members who turn out students offered starting salaries higher than their remuneration. Rarely do you find practising managers giving up their lucrative careers to teach.

Industry’s role

Institutions trying to attract visiting faculty from practising managers also face many problems. They owe their loyalty to the organisation they work for, cancel lectures at the last minute, and rarely coordinate the topics or deliver to the agreed syllabus. To make matters worse, these visiting managers rarely read and hence fail to stitch the theory to the practice. 

 

While the brochures speak elegantly about the faculty, pedagogy with lectures, case studies, class discussion, etc, it is seen that faculty often don’t change the case studies for more than 4-5 years. Even today, most institutions would harp on the Barings case study, while there are multiple cases of later years available to emphasise on the learning. Latest market practices are often not taught. For instance, a class on fixed income markets would rarely refer to the FIMMDA or its handbook of market practices, CCIL and the clearing and settlement practices, RBI’s electronic anonymous screen-based trading system and how to interpret the market from the prices quoted there, etc. It is possible that in most cases the faculty themselves are not aware of these. 

It is necessary to deal with this on a holistic basis. Initiative must come from industry to set up state-of-the-art management training institutes. Each one can be set up by a cluster of contributing or participating companies. Each of these institutes must have a cluster of real businesses, producing products and services used by the participating companies setting up the institution. Students studying for an MBA would spend 3-4 years with a well-structured mixture of theory and practice. The companies must be run by the students themselves with assistance from faculty who must be practising managers. 

Graduates must be assured of jobs from the participating companies with an option to choose jobs outside the participating companies. By the time they graduate, they would have managed different aspects of a running company and be ready to put their theory to practice, having dabbled in it. 

This is possible only if organisations such as FICCI, CII and Assocham take the lead and set up great centres of learning across the country. The faculty should be paid on the same scales as senior management staff in industry. Naturally, the cost of such education would be high and must be borne by the students, through scholarships if necessary. Needless to say, for their work in running the company, they will be paid a remuneration which can partially defray the cost of their education. 

If we fail to address the need to revamp our education system and think innovatively, managing double-digit growth rates may be an uphill task.

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B-schools and entrepreneurship

Entrepreneurship is becoming a popular career choice these days among aspirants and in an endeavour to cater to this growing demand, many institutions are making ‘entrepreneurship education’ a part of their curriculum. ET HighFlier discusses the unique ways business schools are adopting to support students who have a penchant towards creating something new.

MENTORING ENTREPRENEURS:

Karam Lakshman, program manager - iAccelerator, IIMAhmedabad believes that entrepreneurship education seeks to provide students with the knowledge, skills and motivation required to encourage entrepreneurial success and lay down the conditions and solutions to the challenges that one might foresee in a venture. “Business is the backbone of a country’s economy and entrepreneurship is a tremendous force that has a huge impact on facilitating growth, recovery and societal progress. It results in innovation, employment generation and social empowerment. In India, entrepreneurship education is gradually picking up. That said, it needs to scale up further to make everyone involved – promoter, investor, parents, employees, etc - more aware about the different aspects,” he expresses.

“The time is right for the educated managers to stop looking for jobs and start providing them to others. Forming the right team is one of the challenges that an entrepreneur faces and if a person is starting early while he/she is in college, they will find the right kind of people amongst their friends, who they can work with easily,” he asserts.

“Students work on their own business plan as part of a project. The students get an opportunity to do projects with the incubates. This helps them achieve a handson experience of working with a start-up .” Lakshman adds.

Lakshman further says, “We will soon be competing with the best in the world if you compare statistics on number of start-ups, funding, etc. Entrepreneurs who don’t know how to go about it, here’s a pearl of wisdom: An entrepreneurial journey is like travelling through a thin fog when there is no wind. Start walking and it will keep getting clearer ahead. If you try and wait to get a complete picture from the start itself , you will keep waiting. Just take the first step and keep walking.”

GROOMING ENTREPRENEURS:

According to Dr Harsh Mishra, associate professor, strategic management , Management Development Institute (MDI), Gurgaon, there is a need for B-schools to have entrepreneurship focused courses and programs. “Before even experiencing the status quo as an employee, formal education in entrepreneurship makes a case for early intervention by exposing students to successful stories, the underlying rationale or theory as well as the science and mechanism for tapping and developing their entrepreneurial instincts,” says Mishra.

Many organisations offers fullcredit courses in entrepreneurship and are also establishing a business incubator that could provide the opportunity to several new entrepreneurs to germinate their ideas into a business enterprise. According to Mishra, courses and programs on entrepreneurship are often interdisciplinary and an MBA program with entrepreneurial focus encourages students to crystallise, test, self-critique and gain confidence in their own ideas to move forward.

