QS global 2009 Survey

BANGALORE: Employers are making a B-line for IIM-B, as per a survey. The Indian Institute of Management, Bangalore, (IIM-B) is among the top 10 preferred B-schools in the Asia Pacific region. The QS Global top 200 business schools 2009 survey has put IIM-B at sixth position in the region.

IIM-Ahmedabad, IIM-Calcutta and ISB Hyderabad are a close 11, 12 and 13th rank. Many factors went into the survey — quality of students, specialization, success of alumni and activities of alumni network — sources associated with the research told TOI.

The global survey has thrown up interesting trends in gloomy times. Business schools in India are becoming a major focus for employers as the country’s economy demands ever more professional managers. The report lists 200 business schools currently preferred by most international employers for hiring MBA graduates.

The report available with TOI demonstrates that MBA employers around the world are increasingly targeting a broader selection of regionally strong B-schools from which to hire MBA graduates. This trend may be accelerated by the recessionary environment, even as overall MBA hiring numbers fall.

The pressures of globalization mean that beyond the traditional MBA employers, there are growing number of regional MBA employers who may not have the budget to pay the salaries demanded by MBAs from elite schools. As a result, MBAs who are pro-active in their search and flexible in terms of salary expectations are expanding their range of opportunities, even in the time of recession, sources said.

Interestingly, B-schools in the Asia-Pacific region are strengthening their role in the MBA market. “In fact, the number of Asian and Australian schools in the QS global survey has increased from 10 in 2004 to 40 this year — a massive jump reflecting their growing status. It also reflects the importance of Asian recruitment amongst employers.

The Quacquarelli Symonds (QS) is said to be the most exhaustive research on global B-schools. It has won appreciation from the likes of Harvard and Wharton schools.

In the top 30 league is the Delhi University (22nd rank), which figures for the first time, and SP Jain Institute of Management and Research (21 rank). The list consists — 72 schools in North America, 70 in Europe, 40 in Asia Pacific region, 12 in Latin America and 6 in Africa and West Asia.

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Job profiles score over salaries

The placements season in various B-schools, including the Indian Institutes of Management (IIMs), is witnessing a new trend. With a dip salary packages offered, the placement process is taking longer to complete. However, according to faculty members and students, some changes are for the better.

The Department of Management Studies (DMS) at IIT-Delhi has completed placing its entire batch of 49 students, but not without difficulty. “Some recruiters backed out at the last moment; placements that earlier took three to four days now took over two months, and; there was a dip in the highest salary offered (Rs 15 lakh) as compared to the amount offered last year (Rs 20.7 lakh),” informed Chetan Kapoor, student placement co-ordinator at DMS.

However, student priorities have changed as well. “Earlier, salary was a top criterion for most students but now they are more focussed. They are taking their time in choosing a profile that will stand them in good stead,” said Munish Bhargava, corporate and placement advisor, Indian Institute of Foreign Trade (IIFT), Delhi. Bhargava added that with the highest salary offered this year being Rs 15 lakh, IIFT has experienced a 10% dip against last year. Also, about 8% students are yet to be placed.

There has also been a change in the profile of companies visiting the campus, with the number of PSUs and logistics companies increasing. Bhargava added, “Students are readily joining PSUs since they get to experience work life outside the corporate set-up. Besides, the increase in salaries in the Sixth Pay Commission, has helped this decision.”

At the Faculty of Management Studies (FMS), Delhi University, placement started in the last week of February. “Placements are almost over and most students have got jobs. However, the number of companies visiting the campus and the number of jobs offered per-company has reduced. There is also a dip in the highest salary offered. This year, the highest salary offered is Rs 20 lakh,” said Arvind Narasimhan, placement secretary, FMS. He added that many students have joined PSUs, choosing stability over brand, location and salary.

IIM-Kozhikode has also finished placements for the 11th batch of its flagship postgraduate programme in management. The institute ended placements with an average annual salary of 10.56 lakh, a highest international offer of $1,20,000 and highest domestic offer of Rs 24 lakh. The highest number of offers was made in the area of finance, while many students also went for opportunities in NGOs and media companies. Further, two students from the graduating batch decided to opt out of this year’s placement process and start their entrepreneurial ventures.

Around 267 students of the batch of 2009 at IIM-Lucknow received their post-graduate diplomas in management. Unlike previous years, the final placement process at IIM-L was also extended over two weeks. By the end of placements, 105 companies had made a total of 284 offers. Students also managed to secure international offers from reputed firms such as Barclays Capital, Frost & Sullivan, Ernst & Young and Alshaya, among others. Summarising the season, Sushil Kumar, chairman, placements, IIM-L, said: “Despite the market scenario, the campus succeeded in securing job offers for the entire batch, while strengthening its relationship with regular recruiters and establishing new associations.”

Subir Verma, chairman, placements, Management Development Institute (MDI), Gurgaon, said, “Usually we complete our placements in what we call in B-school parlance ‘Day-0.’ This is the first time that we are doing our placement in four phases, which started in end-January. We are now looking at a larger set of recruiters for two reasons. First, the number of offers made by a single company has gone down. Secondly, we have increased batch strength from 169 students to 269 students.”

Arindam Chaudhuri, dean, Centre for Economic Research and Advanced Studies, IIPM, said, “Nearly 1,520 students have been placed so far this year, which is marginally lower than last year. Also, last year’s average package was 5.2 lakh which is now 4.2 lakh; international placements were 165 and this year it’s 44. Many companies like Reliance ADAG and ICICI, which recruited over 100 students have reduced their hiring to only a small fraction of that number. As a result, we have opted to bring in more companies this year. Many of these companies are from the SME and manufacturing sector and are visiting the campus for the first time. Further, even though the financial sector has slowed down compared to previous years, insurance and IT are still big recruiters.”

