Small firms afford IIM managers

Global recession might have brought a number of top level corporate to their knees but it seems to be a "good opportunity" for numerous small and medium companies, which can now afford to hire hot-shot executives from top business schools at much "affordable" prices.

The pass-outs of the country's premier business schools like IIMs can now be hired at much lower packages than they used to get when the world economies were booming.

Analysts say, the placement scene at most of the IIMs this year is not much encouraging as compared to previous years. This year, number of big companies as well as number of international companies coming for campus placements has decreased.

"There is more than 30 per cent dip in the average salary offered to fresh IIM graduates. In IIM-A, this year's average domestic salary offer has come down to Rs 12.17 lakh from previous year's Rs 18.75 lakh," IIM-A Placement Cell Chairman, Dr Saral Mukherjee said.

He said the number of offers per students has also gone down as the recruitment process in most of the companies has come to an halt in view of economic slow down.

Similarly, the domestic average salary offered this year at IIM Calcutta has been Rs 12.70 lakhs with the highest offer at Rs 60 lakhs per annum. While the average figure for last year was Rs 16.40 lakhs.

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IIMs to review placement plans

The falling job market is forcing the premier Indian Institutes of Management (IIMs) to review their placement strategies. The options include doing away with Day Zero and reducing placement fees.

Day Zero is the name given to the day placements begin at IIMs. Day Zero and Day One are reserved for top companies like investment banks and consulting firms that confirm participation on campus.

The placement fees are higher on these first two days — each company pays Rs 1 lakh as participation charge and Rs 1 lakh as recruitment charge. These charges drop to between Rs 80,000 and Rs 50,000 each for participation fee and recruitment charges on the next few days.

In good times, most students are placed by Day Zero and Day One, which means many of the smaller companies that come to campus later leave empty-handed.

To cope with what one IIM official described as “the madness around Day Zero”, the B-schools are exploring ways of extending the placement process to over a week or fortnight so that all companies have a better chance.

“We are going to re-examine the entire placement process, including the Day Zero strategy and look into what needs to be done for a long-term relationship with companies. So far, we concentrated on a very narrow segment and pool of recruiters,” said Samir Barua, Director IIM Ahmedabad (IIM-A), the oldest and most prestigious of the IIMs.

IIM-A finished its placements last week and recorded a 32 per cent dip in its salary packages. IIM Bangalore (IIM-B) and IIM Calcutta (IIM-C), which have also completed placements, will make the results public on Tuesday.

IIM Bangalore (IIM-B), too, said it will re-examine its placement strategy in the next few days. “We know that the present placement system is an imperfect system. But among all imperfect systems, this is the perfect system,” said Sourav Mukherji, placement chairperson, IIM-B.

The institute has decided to rename its placement cell “career development and placement cell” and will recruit a new person dedicated to look at placement and career development-related activities and liaison with companies.

The IIMs will also look at a reasonable placement fee. This year, many domestic and foreign companies in banking and financial services, consulting and consumer goods had written to the IIMs, requesting them to waive or lower participation and recruitment fees. IIMs said they charge placement fees from companies to meet scholarship and other educational needs on the campus, since the fees for the flagship management programme is heavily subsidised.

The IIMs are also looking at devising a strategy which could be specially made to attract government-owned companies (PSUs or public sector undertakings) on campus after this season’s experience.

This year, PSUs and banks made good the gap left by private sector companies. B-schools saw a 20 to 50 per cent jump in the registration of government companies visiting the campuses. They recruited some 40 students from IIM-A this year, with Union Bank among the top recruiters.

“We are looking at how we can take a big share of the PSU pie and make it attractive to the students. PSUs offer a great career development path and we need to talk to the students about this,” said Professor Prafulla Agnihotri, placement chairperson at IIM-C.

IIM-B also said it would need multiple companies on the campus to provide a meaningful profile to an MBA student, since it is expanding in terms of number of students and programmes. Barua of IIM-A agreed there is a need to convince students to consider opportunities and challenges that PSUs offer.

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IIM Shillong 100% Placement Internships

Within just 5 months of having been established, IIM Shillong has reported 100% placements for internships for its maiden batch, with students bagging multiple internship offers. The critics whose apprehensions had been further fuelled owing to the economic slowdown were vehemently silenced by the record number of companies that made internship offers to the first batch of IIM Shillong.