Many experts feel that B-schools must encourage entrepreneurship, but a student before opting for such courses, must analyse his/her own personal entrepreneurial capacity. Before starting up a venture, one must evaluate their entrepreneurial idea to meet the existing market need or a new emerging market demand, become aware of the legalities involved and various support systems in the eco-system for entrepreneurship and must not be obsessed with the desired financial outcome.

NURTURING ENTREPRENEURS:

Prof S Sadagopan, director, IIITBangalore feels that knowledge and wealth creation are equally important . He is of the belief that Bschools must encourage entrepreneurship , period. “We promote both, a formal as well as an informal program. Within 10 years of existence, we have incubated four successful companies. Currently, we are incubating five companies. The proof of the pudding is in eating; more than 20 of our alumni are pursuing new ventures currently,” he shares. Talking about the future of this rising trend of entrepreneurship education, Sadagopan says, “It is clear. Indian techies will increasingly look at e-option ! The eco-system is taking shape. My advice to entrepreneurs is to get into the ‘network’ and benefit from the huge advantage.”

Starting one’s own venture is never an easy task but a formal training could teach a person the nuances of the journey. That is why entrepreneurship education is gaining such momentum in recent times.

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NITIE Placements 2010

Mumbai-based National Institute of Industrial Engineering (NITIE) has registered the highest domestic pay package of Rs 19.5 lakh a year and highest international pay package of Rs 67.5 lakh a year during its final placements.

The international placements were offered by companies like Olam International and Dubai Telecom. 

Around 90 companies participated in the placement process, offering roles in domains like supply chain, operations, marketing, finance, consulting and information technology (IT) & systems. 

Companies like Procter & Gamble, Cadbury, GE, Essar, L’Oreal, Cummins among others made pre-placement offers (PPOs), with 25 students accepting the direct route to their dream jobs. 

Other recruiters who participated in the placement process include players like PwC, Ernst and Young, Cognizant Business Consulting, Global e-Procure, Bristlecone, Capgemini, Citibank, HSBC, Standard Chartered Bank, JPMC, Deutsche Bank, GE, ICICI Bank, YES Bank, SBI Caps and Kotak Mahindra. The profiles offered were investment banking, corporate finance, bank operations, retail banking etc. 

Meanwhile, the institute also completed summer placements for 2011, with Cadbury offering the highest stipend of Rs 1 lakh for a two-month internship. 

The summer placements for the 2009-11 batch of NITIE attracted companies like Ernts and Young, KPMG, Cognizant Business Consulting, PWC, Citibank, HSBC, Standard Chartered Bank, Deutsche Bank, ICICI Bank, Edelweiss, Bank of India, Axis bank, Union Bank of India among others. 

HSBC offered internships to seven students, the highest for any one company in the banking and financial sector.

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Funding your Education

Last week, Indian Institutes of Management (IIMs) Bangalore and Kozhikode raised their fees by Rs 1.5 lakh and Rs 1 lakh, respectively. IIM Ahmedabad is also expected to soon raise its fee by Rs 1 lakh. After the fee hike, IIM-A would charge Rs 12.5 lakh for the post graduate programme in management (PGPM) for two years and IIM-B would charge Rs 13 lakh. Indian School of Business (ISB), too, hiked its annual fee by Rs 80,000 to Rs 15.3 lakh for the one-year course. 

No wonder, while qualifying for theses courses means a lot for the students, funding them requires significant financial capability. Then, there are educational loans that are offered by most banks and financial institutions. Many of them are coming with innovative products to tap this market. 

Union Bank of India recently launched an education product known as 'Union Education (Special Education Loan Scheme)' designed for studies at top-rung Indian B-schools. Under the new scheme, the bank is to cover the IIMs at Ahmedabad, Bangalore, Calcutta, Indore, Kozhikode and Lucknow; SP Jain Institute of Management and Research, Mumbai; XLRI, Jamshedpur and Indian School of Business (ISB), Hyderabad, among others. 

This scheme has a single rate of interest for all kinds of courses. For instance, loans up to Rs 20 lakh for ISB and Rs 15 lakh for other institutes would come at the same fixed rate of 10.5 per cent for male students and 10 per cent for female students. In addition, there is no collateral. Also, there is 100 per cent funding for all these courses, except for ISB, where 95 per cent of the course fees is given. S L Bansal, general manager - retail banking, Union Bank of India said “We have kept a margin of five per cent with loans for ISB because the course fee is high. Also, students have to pay this 5 per cent as registration fee, unlike other institutes. For other banks, the five per cent margin kicks-in when the loan amount exceeds Rs 4 lakh. 

The repayment period is also higher. Union Bank is offering a repayment period of seven years. Other banks, generally, allow four years. The loan would be available for the course tenure and the repayment holiday or moratorium period is the course period plus one year or six months after securing employment, whichever is earlier. 