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B-Schools encourage setting up of start-ups

Entrepreneurship is the flavour of the season. Premier institutes, including the Indian Institutes of Management (IIMs), are organising conferences, seminars and lectures on entrepreneurship.

Recently, the entrepreneurship cell of IIM-Lucknow, Abhiyan, organised its annual annual entrepreneurship summit, Nirvaan.

The event was attended by representatives from venture capital firms as well as teams of investors. “Each year, three students choose to start their own ventures. This year, already four students have informed us that they plan to start their ventures right after college,” said a spokersperson from IIM-Lucknow.

Recently, IIM-Ahmedabad’s venture capital and private equity club organised Leverage, a conference for budding entrepreneurs.

Kanwal Rekhi, the co-founder, Inventus Capital, said that recession is the best time to be an entrepreneur. “In the current environment, jobs are scarce, resources are cheap. Money may be difficult to get, but money is not everything. And as it is, it is a misconception that funding is impossible in the current scenario,” Rekhi added at the conference. A business plan contest was the highlight of Leverage. There was also a session on the top 10 mistakes an entrepreneur should be wary of.

Xavier Labour Relations Institute also organised its first national conference on social entrepreneurship at Jamshedpur. The two-day conference included a Blind Opera performance and competitions for students interested in social entrepreneurship.

“At Jamnalal Bajaj Institute of Management Studies, we have an entrepreneurship cell (Ecell) under the faculty. Guest lecturers are also organised on campus by eminent entrepreneurs like Mahesh Murthy. The institute wants to promote the spirit of entrepreneurship through networking with mentors, experts, consultants and advisors.,” said Swapnil Pinjarkar, committee member, Ecell.

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Placements encouraging at B-schools

The final campus placements at some of the leading city-based B-schools have started on an encouraging note this year despite the prevailing economic recession which had sparked off fears of a possible slump in placements.

About 20 companies have visited the campus of Xavier Institute of Management, Bhubaneswar (XIMB) so far in the final campus recruitment process which kicked off on January 15 this year. The management institute has so far been able to secure placements for 80-90 students of its current batch of Post Graduate Programme (PGP) in courses other than rural management, consisting 120 students. "There are companies who are keeping their fingers crossed over the impending third quarter results of 2008-09. These companies are expected to visit the XIMB campus later this month as the process of campus recruitment is set to continue till the end of January ", said an official of XIMB's placements committee.

"14 companies have visited our campus and 29 students have already been recruited in this year's placements. However, the placement process has been slow this year as nearly 65-70 per cent of our regular MBA students were placed by the end of January last year", Prabir Pal, director, Regional College of Management (RCM) told Business Standard.

LK Vaswani, director, KIIT School of Management, said, Around 20 companies have visited our campus till now in this year's placements but the intake by these companies has been less this year compared to the previous year. The campus placement for KIIT School of Rural Management is scheduled to begin on February 2 this year.

The final campus placement programme has also started at the Asian School of Business Management (ASBM) and 15 companies have visited the B-school campus so far for recruiting students of the conventional MBA programme. "All the students of ASBM's logistics and supply chain management programme have already been recruited by Gati Limited. Moreover, the 60 students of our other sector specific management programme are set to be absorbed in Pantaloon Retail with whom we have a tie-up", said Biswajeet Pattanayak, director, ASBM.

Institute of Management and Information Science (IMIS) has so far witnessed the participation of 15 companies in its final campus placements this year. The companies which have visited the IMIS campus this year include SBI, ICICI Prudential, Axis bank, HDFC bank and Asian Paints to name a few. Around 52 full-time MBA students of IMIS have been placed till now in this year's placements and SBI has offered the highest package at Rs 6.5 lakh per annum, said a placement official of the institute.

B-Schools and Globalisation

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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B-schools on top

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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invest time in B-schools during Slowdown

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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Indian companies climb on B-schools wishlist

NEW DELHI: There may be a silver lining to the dark clouds of the meltdown for Indian corporates — top-notch talent is available, and willing to settle for reasonable packages.

A survey conducted among final year students of India's best MBA schools — including the IIMs, XLRI Jamshedpur and Jamnalal Bajaj Institute of Management — shows that 71% would rather work in India than abroad, and don't expect a rise in average compensation packages from last year.

Besides, leading Indian groups like the Tatas and Reliance are among their most preferred employers, following the fall of top investment banks like Lehman Brothers and JP Morgan.

The study, ‘B-school Pulse' done by leading staffing company TeamLease, global research company Synovate and management portal MBA Universe throws up some interesting results. Traditional favourites like McKinsey, Hindustan Unilever, Boston Consulting Group and Proctor & Gamble make up the top four, while the MBA students shrugged off recent rumours about ICICI Bank to make it their fifth most preferred employer.

Tata Group moved up four places in the list of ‘Top 25 Most Coveted MBA Recruiters of 2008' to the sixth most coveted company to work for. A similar survey done in 25 B-schools last year ranked Tata Group at number 10.

The rise of Reliance Group is even more remarkable. It moved up a whopping 10 places and has become the seventh most attractive place to work for. Last year, the Reliance Group was ranked number 17. The Aditya Birla Group moved up two notches to No. 19 while Mahindra and Mahindra debuted on the list at No. 20.

"The recent meltdown of the financial markets has made a significant impact on majority of the B-school graduates. They prefer to tread cautiously in making career choices,'' says Sampath Shetty, VP, Permanent Staffing, TeamLease Services.

The fall of big investment bank like nine pins has meant they have lost their sheen among MBAs. Lehman Brothers, ranked number four last year and JP Morgan ranked number 11 last year have fallen off the list. Other foreign banks like Deutsche Bank and Barclay's Bank, too are no longer part of this coveted list. The void created by them is being filled by strong Indian brands like ICICI Bank, HDFC Bank, HSBC and others.