Notwithstanding the current downturn, top contenders to pick up the bright young managers from IIM Shillong included the Big 4 - Deloitte, E&Y, KPMG and PwC.
In tune with the trend in the other IIMs, quite a few students at IIM Shillong opted for Media & Advertising firms - the likes of which included, Ogivy & Mather, Viacom, Warner Brothers, Euro RSCG, Wikimedia and ESPN Star, among others. The traditional favorites for Marketing profiles - AC Nielsen, Cadbury and ITC - picked up interns from IIM Shillong as well.

The most spoken about financial sector - reeling under the global melt-down - saw students showing reluctance in joining the traditional I-banking behemoths. This time around the flavor of the day for most finance pundits on campus has been core banking and asset management companies including Citigroup, HDFC, Standard Chartered, Axis Bank, Tata AIG, SBI Cap, Kotak Mahindra Bank, SREI, BNP Paribas, among a plethora of other leading Indian and multinational corporations.

Other leading companies that showed keen interest in the placement process at the institute included Barclay's, Deutsche Bank, HUL, TATA Capital, Ford, Eicher Motors, E&Y, Starcom and GE India.

Technology consulting drew keen interest as well, with Siemens, Bosch, Headstrong and Wikimedia competing for the top slots over the duration of the placement process. Manufacturing & Supply Chain companies like Ford, Honda, Lafarge, Hero Group, Cargo Partners made their presence felt on campus as well. The spectrum of PSUs, who did not want to be left behind, spanned from ONGC, NTPC, and UTI AMC to Power Finance Corporation.

Start-ups have been able to attract quite a few students with companies like Advaita Capital, Lotus Investments, etc., making their strong presence felt on the campus. Students received a variety of projects like business re-structuring, government policy reforms, power sector reforms and investment analysis, finding investment opportunity, deciding the business model and the marketing opportunity in unexplored territories for multinational corporations, and are being offered handsome stipend. Around 10% of the students have been recruited for internships overseas.

Being the most tech-savvy management institute of the country, coupled with its presence in the idyllic environs of the Scotland of the East, IIM Shillong's arrival on the management stage has widely been spoken of by recruiters and MBA aspirants alike.

"Despite the slowdown in the markets, there is always the continuous need for good talent to run business as usual; thus, leading to a high demand for tapping the high quality talent that institutes like the IIMs produce. We are pleased with what we have accomplished in the first few months of our operation, but there is always scope to do more," opined Prof. A. Dash, the Faculty-in-Charge of Placements at IIM Shillong.

"Overall, IIM Shillong's internship has been well received by the corporate sector and the momentum generated for the winter internships in a not-so-favorable market situation has reinforced the confidence and optimism of both students and faculty with regard to the final placements which will be in the spotlight, a year from now," expressed Prof. Deepak Gandhi, the Dean and Senior Advisor to Placement Committee.

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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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research is key for excellence in B-schools

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

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

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

Excerpts:

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

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

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

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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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IIM-L to call 100 firms for 45 students

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

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

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

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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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IIM Lucknow Summer Placements 2008

A day after the Indian Institute of Management-Lucknow (IIM-L) authorities said 55 students in the first year of the MBA programme are still waiting for offers, a released posted on the institute’s website said there has been a 15 per cent rise in the number of companies participating in summer placements over the last year.

According to the figures, 114 companies had participated in this year’s summer placement programme. While the website had no word on the exact number of offers and the number of students placed, it maintained that for the first time, IIM-L has allowed progressive entrepreneurial ventures and start-ups to participate in the programme. Around 20 firms launched by IIM-L alumnus were present at the programme. This was done following demand from students, said an official. As many as 35 students opted for entrepreneurial ventures and start-ups.

Companies and banking firms like Merrill Lynch, Barclays Capital, Baring Private Equity Partners, O3 Capital, 2i Capital, Seedfund, JP Morgan Chase, and Goldman Sachs and premier banks like Citigroup, HSBC, Deutsche Bank, Standard Chartered Bank, RBS Group, American Express, ICICI Bank and Axis Bank, had taken part in the programme, stated the release. While 320 students (32 per cent) have opted for the banking and financial sector, 34 per cent have opted for strategy and consultancy based roles. Ninety have opted for marketing internships in powerhouses like P&G, Diageo, Nokia, Johnson & Johnson, Asian Paints, Cadbury, Nestle, etc.