Others like HDFC Bank also offer an exclusive product for premier management institutes, where the collateral is as per mandated by the Reserve Bank of India, said the bank spokesperson. According to the bank's website, for a two-year post-graduate diploma course, there is no collateral needed for loans up to Rs 12 lakh. The loan is available for up to seven years, including the repayment holiday period. Loans worth Rs 15 lakh for the one-year executive programme does not require any guarantee and collateral. Loans above Rs 15 lakh will need adequate collateral. “Our fixed rate of interest is between 10.50-13 per cent. Very soon we will also be launching the floating interest rates,” said the bank spokesperson. 

State Bank of India, the country’s largest bank, has no fixed-rate education loan. The floating rate education product charges 11.75 per cent for loans above Rs 7.5 lakh. A concession of 0.5 per cent is given to female students. The bank sanctions loans up to Rs 10 lakh for studies in India and for loans above Rs 7.5 lakh, a collateral security equivalent to the full value of loan is required. 

Axis Bank offers an education loan at 15.75 per cent (floating) for loans above Rs 7.5 lakh, the repayment period being four years, as per loan site www.apnapaisa.com. The bank offers loans up to Rs 10 lakh for studies in India with a third party guarantee and/or collateral security depending on individual cases, says the bank website. 

Financial experts said that if you are looking for an educational loan, it would be a smart idea to start scouting for it quite early. “Go through brochures of different banks as it will help you to zero-in on the best one,” said financial planner Suresh Sadagopan. 

The three most important points that one needs to look at are: 

• Collateral or guarantee required for the loan 
• Rate of interest 
• Moratorium period 

“Once you have all the details, you can try and negotiate the loan rate. Bank managers normally have the powers to reduce the rate by 0.25 to 0.5 per cent, depending on the quality of the customer,” added Sadagopan.

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ISB collaborates with peers to enhance B-school education

Hyderabad-based Indian School of Business (ISB) plans to organise workshops for other B-school faculty in a bid to enhance management education in the country.

The workshops will vary in scope and address different aspects of management education from classroom content to delivery. Workshops planned include those in case teaching and simulations, as well as those in the functional topics, such as the just-concluded workshop on marketing analytics. 

As part of the initiative, it recently organised a management workshop in the area of marketing analytics in which over 50 faculty members from across 25 leading b-schools in the country participated. The workshop was led by Gary Lilien from the US’ Pennsylvania State University. 

“This is one of the many programmes that are needed to enhance management education in India so that the foreign b-schools look to us for management education and teaching and imbibe global best practices, collaborate, network, and share their classroom experiences,” says Professor Arun Pereira, Head - Initiative for Excellence in Teaching and Learning, ISB. 

ISB now plans another such programme for case teaching that will be led by Canada’s University of Western Ontario later this year. Moreover, it aims to have such programmes in functional areas like finance, human resource, accounting and operations and any other function that offers a new pedagogy. “We will write to deans of B-schools to nominate their faculty for these programmes and this will be an ongoing process,” adds Pereira.

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100% Placements at IIM Shillong

All the 63 first-batch graduates of the youngest Indian Institute of Management (IIM) in Meghalaya have got job offers, with an annual average salary of around Rs.10 lakhs and the highest pay package worth a whopping Rs.34 lakhs.

The mood is upbeat and one of utter jubilation at IIM Shillong (IIM-S). 

"We are indeed very happy with the placements considering the fact that we are the youngest IIM and had to overcome several odds like logistical problems," Arijit Majumdar, the institute's corporate relations and external affairs head, told IANS. 

Not many outside India's northeast probably know that there is an IIM in the Meghalaya capital named after former prime minister Rajiv Gandhi. It started in 2008 from a makeshift campus and still functions out of an interim facility. 

Surrounded by pine trees, lush green lawns and mountains in the backdrop, the institute is functioning from the Mayurbhanj Complex -- the erstwhile summer palace of the kings of Mayurbhanj, Orissa. 

"We may be logistically handicapped in terms of the distance and location, but we can boast that IIM Shillong is one of the best tech savvy campuses in the country and more than 35 percent of the recruiters offered jobs by way of video conferencing," Majumdar said. 

In the just concluded placements, recruiters, both domestic and foreign, offered good pay packagaes to the young managers. 

"The highest domestic offer annually was around Rs.1.8 million. A few of the students were offered jobs by foreign firms with salaries ranging from Rs.3.3 to 3.4 million," Majumdar said. 

The recruiters include big names such as Deloitte, Infosys, Power Finance Corporation, Jumbo Electronics of Dubai, Hewlett Packard, Essar, Shipping Corporation, TELCON, Tata Motors and Escorts. 

The job categories were varied - from IT to finance, human resources to marketing, besides other domains. 