In fact, MBA graduates feel that the sectors most likely to benefit and pull more quality talent due to the meltdown is: Management Consulting, FMCG, Telecom and Retailing. Diversified and Manufacturing is also likely to benefit. Interestingly, the meltdown has also meant compensation package which hovered between Rs 6 to Rs 15 lakh last year has not really changed. Their expectations have not risen at all this year.

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Global meltdown to affect placements in management institutes

New Delhi: With the global financial crisis hitting several sectors, top management institutes are worried it will adversely affect the job prospects of their students, who are expecting a drop in the number of offers and the pay packages.

Several top notch companies have already conveyed their intention to freeze campus placements, while some have decided to hire limited candidates in final placements.

Top management institutes fear that the hike in average pay packages could be down by 20%, whereas students are apprehensive of a more severe downturn.

“Market meltdown will definitely affect the final campus placements with indications that companies would squeeze their requirements to a bare minimum. Companies, which had recruited 5-6 students during last campus placements may now restrict the number to one or two,” Prof Sourav Mukherjee, placement Chairman, IIM, Bengaluru (IIM-B) said.

The situation has also forced IIM-B to invite more companies to take part in the placement drive.

“This year we are approaching more companies from non-financial sector,” he added.

With lesser chances of investment banking companies — the worst hit by the crisis — seeking campus selection, institutes are turning to greater number of companies from the non-financial sector.

About 30% of the companies that annually come for campus selection at IIM-B are from the financial sector.

Investment banking sector, which used to bring in hefty pay offers, may also refrain from recruiting this year and this could pull down the upper limit of pay packages.

“With chances of investment banking companies coming for campus selection diminishing, students may not get big pay package offers,” said Prof Prashant Salwan, Chairman (Placements), IIM Indore said.

He was, however, confident that passouts would suitably be placed in other sectors.

“Pay packages for fresh students may not be as attractive this time. For the last five years, the increase in annual package offered to fresh graduates used to be in the range of 20-30%, but now it could be in the range of 10%, average salary being Rs14 lakhs,” said Prof Sushil Kumar, placements Chairman, IIM Lucknow.

Ameet Padiyar, convener, placement committee, IIFT, New Delhi said: “Some companies have indicated that they will not come for recruitment this season as they are reviewing their requirements and placements will be on freeze till they complete the review.”

With four more months to go for the placement season, others are still in the process of gauging the impact.

Students, on the other hand, are expecting a drop of almost 30-50% in the annual pay-package.

“We are in stress because the meltdown is going to affect our careers badly. This time we expect pay package offers less by 30-40% than last year.

“Last year 173 students received 367 offers and average annual pay package was Rs13.7 lakhs”, said Sachin Sharma, a third semester student of IIM Indore.

Normally, about 4,500-5,000 jobs are offered to the 1,600 odd pass-outs from the seven IIMs alone. Besides, there are several other institutes like IIFT, XIM & XLRI, Symbiosis, ICFAI, Mudra and SPJIPMR, whose pass-outs also get a good number of job offers.

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Foreign B-school alumni on top

Have A look at the crème de la crème who grace the top seats of IT companies and you would be fascinated to know that there is a predominance of those who sport foreign MBA degrees. Kelloggs School of Management, the Chicago Graduate School of Business (CGSB), Santa Clara Business School — these are some of the popular schools which have thrown up some top talents in the IT industry . Their success stories throw up some interesting facts.

Says Jeby Cherian, head, global business solutions centre, IBM: “Chicago varsity has over 81 Nobel Prize winners on its campus. Surely, when you put 81 Nobel laureates together with students, the effect is astounding. We even had Olympic Games winners as part of our class”.

Both Prabhakar Tadepalli, managing director, Asia Pac, tyfone, and Jeby, say: “CGSB teaches you how to think. They don’t teach you marketing strategies there. They just answer your question with a question” . Jeby was among the 25 of the 30,000 employees chosen by PricewaterhouseCoopers (his previous employer) to pursue an MBA programme with CGBS.

Jeby, who started as a chartered accountant, now heads a team of software engineers “which was not once part of my functional discipline” . “With a relentless focus on meritocracy and with very highly accomplished people as your co-students , business skills get honed,” he says.

However, country director, Synopsys (India) EDA, Subhash Bal, an alumni of Santa Clara Business School, California, feels: “Interaction with chiefs of business houses helped a lot. These are people who know what is going on.

Academicians are theorists, while it is on-the-job guys who can teach you what the market really needs.” “The entire system in US business schools is based on innovation. They teach you how to sell a product which the market has never seen and not just how to manage a company,” he adds.

Siva Ramamoorthy , group director (marketing), Tejas Networks , however, feels that Indian B-schools are equally good. “What you finally bring to the table is important. The synergy between the business goals of a company and the acumen of the business leaders is crucial for a company,” says Siva, an alumni from the Kellogg School of Management, North Western University.

“The MBA course offers you a set of tools which you have to cultivate. Indian Bschools are fairly young when compared to foreign ones, which have over 100 years of history,” he says. Linda Darragh, director of Entrepreneurship Programs at CGSB, who is now leading a team of alumni on an international tour, says: “Almost 30-35 % of our students are from abroad and they join as part of the full-time or executive programme.

To be a business leader, you have to know many cultures . Africa, Russia and Asia are truly emerging destinations for business leaders. There is a huge alumni base in India” .

Talking of how Americans view Indian talent, Siva says: “Indians are considered analytical people, which is very important in investment banking. They are hardworking and sincere” . The advanced eco-system which the US provides also makes a marked difference.

