Another story to add fire to India's anti reservation row. Scheduled caste and scheduled tribes graduates of premier Indian institutes of management get salaries that are 15-22% lower than their general category peers. While SC/ST students of the class of 2006 at IIM-Ahmedabad were offered an average of Rs 8.2 lakh in annual salary, general candidates were offered Rs 9.7 lakh, according to 2006 salary and performance data of IIM-A. The institute had 55 SC/ST students in a batch of 235.
At IIM-Kozikode, SC/ST students got an average annual package of Rs 7.06 lakh, 21.72% lower than Rs 9.02 lakh offered on an average to general candidates. IIM-Lucknow and IIM-Indore also showed a similar trend. IIM-Bangalore and IIM-Calcutta do not conduct such surveys though IIM-Calcutta director Shekhar Choudhary confirmed the salary gap, saying, “What can you expect of a student with a score of 160 compared with a score of 198?”
Interestingly, the SC/ST students’ average score at the Common Admission Test stands at 64 percentile opposed to general category students’ 98 percentile, according to Centre for Forecasting & Research, a market research firm that conducts annual B-school surveys.
The findings will be cannon fodder for the anti-quota lobby which fears the proposed 54% reservation will lead to a fall in the quality of graduates and the brand image of premier educational institutes.
When the 54% reservation kicks in, IIM-A will add 151 students to its existing batch size of 250, while IIM-C will be adding 142 more seats.
Pro-quota lobbyist BL Mungekar, member of the Moily Committee (formed to suggest measures to implement quota) and the Planning commission, says, “It’s the job of IIM directors to narrow the salary gap. IIMs are raising more questions than IITs on this (quota) issue.”
Today, it is more difficult to get into an IIM than into Harvard or Stanford. “About 98 percentile GMAT score (like CAT) are needed to get into an IIM. That kind of score can get a seat in any top global institute,” says IIM-A director Bakul Dholakia.
MBA Admissions / B-schools / Articles / Business / Tech news
Wednesday, September 13, 2006
Thursday, August 17, 2006
In a Global Workforce, Does An MBA Still Carry Clout?
For 14 years Michael Ryan worked with the “Big Four” CPA firm KPMG, eventually rising to a director. But Ryan, a CPA, says that even as he moved up the ranks, the lack of an MBA or other postgraduate degree hindered his ability to advance. Finally, last December, Ryan, who now works with the Atlanta, Ga., building products distributor BlueLinx, entered Emory University’s Goizueta Business School for an MBA, choosing an Executive MBA format that allows him to pursue the degree without interrupting his career.
As companies strive for a competitive advantage, a bachelor’s degree is often no longer enough. Instead, an increasing number of enterprises are looking to recruit and advance MBAs, and graduate programs are changing to meet new business demands. Responding to the lure of greater mobility and increased salaries, more students are pursuing post-graduate business studies.
“We see a lot of people, including engineers and IT professionals, looking at the MBA as a way to broaden their opportunities with their current employers,” says Susan Gilbert, an associate professor in the practice of finance and associate dean and director of the Evening MBA Program at Emory University’s Goizueta Business School. “Quite a few students move from an IT specialist position to finance, marketing and managerial positions.”
Part of the reason is the prospect of higher compensation. In 2006, the average newly minted MBA will earn $92,360 during his or her year on the job, up 4.2% from the $88,626 received by graduates in 2005, according to the Graduate Management Admission Council (GMAC). The McLean, Va.-based organization administers the Graduate Management Admissions Test (GMAT), an entrance assessment tool used by business schools As part of the admissions review process.
Individuals who hold an MBA are also more likely to quickly secure a job. According to GMAC, 52% of respondents to a 2006 global survey said they had received or accepted a job offer before graduation, compared with 50% in 2005, 42% in 2004 and 36% in 2003.
To compete in today’s labor market, employees must have more skills and must be adaptable throughout their careers to changing technology, product demand, and global competition, according to a Rand Corporation research paper titled The 21st Century at Work. It also notes that a key challenge for the public and private sectors will be the creation of an education and training system that’s responsive to the needs of the twenty-first century labor market.
As Associate Dean and Director of MBA Admissions at Emory's Goizueta Business School since 1988, Julie Barefoot has seen an evolution in MBA programs and the students who are taking the courses.
“In response to the changing business market, the MBA curriculum at Goizueta has added components,” observes Barefoot. “There’s a greater emphasis on leadership development and communications skills. Of course we’re not neglecting accounting, analytical and qualitative studies, because companies still expect students to have the ability to analyze data and solve problems. However, in terms of one broad skill set that graduates need—the bar keeps rising.”
She adds that today’s recruiters expect new MBA hires to quickly add value to their company; and the makeup of candidates reflects this trend.
“A decade ago, MBA enrollees had an average of two years of work experience,” she relates. “Now they have about five years. As companies cut back on the training programs they offer to new hires, the timeframe in which MBA graduates are expected to start contributing keeps getting shorter. A candidate’s prior work experience has an increasingly larger impact on his or her ability to quickly ramp up performance.”
Barefoot points out that the impact of globalization is also reflected in the makeup of MBA candidates.
“As more companies do business across international borders, they’re looking for job candidates that can function well in a multicultural environment,” she explains. “At Goizueta, we’re seeing an incoming student population that’s internationally diverse, with candidates that are forging a global network of contacts that will have a positive, critical impact on their job performance.”
Many students say they are coming back to school to advance their career or increase their opportunities, but Andrea Hershatter, a senior lecturer in organization and management at Goizueta, says that the value of continuing education goes beyond that.