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Summer placements cheers IIMK students

102 companies participated in the placement process

Students received 14 international offers

KOZHIKODE: With 102 companies participating in the summer placement process, the 261 students in the Class of 2010 of Indian Institute of Management Kozhikode (IIMK) got placed in companies of their choice.

This year marks an improvement in terms of participation of companies compared to last year even though anxieties about a drop in recruitment were in the air because of economic slowdown. There was also an increase in students intake by 42 per cent. Last year, only 66 companies participated, a spokesman for IIMK said on Tuesday.

IIMK students received 14 international offers across various functions and in locations like Singapore, Hong Kong, Germany, Dubai, South Africa and London.

Banks and other financial institutions increased the number of offers. “We were quite impressed by the profiles of the students at IIM Kozhikode,” said Sharad Goenka, Sr. Vice President, Corporate Banking, HSBC. Some of the other banks that recruited were Citibank, Standard Chartered Bank, American Express, ICICI Bank and Axis Bank. Investment banks like JP Morgan, Deutsche Bank and Edelweiss Capital were bullish on students. Roles in private equity were on offer from Tata Capital and IDG Ventures. A total of 27% of students will intern in finance companies.

A large chunk of students opted for strategy and consulting roles. Arthur D Little, one of the world’s top management consulting companies, offered roles in its Dubai office. The Freudenberg Group reaffirmed its relationship with the institute by picking up students for strategy and operations roles based in Germany and Hong Kong.

“I am quite excited about going to Germany,” said Harshad Karandikar, a first-year student, who was among those selected for summer internship by Freudenberg.

Regular recruiters like Deloitte, Hewitt and PricewaterhouseCoopers had accepted students for consulting roles. IIMK also had niche roles in the marketing and operations consulting space by Frost and Sullivan and i2 Consulting.

Wipro and IBM also offered roles in their consulting and strategy divisions. About 20 per cent of the students would be interning in consulting companies in India and abroad. “I was impressed by the processes followed by IIMK during the summer placements. The work done by the placements committee is commendable,” said Thomas Kuruvilla, MD Middle East at Arthur D Little.

Marketing companies participated as before. While Nestle and Coca-Cola offered roles for the first time, regular recruiters like Hindustan Unilever, Colgate Palmolive, Marico, ITC, Aditya Birla Group and Johnson & Johnson picked students for roles in branding, sales and marketing, operations and logistics. Coca-Cola was one of the companies offering highest domestic stipend at Rs.1 lakh for the duration of internship, while Vega Foods, a Singapore-based company offered US$6000.

Participation from the sunrise sector was also encouraging. Many students opted for internships in media and real estate companies. Sony Entertainment Television, Viacom, Star News and BBC World offered both creative and marketing roles, while Ansal API, Godrej and ABG Infralogistics offered roles in real estate.

This year too traditional recruiters gave summer internship roles in broader business divisions. In systems and IT/ITeS vertical, Cognizant gave roles in Business Consulting and TCS gave roles in capital markets. Taiwanese hardware manufacturer ASUS participated for the first time. Conglomerates like Mahindra & Mahindra and international consortiums like the Buhler Group and Dutch State Group also took students for general management and strategy roles at international locations.

Summers 2009 also marked a paradigm shift in the attitude of the students towards exploring non-traditional avenues for internships. The Entrepreneurship-Cell at IIMK held a start-up fair, in which 25 start-up companies participated and more than 150 enthusiastic students from the first and second year interacted with them. Several students who were interested in learning business hands-on in an entrepreneurial environment actually chose to do their internships in these start-ups rather than established companies.

The start-ups offered varying profiles in investment banking, private equity, social entrepreneurship, educational services, media, healthcare, travel and tourism and rural marketing. This was the first start-up fair at IIMK, and the tremendous response it generated ensured that it becomes a yearly event.

“With the global economic slowdown and with many firms resorting to lay-offs and recruitment freezes, many had feared that this would adversely affect campus placements,” said Dr. Keyoor Purani, Placements Chairperson at IIMK. “However, IIMK has bucked the trend by finishing summer placements in time and with great success,” he said.

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Also at Economic Times

IIM-B to increase intake by 150

BANGALORE: Amid the doom and gloom comes some good news, more so for those preparing for the Common Admission Test. The Indian Institute of Management, Bangalore, one of the most-sought-after B-schools in the country, will increase its intake by 150 from the next batch.