"I am thrilled to be part of the first batch and get a reasonably good job offer. The facilities or other logistic support may not be at par with the other IIMs in the country, but the faculty here is simply exceptional," said a graduate from Assam, requesting annonymity as his recruiter demands privacy. 

The institute offers a two-year post- graduate programme in management (PGP) and plans to offer other courses like the fellow programme in management (FPM), management development programmes (MDPs) and research and consultancy, along with some short-term certificate courses. 

"Our goal is to achieve excellence in the field of managerial education, training and research. Beginning with the meticulous short-listing of candidates till the finalizing of electives for the students to specialize in, there is just one word to describe the methodology here - rigour," Ashoke K. Dutta, director of IIM-S, said. 

"The 63-strong student force, an army of corporate generals, has been trained under 'eight day' weeks, in cutting edge finance and economics, as well as on sustainability and governance," Dutta added with pride. 

The Meghalaya government has allotted a 120-acre plot on which work is under way for a state-of-the-art academic-cum-residential campus.

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Most B-schools not to increase fees

Top-rung management institutions in the country have ignored the cue from the Indian Institutes of Management (IIMs) by deciding not to increase fees for their two-year flagship management programmes.

Mumbai-based SP Jain Institute for Management and Research (SPJIMR) for instance, says it has decided not to increase the fee this year, in tune with its social obligations. The institute, at present, charges Rs 4.5 lakh for its two-year management programme.

“We have decided not to increase the fee, as we consider it a social responsibility not to make management education expensive,” said an SPJIMR professor.

Gurgaon-based Management Development Institute (MDI) has also decided against an increase in fee for its management programme from Rs 10.95 lakh at present.

“We had increased the fee last year and we see no reason to increase it this year again,” said B S Sahay, director, MDI Gurgaon.

To cope with rising expenditure on salaries and infrastructure, some of the IIMs are planning to increase fees by Rs 1-2 lakh for their two-year post-graduate programmes (PGPs).

IIM-Bangalore’s board of governors, chaired by Mukesh Ambani, on Monday decided to raise the fees from Rs 11.5 lakh to Rs 13 lakh for the batch coming in from 2010.

Last week, IIM Ahmedabad (IIM-A) said it would raise the fees for its two-year PGP course.

IIM-Kozhikode (IIM-K), too, decided to increase its PGP fee by Rs 1 lakh to Rs 10 lakh from the next academic year. IIM-K Director Debashish Chatterjee told Business Standard: “The board has decided to increase the fee by Rs 1 lakh for PGP students from 2011 academic year. At present, our fees are Rs 9 lakh for two years.

Likewise, IIM Calcutta will decide on the increase in its board meeting on April 3.

Jamshedpur-based Xavier Labour Relations Institute has also decided not to increase fee immediately. Its current fees for the two-year PGP course are Rs 9.5 lakh, which were after an increase from the 2009 batch onwards. The 2008-2010 batch paid Rs 7.5 lakh for two years.

The institute however, is increasing its student intake from 180 students at present to 240 students this year.

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Management schools at IITs see 10-20% jump in salary offers

While the IITs themselves are not very happy with the placements as yet, their management departments are reaping the benefits of an improving economy

Salary offers during the ongoing final placements continue to be a matter of concern at the Indian Institutes of Technology (IITs). However, the management schools that are a part of these premier technology institutions are not affected and are seeing a 10-20 per cent jump in final as well as summer placement salaries.

These schools have been set up within the IITs, and are dedicated management schools or departments that admit students through the JMET test. While final placements at the IITs would continue till the last week of April, a few of the management schools at the IITs have completed final placements and are readying for summer placements for the first-year students.

For instance, the Department of management studies (DMS) at IIT Delhi — which is among the first B-schools in the IIT circuit to finish final placements this year — has seen the number of recruiters who participated in this year’s placement increase to 42, a substantial rise from last year’s 35. The highest salary at the institute stood at Rs 18.2 lakh, while the average was Rs 11.86 lakh. Last year, while average salary was Rs 9.4 lakh, highest salary offered was Rs 16 lakh.

Around 81 offers were made to 61 students this year. Major recruiters included investment banks such as Nomura, SBI Caps and JP Morgan Chase, as well as top notch financial recruiters such as American Express, PriceWaterhouseCoopers and Citibank. The institute also saw recruiters from leading FMCG companies like Procter & Gamble, Reckitt Benckiser, Hindustan Coca Cola Beverages, Marico and Johnson & Johnson, and industry conglomerates including RPG, General Electric (GE), among others. Aspirants in the consultancy domain saw a slew of offers from prime firms such as Deloitte Consulting, Infosys, Cognizant Technology Solutions and IBM. In addition, the process saw several public sector units (PSUs) such as SBI, BHEL, Shipping Corporation of India, Bank of India offering distinguished profiles.