“Proximity to the customer is a crucial factor which helps B-school students,” says Subhash. “Companies are yet to customise needs to the Indian market, the way they do abroad. But change is happening, especially on the advertising scene. Advertisers have been able to catch the true pulse of the Indian market.”

“Risk-taking ability is honed to perfection at B-schools abroad,” says Prabhakar. There is immense flexibility in curriculum and independence to do things on your own. The bar for taking risk is quite high. They teach you to pack your bags and start shop in another country in no time,” he says.

“Entrepreneurs in India rarely fail as they have a lot of social support,” says Jeby. Well, if these are some of the reasons, what really did tick in the words of Subhash is: ”We were at the right place at the right time”.

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Business schools ready to respond to change

Signals that the UK and US economies were heading for testing times recently moved from the fringes to centre stage. With established investment banks failing in both countries, some are questioning whether what was first believed to be solely a financial crisis may spread to the wider economy.

Business schools are making sure they are ready to respond and lead in this climate. Research will inform future policy to try and avoid a similar situation reoccurring. Through management education, like the MBA, leaders are taught approaches to cope with both today's issues and future developments that will require new insights and novel solutions. A highquality MBA programme is one that provides an enduring education, through everything a graduate will encounter in their working life.

At times of economic difficulty a number of things happen to employees. Most obviously, some are made redundant and are presented with the opportunity to retake control of their careers. Others decide that its high time to move into a new area of working, enabled by an MBA programme. We also quite often see applicants with a great idea wanting to start their own small or family business - becoming an entrepreneur.

Overall application numbers to the full time Imperial MBA have risen over 40% on last year. The number of applications for the MBA programme from candidates with a finance background has increased this year. Most are still working in senior positions at reputable financial organisations but decided that it's a shrewd time to begin a move out of finance.

A higher calibre of student is applying, suggesting that for those considering a place in a top business school - things are only going to get tougher in the coming years as competition for places increases.

The range of candidates is as diverse and colourful as previous years - something that Imperial has worked hard to establish:

A collaborative culture doesn't just happen by mistake. We bring in the right applicants and encourage certain ways of behaving. We're always looking for people who can work with others and who bring alternative views to any discussion or task. If a CV or application matches our cultural 'wall paper', it's obvious. They are comfortable and capable of leading a group but also have the experience to know when to step back and support others. We don't believe that a pool of piranhas is the best environment in which to learn and innovate.

Graduates tend to move into four broad areas: consultancy, service or manufacturing industries and entrepreneurial ventures. What all seem to share is an understanding of the importance innovation and discovery. The candidates that perform best on the MBA want to find the most challenging questions and embrace change. The reward is simple: a view of the world that will unlock value and generate the ideas, income and collaborations, so vital to a modern company.

It seems that regardless of where applicants are coming from, or where they want to go, one thing is clear. There's never been a better time to invest in your own skills.

(The author is from Imperial College Business School)

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B-school salaries to take a hit

International job offers at IIMs are also expected to dip.

The US investment banking crisis, compounded by the Lehman bankruptcy impact, is leaving its mark on the psyche of Indian B-school managements and students. Even the premier Indian Institutes of Management (IIMs) now expect a dip of around 15-20 per cent in the average salary levels, besides a drop in the international job offers on the campus for the 2009 batch.

“Foreign companies pay in foreign currencies, but with most of the international offers coming from investment banks the offers and salary levels are set to see a dip this placement season,” reasons a placement chairperson from one of the IIMs. He, however, is optimistic that international companies from the manufacturing sector have shown interest in recruiting students from the campus.

At the Faculty of Management Studies, Delhi, the institute expects it could face problem with lateral placements. The institute has already approached 15-20 new companies (which did not come on campus last year for recruitment) this year. Professor Madhu Vij, Corporate Relation and Placement Advisor, FMS, reasons: “One job in the BFSI sector creates four other jobs. It is a wait and watch time for the laterals. We expect that the profiles offered might be different and the salaries may be lower. Till now, 80-90 per cent of the companies are same as last year but for safekeepng, we have approached new companies with lesser exposure to the international market.” Sriharsha, a student at FMS, says that students with dual specialisations can opt for marketing and HR and the options in IT are likely to go down in lieu of the turmoil in the US market.

“The Indian market and economy seem still as attractive as last year and we expect more domestic companies to recruit students from the top-tier B-schools as international companies take a back seat. There could possibly be a reduced growth rate in the salaries offered, but we expect an increase in Pre-Placement Offers (PPOs) this year,” says Naveen Urmese, second year Post Graduate Diploma in Management at Xavier Institute of Management, Bhubaneswar (XIMB).

B-schools are now finding immense potential in consumer banking, retail, consulting, consumer durables and private equity, which are more viable career options than an I-bank. “Unlike around 40 per cent students from our institute taking up jobs at investment banks every year, this year the numbers will be drastically low since the requirement of manpower has gone down at I-banks.

Sectors like consumer durables, marketing, retail and consulting will get a big fillip this year,” says Madhusudan Karmarkar, area chair for finance at Indian Institute of Management, Lucknow (IIM-L).

“The US financial market is a challenge to the aspirations of B-school students currently. Some look up to these institutions as great places to work in. However, cycles come and go, and we need to have a long-term vision of such incidents.

Opportunities are now arising in the Asian financial markets. The fundamentals of Asia and India remain strong; they are the engines of growth driving the world economy forward,” says Devesh Dhar Dwivedi, from Indian School of Business (ISB).

The Lehmann and Merril Lynch debacle have certainly become a topic of discussion among students at management institutes. “There have been informal discussions going on during every class at the campus since the Lehman debacle. Of course, there are concerns, but there is no such panic among the students of finance,” says Pratik Ved, student co-ordinator at IIM, Ahmedabad (IIM-A).

