IIM-A's cohort-based placement process

Return of the investment banks such as Bank of America-Merrill Lynch to campus marked the start of the placements for the final year students of Post Graduate Programme in Management at the Indian Institute of Management Ahmedabad.

Regular recruiters Boston Consulting Group and McKinsey & Co gave out eight offers each, including pre-placement offers, according to a release. In contrast to the previous years when the placement used to happen over seven to 10 days, this year, the institute decided to have a cohort based system which will go on for two months.

Instead of back-to-back interview sessions, the companies will be segregated into sectors and meet students over weekends. Recruiters will spend more time with each student thereby arriving at a ‘right-fit' between students and companies, according to Prof Sara Mukherjee, Placement Coordinator. The first cluster had companies across four cohorts — international investment banks, global strategy consulting, global niche consulting and private equity/venture capital.

As the initial apprehensions to the new system eased, the implementers were satisfied that the new system was progressing well.

“As the day progressed, the relaxed atmosphere in and around the interview rooms was a pointer that we have moved in the right direction. The recruiters have expressed satisfaction with the new process and students too have interviewed with the firms of their choice,” said Prof Mukherjee.

There is also a tighter control over dissemination of information from the campus and strict instructions have been given to students about not communicating with the media in order to avoid speculations.

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IIM-A fee up by 1 Lac

AHMEDABAD: The Indian Institute of Management-Ahmedabad (IIM-A) on Sunday increased the fee of its flagship Post Graduate Programme from Rs 11.5 lakh to Rs 12.5 lakh annually, citing rising cost of teaching.

With the increase, the institute has more than doubled its fee in the past one year.

It had increased the fee from Rs 5 lakh to Rs 11.5 lakh in 2008. ''The hike will be applicable to the batch of 2009-11. Students will have to pay Rs 6 lakh for the first year and Rs 6.5 lakh in the second year. The institute is continuing the subsidy scheme but may introduce minor changes,'' said director Samir Barua after the meeting of the board of governors on Sunday.

IIM-Calcutta, too, more than doubled its fee in February, to Rs 9 lakh for students joining the institute this year. The fee for IIM-Bangalore is Rs 9.5 lakh. There's a proposal to increase the fee from Rs 5 lakh to about Rs 7 lakh at IIM-Lucknow.

The increase in fee comes at a time when IIM-A is at loggerheads with the Centre over attempts to curtail its autonomy. The decision was taken by the board of governors. IIM-A has been fighting a tug-of-war with the central HRD ministers since 2004, first over fee hike with Murli Manohar Joshi when the NDA was in power and then with Arjun Singh over OBC quota when the UPA came to power.

''Although, the Central government members on our board weren't present during the meeting, we had sent them the agenda in advance,'' Barua said. ''I have not received any objection to the hike so far.''

Management Development Programmes, the main source of income for IIMs, have seen a huge downturn in the second half of the academic year of 2008-09. The placement fee charged from companies participating in campus placements has also come down.

Barua said, ''By the time the 2009 batch passes out in 2011, recession is expected to fade out and students will get competitive jobs, with which it will not be difficulty for them to pay their loans. Also, in comparison to other business schools in the country, this fee is not very high.''

The hike is also seen as an attempt by the institute to replenish its depleting corpus. Barua said the corpus was Rs 130 crore till construction of the new campus began. ''Now we are left with Rs 50 crore,'' he said.

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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.

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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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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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Finance loses favour with IIM-A students

AHMEDABAD: The US meltdown has not only triggered turmoil in the world economy, it's creating ripples at micro level too. For instance, students of Indian Institute of Management, Ahmedabad (IIM-A ) are rattled by bankruptcy of Lehman Brothers and buyout of Merrill Lynch.

Batch of 2009 has started chalking out alternative career plans. The dilemma they're facing is - what next, if not finance. Finance has topped the popularity chart among students as a sector for the last four years, with highest number of offers and heftiest salaries. This year, the sector is set to take a dip.

"The biggest anxiety is whether recruiters from that sector will come, and if they do, will they be able to make as many plum offers as in the past," says a student who was keen on finance, but is now looking at other sectors.

Even during summer placements, of the batch, 35.9 per cent students accepted offers from financial and investment banking firms, 22.4 per cent went for consulting, marketing, operations and general management attracted 20.5 per cent, private equity eight per cent, with rest going for other areas. In fact, during summer placements, Lehman Brothers had 15 IIM-A students and Merrill Lynch 13 interning with them.

"Not just the maximum number, but good students opt for finance. Now, they will have to face lot more competition in other sectors . This will give recruiters better bargaining power, where they can pick the best and offer less salaries," says another student who fears the US crisis will harm his prospects.

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IIM-A maps global pathway

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The institute is sure to figure in the top bracket on the FT MBA global rank list for B-schools after its executive programme completes three years in 2009.

In late 2007, when the Financial Times (FT) released its annual ranking of the best business schools in the world, there was an uproar in Indian B-school circles.

While the Indian School of Business (ISB) Hyderabad’s one-year Post Graduate Programme for executives made it to the 20th position in the FT Global MBA 2008 ranking list, the Indian Institute of Management Ahmedabad (IIM-A’s) Post Graduate Programme in Management for Executives (PGPX) was not included.

Next year, IIM-A could use the same ranking to gain a global footprint.

Having entered its third year, the PGPX will now be eligible to be listed for the FT MBA rankings.

The FT MBA ranking is considered one of the most prestigious B-school ratings in the world and uses over 20 parameters to determine the rankings. The criteria include weighted salary, placement success rank, alumni recommendation rank, international mobility rank, doctoral rank and research facilities.

To be eligible to participate, a business school must be internationally accredited by a body such as the AACSB, Amba or EQUIS; it must have a full-time MBA programme operational for at least five years; and its first class must have graduated at least three years ago.

When PGPX did not find a place in the FT MBA list, institute director Samir Barua had written an e-mail to all alumni members.

In the email, he said: “If the same criteria were to continue for inclusion in the list for ranking MBA programmes, the PGPX would qualify only in 2010. Till then, no programme of IIMA would qualify for ranking of MBA programmes by the FT.

For the PGP, the Institute has been informed by the FT that the programme qualifies for inclusion in the list of programmes for ranking as Masters Programme in Management. If the institute decides to participate in this (Masters Programme in Management) ranking by the FT, then the PGP will be included under this category.”

The institute has just bagged the European Quality Improvement System (EQUIS) accreditation, the international system of quality assessment, improvement and accreditation of higher education institutions in management and business formed by the European Foundation for Management Development (EMFD), becoming the first B-school in the country to have obtained the same.

“Since we are completing three years of the PGPX programme, we will be eligible for the FT-MBA global rankings. Once listed, we are confident of placing the programme on a global map,” said Arvind Sahay, chairperson, PGPX, IIM-A.

IIM-A had also taken up internet marketing initiatives considering that for most executives across the world, the web would be the first information access point. It had also designed separate brochures for Indian and overseas students.