The placements week at the management school in IIT Delhi was preceded by laterals which saw 21 students being offered coveted profiles. Average salary for laterals stood at Rs 12.14 lakh. For summer placements for the first-year students, a total of 32 companies were slotted for the current batch of 52 students. The biggest brands, most coveted profiles, multiple offers and an average stipend was Rs 48,500 (two months). Recruiters for summer placements came from various sectors including FMCG, consulting, IT, banking, manufacturing, automobile, healthcare and marketing, bringing diverse options for the students.

At the Department of Management Studies, IIT Madras, the highest salary during final placements has remained the same as last year at Rs 12 lakh, while the average salary has seen an increase this year to touch Rs 9 lakh, up from Rs 8 lakh last year, informed T J Kamalanabhan, placements chairperson of IIT Madras.

The Department of Management Studies, IIT Roorkee, has seen a 25 per cent increase in salaries this year over last year’s final placements. The highest salary this year stood at Rs 11.6 lakh offered by Deloitte, while the average stood at Rs 8.5 lakh. V K Nangia, head of the department of management students at IIT Roorkee, said, “We had around 60 students to place this year compared to 46 students last year. The economy has recovered, it seems.”

The Vinod Gupta School of Management (VGSOM) at IIT Kharagpur and Shailesh J Mehta School of Management (SJMSoM) at IIT Bombay are yet to release their final placement report for the batch of 2010. But the schools have already seen encouraging response for summer placements for the first-years. At VGSOM, the average stipend for summer placements has crossed Rs 37,000 with the highest domestic stipend at Rs 70,000, which is a jump of 20 per cent in remuneration over last year. Around 54 companies participated in the summer placement process for 98 students this year and offered diverse profiles to choose from. Students were offered profiles like corporate strategy and planning, rural banking, sports consulting, energy, environment, climate and infrastructure consulting, institutional development and media marketing and strategy besides the regular consulting, marketing, finance, operations and HR profiles.

C S Mishra, placements chairperson of VGSOM, said that a major change this year has been the change in summer internship duration from six months to two months. This change has brought about participation from many new companies besides the regular recruiters. A total of 21 new companies participated in the summer placement process this year which included big names like Axis Bank, Reckitt Benckiser, Titan, Siemens, O3 Capital, Daimler, SCI and NABARD.

At SJMSoM, around 56 companies offered diverse profiles to a batch of 98 summer interns while stipend per month remained at Rs 50,000 like last year, informed a member of the placement committee. Companies participating in the summer placements this year include Asian Paints, Cadbury, Colgate-Palmolive, Idea Cellular, among others.

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Links: Newspapers in India

The Hindu Business Line
Business Standard
DNA India
Deccan Chronicle
Deccan Herald
Financial Express
Live Mint
The Pioneer
The Economic Times
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The Hindustan Times
The Indian Express
The Statesman
The Times of India
Navbharat Times (Hindi)

Essay writing Tips

Essay writing is gaining more and more importance as a component of the personal assessment round of the top B schools. The general notion about writing an essay is to organize it according to the word limit, structure it into paragraphs and make it worth reading. But while writing an essay for the IIM admission, you better check your watch than planning the structure and counting the words.

While IIM Bangalore will give 30 minutes to write the essay, the time will be even lesser for IIM Ahmedabad and Lucknow. While the Written Ability Test of the IIM Lucknow is of 15 minutes, the time for writing the essay is as less as 10 minutes in IIM Ahmedabad.

Here, the key is to write as fast as possible in order to finish the essay. Don’t waste time in thinking and planning the structure of the essay, you will not be able to complete it. For this, you would need sufficient practice before you actually take the plunge.

According to a student of IIM Ahmedabad, who is also a student mentor, best way to practice is by picking up a current affairs topic everyday and write as much as you can for 10 minutes.

Your focus should be to start the essay and put as many important points as possible. It is not a compulsion to present it in an impressive and flowery language. But accuracy and correctness of spelling and grammar definitely matters a lot.

The evaluation is based on the number of new ideas or points you can produce in a given time, the different angles in which you analyze the topic and the logic behind your arguments.

It is important to develop the ability to think and articulate fast. For the B-School panelists, it is a tool to see how you structure your thoughts and produce them in least time.

Topics of the essays

Like GDs, essays also have a vast array of topics. They can be on anything under the sun from political, social, economic issues to something abstract.