On the sidelines of the 35th Foundation Day, Pankaj Chandra, director, IIM-B, told reporters of this 150, 75 are for post-graduate programmes (PGP) and the rest for the one-year executive programme.

"We're embarking on an ambitious programme of expanding capacity to meet the needs of the nation. We're adding another section of PGP. Next year, the number of students in our various long-duration programmes will exceed 1,100,'' said Chandra. Starting December, IIM-B will start construction of a hostel with 300 rooms, nine classrooms as part of the state-of-the-art green classroom complex, 24 faculty houses and a sports complex.

The IIM-B Society approved a one-year executive PGP programme in management for mid-level executives under the leadership of Malay Bhattacharya.

Not missing the anxiously awaited placement season, Chandra said it is a "tough situation'' and the institute is exploring options like entertainment, manufacturing and consulting. He also hinted at the possibility of increasing the intake to 750 in five years. The institute has drawn up a long-term vision under the leadership of board member K L Chugh to become a research-driven international institute focusing on emerging markets and high-tech entrepreneurship.

He said the admission process for the next batch has been initiated with CAT on November 16. "With the increasing number of aspirants for CAT, IIMs are working to offer this exam online from the next year,'' he added.

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IIM-B ranked as best B-school in Central Asia

BANGALORE: Indian Institute of Management Bangalore (IIM-B) has been ranked as the best business school in Central Asia by a Paris based agency which evaluates B-schools world wide.

The IIMB has been announced as best business school in covering in Central Asia covering Central and South Asia and the Middle-East by Eduniversal said IIMB Director Prof Pankaj Chandra at the 35th foundation day function today. The award would be presented during the Eduniversal World Convention scheduled to be held in Paris on November four and five.

"IIM-B has also been ranked amongst the top 27 business schools in the world from a list of 1,000," he said.

The award recognises the three best institutions within each of the nine Eduniversal geographical zones - Africa, Middle East, Eastern Europe, Western Europe, Latin America, Northern America, Central Asia, Far Eastern Asia and Oceania.

The deans of the 1,000 best B-schools from 153 countries have ranked IIM-B as the best business school in the Central Asia Zone, with a recommendation rate of 398 per thousand, followed by IIM-A (379) and IIM-C (321), classified under "internationally known".

According to IIM-B, Eduniversal selection endorses its international reputation and influence, defined as the capacity of a business school to make a student valuable and thus to improve their employability in domestic and international spheres.

The process of selection involved a global mapping system, meeting the criteria universality and the international reputation of each academic institution.

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Also in DNA

IIM-B might borrow to carry out expansion

BANGALORE: Faced with the challenge of carrying out 54 per cent expansion by 2010, the Indian Institute of Management-Bangalore (IIM-B) is toying with the idea of borrowing external funds to meet its growing costs.

The Board of Governors headed by Reliance CMD Mukesh Ambani is meeting on Friday to consider the proposal put up by the institute on seeking the HRD Ministry’s approval before going ahead with the borrowing.The Board had earlier requested Ravi Parthasarathy, Chairman and MD of Infrastructure Leasing and Financial Services Limited, to submit a report on whether it was mandatory under the Memorandum of Association (MoA) of IIM-B Society to get the Central Government’s approval for borrowing funds.Out of an estimated Rs 70 crore required to carry out the expansion plans of the institute, the HRD Ministry has committed to releasing only Rs 33 crore.Other issues topping the agenda include summer placements and amending the MoA to carry out expansion plans of the institute.

IIM-B Chairperson (placements) Sovrav Mukherji will make a presentation on the changing strategies and trends in summer placements due in second week of November in the wake of global financial slowdown.IIM-B professor Trilochan Sastry is slated to brief the Board members on the status of the committee constituted to make recommendations on amending the MoA of IIM-B.Amending MoA is essential to support the institute’s application for IT exemption under Section 12A of the IT Act 1961 and to expand and diversify the portfolio of activities both within and outside India.One of the Board members had earlier proposed to delete reference to by-laws in MoA and to incorporate new procedures notified by the Centre for appointment of Chairman and Director.

The Board meeting will be followed by the Foundation Day lecture on ‘Innovations in Healthcare Delivery’ by Devi Prasad Shetty, chairman of Narayana Hrudayalaya.