The premier institute of the country states that the events are not conclusive in nature and their impact on future hiring is uncertain at this stage. “We are not currently in a position to make a strong statement on how we believe these events are likely to impact us. IIM-A has a large and diverse pool of recruiters and therefore, the status of a few firms is unlikely to impact the opportunities that IIM-A students can expect from our placement process.

Our student pool is also quite diverse and students looking for a long-term career in finance continue to have a preference for the sector as they are unlikely to base a long term career decision on a short-term view of the market,” says Mihir Lal, placement co-ordinator, IIM-A.

Interestingly, the volatile state of the financial markets across the globe owing to sub-prime crisis, the soaring inflation rates, interestrates and rising crude oil prices has found its way into a case-study by Jamnalal Bajaj Institute of Management Studies (JBIMS), Mumbai. “The finance club at JBIMS is planning to take up a case study on the Lehmann and Merril Lynch debacle in its ongoing series on ‘How lenient lending can turn into a bane rather than a boon’.

Most of the students are viewing the current downturn as a short term lull in the market and are expecting a recovery by the end of the year. This year, placements at JBIMS would range from niche profiles such as infrastructure advisory to conventional banking,” says Rahul Lachchhiramka, corporate relations committe at JBIMS.

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B-schools fall short in teamwork, leadership

The ability to work in a team has often been voted as the most desired competency

There have been many surveys conducted among recruiters, including a few by our organization, to identify the competencies that they value most in a business school graduate.

The ability to work in a team, knowledge of subject and its effective application, analytical skills, leadership skills, creativity, performance focus, communication and presentation skills, customer orientation, ability to withstand work pressure, risk-taking ability, dealing with ambiguity and ability to prioritize are the key competencies expected of a B-school graduate.

Of these, the ability to work in a team has often been voted as the most desired competency. In my opinion, this is also the competency that B-schools, including the top ones, have failed to cultivate enough among their students.

In fact, the gap between what recruiters desire and what they get is the highest when it comes to team building, followed by leadership skills. This is one of the findings of an ambitious, four-year study conducted by Asha Bhandarkar, the Raman Munjal Chair professor of leadership studies at Management Development Institute (MDI) in Gurgaon.

She conducted psychometric tests among 1,000 students of nine top B-schools: The Indian Institutes of Management in Ahmedabad, Bangalore, Kolkata and Lucknow, MDI, Xavier Labour Relations Institute, Jamnalal Bajaj, S.P. Jain and Xavier Institute of Management, Bhubaneswar. The first test was conducted just after their admission and the second test was done in the same group after about two years, just before they finished school. In addition, at least 300 alumni and about 100 recruiters were interviewed for the study.

The findings are published in her new book, Shaping Business Leaders: What B-schools Don’t Do. Says Bhandarkar: “Most of our B-schools do a bad job in enhancing the teamworking ability among their students. At the entry level, too, students score poorly against this competency.”

One reason for students being bad team players could be the increasingly competitive Indian environment that they are growing up in. Admission to a good institute from nursery school onward is more a process of rejection than selection. Entrance to top B-schools, where at least 300,000 compete for about 1,500 seats, forces students to be very competitive. There is a negative correlation between competition and collaboration. Success for an Indian student often means the other person has to fail, so pulling others down for one’s own ascent is then not considered abnormal.

Meanwhile, the evaluation process in most of our schools, which promote the rat race, further reinforces this mindset. The truth that each person in the team can individually achieve more by working together with other members, that everybody can be a winner is still not assimilated by the majority of students. Says Bhandarkar: “I tell my students what helped you get inside MDI will not help you in your future career. It takes a lot of effort to change the mindset of students who don’t listen to others and don’t believe that they can learn from others.”

For its part, MDI says it has designed various outbound activities to promote team spirit among students. The institute also shows students various management films. Students are first made aware of their mindset (knowing), which they accept and own (owning) and then the change process is initiated (changing).

Developing leadership skills is another area where B-schools do a bad job, suggests the Bhandarkar study. Ideally, a good leader should have a clear vision, make every person in the organization internalize it, motivate and enable everyone to work as a team towards the vision. For this, the leader has to overcome his or her insecurities. But a policy of divide and rule is still followed in many organizations.

In the Bhandarkar study, four aspects of leadership were explored: managing self, influencing others, managing complexity and managing diversity. These aspects are important for business leaders to operate in a global arena. The Bhandarkar study shows that B-school graduates fare poorly in influencing others.

To enhance leadership skills, Bhandarkar is of the view that students need to be provided opportunities to understand their emotive and inner psychic space. Exposure to theatre, outbound programmes, experiential labs and to some extent, gaming, will help them. They should also be given a liberal dose of literature and philosophy. She advocates that B-schools should identify classical works by social thinkers and philosophers, autobiographies and biographies of leaders such as M.K. Gandhi, Nelson Mandela, Martin Luther King, Abraham Lincoln, Thomas Jefferson and Charles de Gaulle. They should also select classic films and use the interaction with great minds to broaden the perspective of students. This is important as most students come from technical, commerce as well as economics streams where they don’t get a chance to engage with the arts, philosophy, history, literature and political science.

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Editorial: Reality check on B-schools

It’s easy to get carried away by the spike in the placement pay-cheques of the top B-school students who graduated in 2008. For, the average 20 per cent rise in salaries flies in the face of slowdown fears. The rosy numbers, published in this year’s All India Management Association’s Best B-school Survey, in association with this newspaper, show once again that industry’s demand for high-quality managers continues to exceed supply. What makes the jump in salaries even more impressive is that it does not take into account the offers from international companies.