Some of the last year’s essay topics are:

-- The NGO sector in India is not getting due recognition from the society
-- Should India change from a multi-party system to a bi-party system
-- Pen is ‘not’ always mightier than sword
-- Space tourism
-- News channel’s coverage: A reflection of people’s tastes
-- Corporate Governance
-- Fitness classes should be made compulsory for all politicians
-- Should Nehru’s centers of learning remain elitist?
-- Indian education system does not encourage creativity

Some of the topics for this year which have high probability are:

-- Union and/Rail Budget 2009
-- Women’s Reservation Bill
-- Indo Pak Talks
-- Sachin’s Double Ton
-- India in Olympics

The significance of Essay as a precursor to the PI round

The essay you wrote in the first half of the personal assessment round can generate some questions in the interview round. The interview panel can ask you questions about the essay you have written and you have to defend it. Questions on the topic can also be asked, which demands you to know a lot about the topic. But don’t get tense if you don’t know something. You need to simply admit it.

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IIM-L final placements: 370 offers made

The Indian Institute of Management, Lucknow, (IIM-L) concluded its final placement process on a high note by placing 315 students, the largest-ever count for a graduating IIM batch. A total of 370 offers were made to the 315 students, including 41 pre-placement offers (PPOs) and 123 lateral offers for higher-entry placements.

IIM-L does not reveal the highest salary levels offered to its students. However, sources on the campus said the highest salary package offered this year was Rs 75 lakh by a multinational company for a general management profile.

The placement season was much better compared to 2009 when 284 offers were made to 267 students.

A total of 121 recruiting companies visited the campus this year. The number during 2008 and 2009 stood at 98 and 103, respectively.

“Several of our students have been offered senior job profiles because 90 per of our candidates had prior work experience, which is highest among all IIMs,” a placement committee member told Business Standard.

Meanwhile, the placement week saw the return of the finance and information technology (IT) sectors in a big way. At the same time, 32 first-time recruiters including Centrum, Microland, Pfizer, Siemens Information Systems Ltd, Suzlon and Thomas Cook also came head hunting to the institute.

Banks and financial sector firms led with 24 per cent of the total offers in investment banking, proprietary trading, treasury, mergers and acquisitions and global risk management. Prominent companies included Calyon Bank, Citibank, HSBC, Standard Chartered, Nomura, Kotak Securities, ICICI Bank, Axis Bank and Yes Bank, among many others. Sales, marketing and IT/IT-enabled services sectors followed closely with 20 and 19 per cent offers, respectively.

Top recruiters, including McKinsey and Co, Procter & Gamble (P&G), Hindustan Unilever, Aditya Birla Group, Deutsche Bank, Deloitte and KPMG were among the 121 companies that participated in the placement process.

While, P&G, Goldman Sachs and Cognizant made maximum offers at 10 each, Yes Bank and Deloitte hired nine and eight candidates, respectively. PPOs were made by Boston Consulting Group, JP Morgan Chase, TAS, Diageo, Agro Tech Foods, Marico, ITC and Reckitt Benckiser.

The Higher-Entry Placement Program witnessed over 100 lateral offers by Olam International, Philips, Goldman Sachs, Yes Bank, Ernst & Young Dubai, Deloitte, Cognizant, Mindtree Consulting, IBM Consulting and Rediff, among others.

Key recruiters in the sales and marketing space included Nokia, Puma, Pepsi, Cadbury and Reckitt Benckiser among others. Conglomerates such as Mahindra & Mahindra, Larsen & Toubro, RPG, Essar and Siva Group were prominent recruiters. Philips, Asian Paints, and Arshiya International were firms offering Supply Chain Management profiles. The PSUs, who visited the IIML campus this time, included ONGC, Power Grid, NTPC and Shipping Corporation of India, who offered lucrative profiles in Finance, HR and General Management.

 

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XLRI Highest placement of Rs 50 lakh

JAMSHEDPUR: Pharma major Novartis offered the highest placement offer of Rs 50 lakh (USD 1,10,000) at the XLRI School of Business and Human Resources here for its prestigious HR leadership role at Basel, Switzerland.

The highest domestic package was Rs 26 lakh made by a consulting firm for its Mumbai desk whereas the average domestic package was at Rs 14.2 lakh, a 20 per cent increase over last year's figure.

The placement process attracted 75 companies giving a total of 205 offers to a batch of 120 Business Management and 60 Personnel Management and Industrial Relations (HR) students, XLRI Placement Committee Secretary Venkatesh K told reporters here last evening.

The campus recruitment programme 2010 saw 90 per cent of the batch accepting offers made by some of the most coveted organizations for their Indian and international locations followed by a strategically planned rolling process which enabled 100 per cent placements, Venkatesh K said.

XLRI, Venkatesh K said, maintained its position as a destination for premier finance roles as 28 per cent of the total offers came from the financial sector such as Goldman Sachs, Nomura Holdings, Edelweiss, Deutsche Bank, Citibank, HSBC, Standard Chartered, ICICI, Axis Bank and YES Bank.