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

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

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

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

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IIM Lucknow students develop one stop consulting portal

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

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

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

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

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

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Fear is the word at IIMs too

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Falling prey

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

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

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

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

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

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Global meltdown panic echoes in the corridors of IIM-Lucknow

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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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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IIT, IIM placements face big hit

KOLKATA/CHENNAI: The Lehman Brothers, Merrill Lynch crisis has come as a big blow to leading academic institutions like Indian Institutes of Management (IIMs) and Indian Institutes of Technology (IITs).

Both the companies are among the biggest recruiters on campus in the financial domain and offer huge salaries and lucrative roles to students in analyst and associate positions. Not surprisingly, these elite institutions have been hard hit.

This year, Lehman Brothers and Merrill Lynch have both offered PPOs (pre-placement offers) to IIM students, including foreign postings, which will, in all probability, be withdrawn.

Though the institutes have received no official intimation as well, Lehman will naturally be a no-show during final placements, although there is a faint hope among students that Bank of America may come after the Merrill buyout.

IIM Calcutta placement co-ordinator Rahul Ajmani told ET, “Not only are both these companies names to reckon with globally, they also offer extremely lucrative roles. This year, Lehman has offered 4 PPOs in London and New York while Merrill has offered PPOs in Singapore, London and India.”

During the final placements last time, Lehman had made four offers and Merrill around 5-6. “We're hopeful that Bank of America might come for final placements after things are sorted out," said Ajmani.

IIM Bangalore placement chairman S Mukherji feels much the same way. “The two companies had already offered a total of 6-7 PPOs this year. During final placements earlier, they had recruited about 12-13 students between them, many of them on foreign desks, including London, New York, Tokyo and Hong Kong. We have not received any word from them yet and they are unlikely to intimate us so early. But this is bad news, indeed.”

IIT-Madras deputy registrartraining, placement and public relations office, Lt Col (retd) Jayakumar said, “Lehman Brothers has been recruiting for the past three years in the posts of associates and junior analysts. In their first year, they hired 16, in the second year 22 and 11 last year. The average salary offered is Rs 8.5 lakh per annum. The students placed haven't got back to us so far about the problem at Lehman. We are yet to see how the students react to recruitment from the investment banking space this year," he said.

IIM Ahmedabad PGP student placement committee co-ordinator Mihir Lal said, “We will be unable to give any figures as per our policy. Our official stand is that it is too early to tell right now what the fallout of all these developments will be.” IIM Lucknow placement chairperson S Kumar, however, preferred to down play things.

“Lehman Brothers made 3 offers last year. Yes, it's a loss since they are among the top names, but in terms of numbers, the impact will not be that great,” added Mr Kumar.

Prof Ganapathy, head-placement and external relations, Institute for Financial and Management Research, said: “Lehman is visiting our campus for the first time this month for recruitment. What happens at the global level might not be replicated in India.”

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IIM-C gets 54 pre-placement offers; scene is bright

Placements for the batch of 2009 at IIM Calcutta (IIM-C) have begun on a positive note with the number of pre-placement offers (PPOs) already touching 54. Last year, IIM-C received a total of 90 PPOs. The PPO season is expected to go on till the end of this year.
The premier Indian Institutes of Management (IIMs) expect a 25 to 50 per cent increase in pre-placement offers (PPOs) this academic year.

Around 20 companies have made offers till date. Over 85 companies participated in the summer placement process at IIM Calcutta in November last year and offered both Indian and international profiles across different sectors. This year, more than half the companies are still to announce the results of the summer internship.

Overall, the placement scene looks bright with the total number of pre-placement offers expected to increase as more firms announce the results of the summer internship process. The students have bagged jobs across sectors like consulting firms, investment banks,
commercial banking, general management and marketing firms.

Notwithstanding the prevailing negative sentiment especially in the international banking sector, IIM-C has managed to buck the trend across the board in the summer internships. Students have been offered international profiles with BCG, Mckinsey, Bain and AT Kearney in the consulting sector and Merrill Lynch, Morgan Stanley, Lehman Brothers,
Barclays, HSBC, Credit Suisse and Citibank in the investment banking sector deciding to give out final job offers midway through the academic year itself.

Macquarie, which is a first timer on campus, has already made offers to all the India interns. The offers have been made across continents in Australia, Europe, US, South Africa, Hong Kong, Singapore, Philippines and India. With marketing and general management firms also offering international profiles on campus, the good news only
gets better with HUL, P&G, Aditya Birla Group and TAS making pre-placement offers to students.

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