The results will surely lift the spirits of all B-school aspirants, but the survey does well to go beyond the hype and drive home the point that the real impact of the slowdown could be seen only during the next placement season — a point summed up well by IIM Ahmedabad Director Sameer Barua when he says that even in March, recruiters had not come to appreciate the far-reaching impact of the sub-prime crisis in the US. Six months later, the flame of optimism is flickering, but it’s heartening that most of the top B-schools are innovating fast to cushion the blow of a slowing economy when the placement season starts in November-December this year. That explains the initiatives to look beyond traditional recruiters like the financial services heavyweights and courting start-ups and foreign firms outside the US.

Prospects of salary increases are only one part of the overall story and the AIMA survey has several other key takeaway points. It’s different from similar other exercises as it does not rank institutes and only classifies them into different groups according to their performance on parameters ranging from intellectual capital to industry interface. That’s important as the survey serves as a checklist for students, institutes and recruiters and less as a contest in which even a minor data aberration can change the rank of an institute and give a distorted picture. For example, the checklist tells us that a few schools like FMS Delhi and IMT Ghaziabad are catching up fast with the IIMs on critical areas like research, campus infrastructure and innovative learning. And surprisingly, many more teachers at the lesser-known institutes (classified as Group C+ in the survey) have more industry experience than those at the higher end of the ladder. Also, the slowdown has made an impact on industry interaction as the number of consultancy projects and management development programmes has dipped, as much as by half in some high-order groups.

These are interesting findings, but the fact is such surveys have obvious limitations because their coverage is limited only to the mainstream B-schools that have managed to carve out successful niches for themselves. At a time when management courses are mushrooming, such limited surveys can often fail to give a holistic view. For example, it’s a fact that the general quality of education, reflected in the knowledge base and skill set of the management graduates churned out by a majority of the institutes, is plummeting. That’s because the permission to set up B-schools has been granted indiscriminately, resulting in a diminishing control over quality. Thus, recruiters’ choices are widening only in numerical terms. Only about a fifth of the 1,120 B-schools approved by the All India Council of Technical Education make it to the serious recruiter’s list.

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B-schools get social about entrepreneurship

Initiatives help blend skills of the corporate world with the social agenda of NGOs.

Social entrepreneurship is increasingly finding its way into B-school campuses to facilitate future managers to choose the right business strategies, keeping in mind their impact on society and the environment.

With the focus on the aspect of social responsibility for business leaders of tomorrow, management institutes across the country are coming up with various initiatives to promote social entrepreneurship.

According to the business schools, the initiatives help blend the entrepreneurial skills of the corporate world with the social purpose of non-governmental organisations.

And the initiatives from the business schools are also luring an increasing crop of professionals preferring to take the path of becoming social entrepreneurs by shunning cushy jobs.

The Indian Institute of Management, Bangalore (IIM-B) recently played host to EXIMIUS, its first entrepreneurship summit in August. Capping the summit was a panel discussion on ‘Social Entrepreneurship’, featuring eminent speakers who have dedicated their lives to this cause.

At Xavier Institute of Management, Bhubaneswar, the interesting concept will soon make its debut into Xpressions ’08, the annual inter-bschool meet at XIMB through ‘Spardha’, the social entrepreneurship game.

“We are planning to introduce ‘Spardha’ with the objective of developing the education and infrastructure of villages through micro-planning. The participating teams will submit the plans for a particular village and the plan of the winning team may be implemented on a larger level. The game will be introduced during the annual festival held in November at XIMB,” says a core committe member of XIMB.

Similarly, Knowledge Process Outsourcing (KPO) company Syntel is promoting an organisation called Students In Free Enterprise (SIFE) within the campus of K J Somaiya Insitute of Management Studies and Research (SIMSR) that holds competitions and workshops on social entrepreneurship across B-schools to promote awareness about the subject.

“We also invite venture capitalists and private equity firms at these events to advise budding entrepreneurs on taking up social entrepreneurship. Moreover, our students also develop self help groups (SHG) in slum areas in Mumbai to market low-cost water filters and making slum dwellers financially responsible as a build up to their future ventures,” said Suresh Ghai, director of the institute.

In order to nurture potential social entrepreneurs, business schools are walking an extra mile to make room for the subject.

For instance, the Social Entrepreneurship Fair held at the Indian Institute of Management, Ahmedabad (IIM-A) aims to encourage entrepreneurs, who would act as agents of change in society and is a meeting point for active social entrepreneurs, emerging social entrepreneurs and venture funds.

But while making a social impact is a top agenda for most of the budding entrepreneurs, they also want to earn money like any other entreprise.

“Save The Environment, which is being incubated by us, is working on providing clean drinking water in eastern parts of the country like West Bengal and Orissa where the arsenic content in underground water is alarmingly high. Unlike a non-government organisation (NGO), the enterprise offers water to the locals at nominal prices,” says Kunal Upadhyay, chief executive officer at IIM-A’s Centre for Innovation, Incubation and Entrepreneurship (CIIE).

Upadhyay notes that many more management institutes seem to be encouraging students to take up social entrepreneurship. “Even at IIM-A, every year several students are interested in taking up social entrepreneurship in sectors like health and water,” he adds.

The Entrepreneurship Development Cell, initiated by the students of Indian Institute of Technology, Delhi, also aims to develop the spirit of entrepreneurship among students as a quality and as a career.

It also plans to develop a strong network of entrepreneurs, venture capitalists, senior professionals and individuals directly or indirectly associated with entrepreneurship and to develop a resource centre of information about entrepreneurship and its various aspects.

The cell has organised various events ranged over social entrepreneurship events on campus to generate IIT business plan contests.

Likewise, Mudra Institute of Communications, Ahmedabad (MICA)’s Entrepreneurship Development Centre (EDC), had recently come up with the concept of ‘ThinkYuva’ to identify and eradicate social issues like filth, poverty, malnutrition and bribery.