He said marketing has drawn renewed interest from the students and was the most sought after profile with 30 per cent accepting offers.

A total of 25 per cent of the students received top notch consulting offers.

"XLRI has once again reinforced its long standing supremacy as the best B-school in Asia-Pacific for Human Resources Recruitments continues to be robust and growing with the participation of major firms in this sector." 

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Future managers should put theory into practice

The pursuit of success unfolds many challenges and choosing right career option is the first step towards meeting them. However, a few understand that it's not the end but a beginning. Certain careers beckon students for their good job prospects.

Management education is one of the most sought after options today. Aspiring MBA set their eyes on getting a toehold in the best business school. However, the industry professionals say students are under a wrong notion that entry into a premier management institute makes things easier for future. More than teachers, infrastructure or syllabus, it is perception that makes the best business institute stand out. Management is not just a lucrative career option but it's an attitude, the experts feel.

Students should understand the whole concept, says Dr (Capt) Chitale, dean, department of management sciences, University of Pune. "In order to become good managers, students should know what management is. It is part of every walk of life. Many aspirants have some vague idea about management. There are sub-options like finance, human resources, marketing, IT, communications and so on in the management field. Students should zero in on the branch they would like to pursue. When one is clear about one's goal, it can be approached easily," Chitale adds.

According to him, management schools should act more as academic institutes. "They give knowledge and create a solid foundation. Nowadays, many of them appear acting more as placement agencies. The syllabus is more or less industry-centric but all that matters is its implementation. There are certain things, current affairs for instance, we cannot incorporate in the syllabus. B-schools should organise seminars and workshops on issues like global warming, terrorism, budget and the like. Management is required everywhere, right from home to traffic to governance. These could be good lessons for budding managers," he says.

Students should not be learning the basics after joining jobs, he feels. "Proper orientation is needed. Many of them can't recollect in the fourth semester what they learn during the first. If they want to succeed, they should think beyond jobs. Most industries are not happy with today's management school products. Why have any disparity between needs of the industry and education?" he wants to know.

Putting theory into practice will take students far, he opines. "Perfect application of theory is crucial. Learning process continues all through the life. Management education is mere preparation and real learning starts with experience. They should hone their skills and get the basics right. Basically, why should one learn for getting jobs? If we study to build competence, success follows," Chitale says.

Good business schools should develop students' ability to think and anaylise, he says. "This is what management is all about. That's why it is called an attitude and way of life. Let students learn the basics and rest assured. B-schools should focus on this ground reality," Chitale avers. 

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IIFT 100% Placements

The Delhi-based Indian Institute of Foreign Trade (IIFT) this year has seen its highest international salary package, till date, of $150,000 per annum, besides recording the highest average salary of Rs 11.54 lakh.

The final placements season that began in December last year saw 62 companies making offers to 164 students.

“This time around, the placements took place in three phases — international companies, lateral placements and final placements that ended in the first week of March. We spread this out as we did not want the recruiters to be under pressure,” said Munish Bhargava, corporate and placement advisor, IIFT.

About 30 per cent of the batch of 164 students, had pre-placement offers from firms like Cognizant Business Consulting, Mahindra & Mahindra, Johnson & Johnson Medical Systems, Tata Steel, Reckitt Benckiser, among others. Almost 10 per cent of the batch got placed overseas with Olam International offering the highest salary of $150,000. Other international recruiters included Triton Group, Sudima International, Punj Lloyd and Wilson International.

The highest domestic salary was Rs 13.08 lakh, while the average salary increased by 53 per cent over the last year at Rs 11.54 lakh per annum. Moreover, real estate companies along with energy and infrastructure firms were the new ones who visited the campus. The first timers included Amazan Agro, Daimler India, ONGC, Johnson & Johnson Medical Systems, Religare, Tata International, Jaypee Capital, ICICI Securities, Cairn Energy, SBI Capital, Gati, GE Corporation, MARG Group, Interglobe and Vistasoft.

“This year’s highest salary crossed the pre-slowdown levels. Last year, 30 per cent of the students opted for public sector jobs despite getting higher offers from private companies as the sentiment was to have a stable job,” added Bhargava. However, the institute still follows the one student-one offer policy as part of which a student can’t sit for another company’s exam if he already has one offer.

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IIM-B final placements

Providing a strong indication of a positive sentiment for the economy, the final placements season at the Indian Institute of Management Bangalore (IIM-B) was closed in just five days — half the time the institute took to place students last year. The highlight of the process was that 90 students accepted offers in slot zero (generally the first day) — a 41 per cent increase over the previous year.

Slot zero is the most coveted slot given to recruiters, usually investment banks and consultancies. Over 120 companies came to IIM-B this year for a batch of 270 students. Like last year, banking and financial services companies were at the top of students’ preference, with 27 per cent choosing to work with them. Consulting was the second, with 22 per cent, followed by IT & Systems (20 per cent), marketing (12 per cent) and general management (9 per cent). The rest was accounted for by private equity, healthcare, energy and public-sector units.

IT companies were the surprise package this year. About 50 students accepted offers from these companies. This is understood to be nearly double the number of acceptances last year. Wipro, HCL, MindTree, IBM and Cognizant were among the prominent recruiters. Wipro is said to have made eight offers, while HCL made 5 offers. “After a lull in the sector last year, IT companies have come back with renewed hiring requirements. They have offered good salaries to students in roles like consulting and sales and marketing,” said Sapna Agarwal, head of career development services at IIM-B.

Consulting firm Deloitte made 10 offers, the highest in IIM-B, followed by McKinsey and Boston Consulting Group, who made nine offers each. Some other slot-zero recruiters this year were Bain & Co, Booz & Co, AT Kearney, Diamond Consulting, Alvarez & Marsal, Nomura and Temasek Holdings. P&G, ITC and American Express made six offers each. There were 15 new companies, including healthcare group Narayana Hrudayalaya, which offered senior level positions to six students, on the campus this year. The institute refused to comment on salaries, but it is learnt that there was an increase of 10-20 per cent in average salaries across sectors. Seventy-two students had received pre-placement offers from the companies they interned with.

Lateral placements, for which only students with over 22 months of work experience are eligible, saw a total of 66 offers, compared to 50 offers last year. There were 30 companies in the lateral placements this year.

Praveen, one of the members of the student placement committee, said nearly 10 companies that had not hired last year returned to the campus. The institute had a provision in place this year to refund fees of students who took up jobs with non-government organisations for three years, but officials said they were yet to get a confirmation on this from one or two students who were interested.

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Teaching: Business sense for entrepreneurs

KOLKATA: They are just as sharp and focused as some of the youngsters they train. And they could easily have been in their shoes, taking charge of the country's corporate sector. But they have chosen a behind-the-scene role of grooming business leaders, which has also proved to be a lucrative career option for many of these IIM and IIT graduates. Running a CAT coaching centre, they say, could be as rewarding as a multinational job if not more profitable and satisfying. 

Take Naveen Saraff, for instance. The IIM-Bangalore passout quit a job with Reliance Capital in Mumbai to train CAT aspirants at IMS Learning Centre in Kolkata as a franchisee. The reason: he found it as promising and interesting an option as any job that he could land with his IIM degree. "I wanted to be in Kolkata and preferred doing my own thing rather than a regular job. Also, the jobs offered to us on campus were not as lucrative as some of them now are," says Saraff, now the city head of Career Launcher, another CAT training institute. 

Saraff enjoys sharing

his experiences with students and helping them with 

insights and inputs that only an IIM passout can give. "It allowed me to do what I wanted to. I was confident of earning enough," he adds. 

A teaching stint at Time, another leading CAT training institute, changed the course of Rahul Reddy's career. The IIM-Calcutta graduate switched over to teaching entrepreneurship in Kolkata after holding senior posts in MNCs. "The entrepreneurship bug bit me on the IIM campus. I always wanted to be in the education field and try and do things differently. Also, I felt that I could help CAT aspirants do better and help more crack the test," he says. 

Others like Nikunj Bhagat, a partner at Career Launcher, made the switch since it made his professional life more flexible. "Working 12 hours a day and living out of a suitcase was not my idea of happiness. I was better off without the pressure," says Bhagat, an IIM-Bangalore passout. 

With a mechanical engineering degree from IIT-Kanpur and a management diploma from XLRI, Charapreet Singh never really saw himself as a teacher or an entrepreneur till he started teaching CAT aspirants at IMS as a part-time job. Singh, however, didn't take the plunge immediately. After successful stints with Tata Steel, PwC, Compaq and HP, he finally returned to his CAT training job as an entrepreneur. "I have no regrets," says Singh, who now heads the Praxis Business School. 

A growing number of students from leading B-schools across the country are joining management entrance coaching centres. And IIMs are no exception. Last year, two IIM-Ahmedabad students and one from IIM-Indore joined IMS as managers. One from XLRI, Jamshedpur, did the same. 

But are they losing in financial terms to pursue their interest? Yes and no, according to the teacher-entrepreneurs. "Considering the rise in the number of CAT aspirants over the last 10 years, the market has expanded phenomenally. When I started in 1999, around 3000 would take the test from Kolkata," said Saraff. "Now, the number hovers around the 14,000 mark and nearly all of them go through coaching. On the other hand, corporate salaries have gone up manifold. The highest salary offered on campus was around Rs 6 lakh when I passed out. It's five times that figure now. So, at the end of the day it is an individual decision." he adds.

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