Not to be left behind in the race to promote entrepreneurial talent in an upcoming sector, some management institutes have shaped their curriculum in a way to accomodate the concept of social entrepreneurship.

The Entrepreneurship Development Institute of India (EDI) is planning to launch a two-month training programme called Social Entrepreneurship Development Programme at its Gujarat campus in January.

“Social entrepreneurship should not be linked to social work. A social entrepreneur must identify business ideas, should not depend on grant permanently and make profit to give it back to the society. The non-government organisations (NGOs) pay well today and even corporates offer huge amount under Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR). So the students with an urge to do something for the society get attracted to social entrepreneurship and the academic institutes today have realised this need to groom such students,” says Ajay Dixit, who teaches social entrepreneurship at EDI.

Narsee Monjee Institute of Management Studies (NMIMS), on the other hand, has designed a uniquely architectured One Year Diploma Programme in Social Entrepreneurship and a Three Year Part Time MBA Programme in Social Entrepreneurship.

The institute has also established a Social Enterprise Cell on campus to address issues of sustainable development, micro enterprise development and management, marketing of rural products, management of NGOs, micro insurance and micro finance through workshops, lectures, seminars, conferences, training programmes, management development programmes and symposia.

Indian School of Business (ISB) is all set to oganise a three-day international business conference on ‘Igniting the Genius Within’ in October, which offers the participants an opportunity to tap into the contemporary approaches for developing global leadership, sparking innovation and nurturing change in their respective organisations.

Besides, ISB’s Centre for Entrepreneurship Development has created a forum for Technology Innovations at the Centre that focuses on discovering innovative solutions for domestic markets.

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Private equity lures B-schools

Special lectures, courses planned for aspiring entrepreneurs.

Venture capital (VC) and private equity (PE) firms appear to have caught the fancy of business schools this year. Be it for creating awareness among aspiring entrepreneurs to raise funds, or merely understaning the operations of a VC/PE firm, management institutes have increasingly begun interacting with the industry.

While some have announced setting up of a PE club for aspiring entrepreneurs, others are planning courses, special lectures and seminars to create awareness about the booming sector.

Students of the Post Graduate Programme for Executives (PGPX) at Indian Institute of Management, Ahmedabad (IIM-A), will go through a course on PE in their last term between December and February.

The course, spanning 10 sessions, will be taken up by Arun Duggal, vice-chairman of International Asset Reconstruction Company.

Arvind Sahay, chairperson, PGPX, IIM-A, said: “Apart from number of venture capital and private equity fund companies queueing up during placements, the subject has also gathered interest in the wake of students opting for entrepreneurship.”

IIM Lucknow’s (IIM-L) Alumni Association, will organise India Private Equity Forum on September 19 at Mumbai. “This is for the first time that the institute has initiated such a forum. The forum will witness industry experts talk about VC/PE funds to alumni and aspiring entrepreneurs. If successful, we intend to continue conducting such forums in future,” said a member of Alumni Committe (Alcom) at IIM-L.

The Finance Club, a student run body at the Indian School of Business (ISB), is all set to come up with a Private Equity Conference on September 6. A unique PE event , it aims to provide the students an opportunity to gain greater understanding of the PE activities in India.

B-schools are also putting in effort to train students in raising funds. K J Somaiya Institute of Management Studies, which has been witnessing close to 10 per cent of students opting for entrepreneurship, has an e-cell which organises PE meets, workshops, VC colloquium, entrepreneurs meets (including some by the alumni), and guest lectures.

“The outside groups of VCs and PE managers and entrepreneurs have wholehearted and willingly supported the cause and in fact have become mentors to the new students. Students have the spirit of entrepreneurship, but they need the funding, mentoring and handholding for some time. The focus on PE/VC funds is important to give the necessary practical shape to the dreams and business plans,” says Suresh Ghai, director of K J Somaiya Institute of Management Studies.

Private equity and venture fund clubs function as the interface between students and financial institutions and regulatory bodies by organising various events.

Finance clubs across B-schools bring private equity players and industry leaders to the campus with an aim of lending a platform to students and faculty to interact and discuss the opportunities and challenges that lie ahead in the field of private equity and venture funds.

Recently, PGP students of IIM-A set up a Private Equity and Venture Capital club to help students get hands-on experience by involving PE/VC players from India and abroad.

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Recession hits tier-II B-schools harder

MUMBAI: Recessionary trends seem to have hit Tier II B-schools harder than the top rung management schools this year. While offer letters from top corporates were revoked at some of these campuses, others were not assigned duties promised earlier.

Sources say that corporates cite reasons of downsizing and restructuring for the changes made Says a student from Pune based Symbiosis Institute of Management Studies (SIMS), “Had such developments happened at the Indian Institutes of Management (IIMs), these companies would have been black listed.”

Says Parag Singh (name changed) who is working in the KPO division of Infosys BPO in Bangalore, “We were offered job profiles either in the equity research or the fixed income research department. After we arrived, we were told that there is no such profile and that the only client, i.e. Deutsche Bank was gradually pulling out since the bank had a captive in Mumbai. We were thereafter given an option to move to other departments. Also, at the time of hiring we were told that if we quit within six months, we would have to pay back Rs 50,000 sign on bonus. But now we are being told that this period has been extended to a year.”

When contacted, an Infosys official called it “differences in opinions” and refused to divulge further information. Infosys BPO had visited Pune based Symbiosis Institute of International Business (SIIB), SIMS, Chennai based Great Lakes Institute of Management and Mumbai based Welingkar Institute of Management among others B-schools .

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B-schools to introduce women-oriented courses

Business schools are now focussing on budding women entrepreneurs. Entrepreneurship programmes are tailor-made for women who are on the rise across B-schools. And some of these programmes are completely free of cost.

At 49, Saguna Bakhai a freelance travel agent jet sets between exotic hill stations every two weeks. Kashmir, Ladakh, Darjeeling, Sikkim, Manali, are just some of the places that she frequently visits.

However, her life was very different a few years ago. Saguna was a homemaker for 20 years and she decided she needed a change.

The women entrepreneurship course at Narsee Monjee Institute or NMIMS gave her a new lease of life.

"I decided, instead of joining a travel agency and taking up a job at this age, it's better to start whatever little I can do on my own," says Saguna.

Enterprise Training for Women's course coordinator at NMIMS, Sujata Mukherjee feels the course helps women come into their own.

"This course gives them the skill to do something on their own. It helps them to build their self-confidence and helps them to network with other people," she says.

IIM Bangalore too has been running a similar course for women since the last four years. Also the Indian School of Business (ISB) has recently tied up with Goldman Sachs to offer an entrepreneurship course for women starting from November 2008.

This course is absolutely free of cost and Goldman Sachs will provide the entire funding.

However, only those entrepreneurs are eligible who have revenue earnings between Rs 1,00,000 to 15,00,000 per annum.

"If you look at women, they form almost half of the gender population but if you look at their representation in terms of the workforce, in terms of entrepreneurial activity, that seems to be extremely low," says course coordinator, Women Entrepreneurship, ISB, Deepak Chandra.

"Keeping such factors in mind, this course is a way by which we can integrate or promote women into workforce and entrepreneurial activity, that would improve the productivity of the economy," he adds.

Women account for about 15 per cent of an IIM class. But now with institutes taking a keen interest in designing courses tailor-made for them, one can expect to see more women like Saguna Bakhai who are willing to take the risk and shine at B-schools.

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B-schools tailor courses for offbeat jobs

NEW DELHI: India’s rapidly-growing economy is throwing up demand for new skill sets. And educational institutes are introducing niche and unheard of courses to meet industry demand.

From Tata Institute of Social Sciences’ (TISS) PG degree (MA) in social entrepreneurship, J K Business School’s MBA in corporate social responsibility (CSR) and Indian Clinical Research Institute’s (ICRI) management course in medical tourism to Amity’s MSc in organic agriculture and Welingkars’ course in judiciary management, scores of institutes and colleges are offering specialised courses in a number of new areas.

Two years back, a buoyant clinical trial and pharma industry saw an introduction of a degree course in clinical trial. Take the case of social entrepreneurship. Sensing a trend, both globally and in India, TISS launched a two-year course that aims at training and developing leaders for wealth generation with social progress in social sectors and non-profit organisations.

Amity’s organic agriculture course, launched two months back, has many takers. Two years back, it launched an MBA in organic management and buoyed by its success it launched an MSc programme two months back. “There is a huge demand for professionals in this field,” says Amity University’s Savita Mehta.

J K Business School, which was launched in 2006, is running a course on CSR since last year. It’s a CII-JK business school initiative where students learn about CSR and work with companies specially SMEs, to sort out their problems. This year, students will work with 25 such companies including Sona Koyo Steering, Jindal Steel, Sahara India, Munjal Showa and JK Technosoft.

“Companies in the SME segment often confuse CSR with merely spending money in social projects and there have been issues with carrying out such efforts even when they want to do it,” says J K Business School director general Reena Ramachandran. “This initiative will help our students in understanding the space as well as support the companies.”

Welingkar Institute of Management, Mumbai, plans to roll out a diploma programme in judiciary management soon. ICRI recently launched a full-fledged course on medical tourism, besides inpatient services & ward management.

“There is a great demand for such modules as the manpower requirement goes up and the need for specialised roles arise.” says ICRI health service director Major General (Dr) M Srivastava. This could just be a beginning. As emerging new sectors throw up new challenges, India Inc would look for relevant skills to meet them. And there in lies opportunities for educational institutes.

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B-school placements may take 25-30% hit this year

The economic downturn is expected to take its toll on B-school placements too. The premier Indian Institutes of Management (IIMs) do not appear to be perturbed, but other prominent B-schools anticipate a 25-30 per cent drop in placements this academic year.

They are concerned that several regular companies may drop out of the placements and others may recruit fewer numbers than usual.

For instance, Mumbai-based SP Jain Institute of Management and Research (SPJIMR) discovered that although 60 per cent of the companies have committed to recruiting the regular numbers, 30 per cent said they are not sure if they would recruit in regular numbers and 8 per cent said they would freeze recruitment for the time being.

Placement officials of B-schools who spoke to this paper still hope the situation won’t be as bad but admit that the students might have to compromise on their dream profiles this year.

As a precautionary measure, the management institutes have already started expanding their company base by approaching new firms, such as smaller private equity players and wealth management firms. Unlike most years, the Banking and Financial Services (BFSI) sector is not expected to be the best performer on the campuses this year. FMCG, trading and the services sector might take the lead instead.

“The number of offers on B-school campuses by the financial sector could come down with some companies even opting out of placements this year,” said Professor Subir Verma, chairperson, placements, Management Development Institute, Gurgaon.

Some companies, however, see a silver lining in the current slowdown as they stand a chance to recruit students even at a salary they would have to offer.

According to a placement officer of a reputed Mumbai-based B-school, these companies, including banks, found it difficult to recruit from campus earlier because of relatively low salary levels, despite good job profiles.

“It helps us in the sales and marketing scenario. It’s a win-win situation for the company as well as the students because they will find growth and we will get the best of talent from second rung B-schools. Given the ambition and expectations, one cannot afford an IIM or an FMS student,” says T N Radhakrishna, HR Head, UTI MF. The company, however, would be careful in terms of articulating its recruitment needs, said Radhakrishna.

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