“I believe continuing education, both in the form of degree programs as well as other educational opportunities, is absolutely necessary, perhaps now more than ever,” says Hershatter, who also serves as associate dean and director of Goizueta’s Undergraduate Program. “I think there are three key reasons behind this: environmental, cognitive, and developmental.”
Addressing the environmental driver she notes that individuals today operate in a knowledge-based economy, where conditions change rapidly.
“The people who will thrive will be those who can not only understand what is transpiring, but can also forecast the related implications,” she says. “To make sense of a world that is simultaneously expanding in scope and contracting in reach requires both intellectual capacity and academic grounding.”
Taking up the cognitive issue, she notes that even very successful people can develop tunnel vision, since intentional, absolute focus—the kind that characterizes effective people—requires a screening process that may not be conducive to innovation and growth.
“In contrast, creativity requires combining interesting and seemingly unrelated bits of information in new and unexpected ways,” Hershatter advises. “The educational process, by definition, broadens perspectives and assimilates new approaches, methodologies and information. At its best, it is enlightenment. So even individuals who are returning to school with specific objectives find that the experience provides non-linear opportunities to refine, redefine, or refocus one's professional endeavors.”
Continuing education also enhances personal growth, adds Hershatter. “Even if going back to school simply pushes us out of our comfort zone and shows us how much we do not know, it is still a very liberating process,” she maintains. “All research shows the contribution of lifelong learning to the full development of the individual. Learning is a fundamental human need that does not diminish with age or accumulated wisdom. In fact, the more we know, the more we benefit from exposure to great thinkers and the frameworks they have developed for understanding the world.”
The importance of an ongoing educational process appears to be further underscored by the Rand study, which notes that, “Shifts in the nature of business organizations and the growing importance of knowledge-based work” favor the development of non-routine cognitive skills, including abstract reasoning, problem-solving, communication, and collaboration.
“Within this context, education and training become a continuous process throughout the life course involving training and retraining that continues well past initial entry into the labor market,” according to the study. “Technology mediated learning offers the potential to support lifelong learning both on the job and through traditional public and private education and training institutions.”
Adjoined Consulting, which was acquired by the global IT services firm Kanbay International in March 2006, actively recruits MBAs directly from top business schools as well as MBAs with several years of post-MBA experience. Managing Director Andrew Duncan explains that the MBA graduates “have consistently elevated themselves more quickly through the organization into important leadership and firm development roles - including driving our own post-merger integration activities."
Erin Melick, a Goizueta evening MBA alumnus, for example, has been working full-time in the Post Merger Office since the Kanbay-Adjoined merger. Chris Miller, another Goizueta MBA alumnus, references the firm's track record in demonstrating the value of MBAs.
“Our tuition reimbursement program is significantly greater than other firms simply because we have been able to quantitatively and qualitatively define the exceptional value that MBA graduates have contributed to our success,” Miller explains. “Every year the focus and allocation of resources to MBA programs has grown exponentially.”
Yet despite education's demonstrated value-added, and the ability of technology to make the transmission and transfer of knowledge widely accessible, some disturbing signs are emerging.
For example, only 55% of American students who start college actually complete it within six years, according to a 2005 report issued by the Society for College and University Planning, an Ann Arbor, Michigan-based organization that promotes research into issues affecting higher education. Among African American and Hispanic students, the number drops to 41%.
Women make up another group that tends to be under-represented in MBA programs, according to Elissa Ellis, executive director of the Austin, Texas-based Forté Foundation. The organization, a consortium of corporations, business schools and nonprofit organizations, focuses on ways to educate and direct women toward leadership roles in business.
“In general, women have been found to be more risk-averse than their male counterparts, and are thus less likely to sacrifice the time needed to complete an MBA,” she explains. “For women who are already in the workforce and either have children or plan to, any initial doubts about going for an MBA may be compounded by issues like balancing work and family, further discouraging them.”
All of this is taking place against a rising demand for MBAs. But will there be enough of them to meet that need?
One leading indicator of future supply—the number of students taking the GMAT—has remained stagnant and even dipped a bit, according to a report issued in May 2006 by the London Business School. Drawing on data gathered by the Graduate Management Admission Council, the institution says that during the period from 1995 to 2005, the number of students taking the graduate admissions test fell from 131,118 to 109,852. During that period however, it rose in Europe from 72,050 in 1995 to 86,500 in 2005.
Part of the decline in overall U.S. numbers may be due to opportunity costs, says Joan Coonrod, director of admissions of the W. Cliff Oxford Executive MBA Program at Goizueta.
“Many people today can’t afford to take the time to go back to school full time for a graduate degree,” Coonrod says. “Despite the clear advantages, people in general seem to be taking more time before deciding to enroll in an MBA program. And more of them are signing up for part-time programs, such as executive or evening MBA programs. These programs allow immediate application of learning back to the workplace—a real bonus for both the students and for their companies. Executive MBA programs tend to attract higher level professionals, so the faculty and class interaction is much more applicable to the business issues they are facing.”
The increase in the European MBA market is driven by a number of factors says Dan LeClair, vice president and chief knowledge officer at The Association to Advance Collegiate Schools of Business. The Tampa, Florida-based organization is made up of educational institutions, corporations and other organizations with a focus on business-oriented higher education.
“Through an initiative known as the Bologna Accord [a June 1999 agreement aimed at creating a system of standardized degrees throughout the European Union by 2010], it’s easier to transport degrees and studies throughout the EU, which encourages the pursuit of higher education,” explains LeClair. “MBAs are also gaining in importance in Asia, where booming economies are spurring demand.”
Meanwhile in Japan, the rotation away from the lifetime employment model has spurred competition among job-seekers, and more students are enrolling in MBA programs as a way to stand out from the crowd.
Looking ahead, LeClair sees significant differences in worldwide trends in the key 25-to-29 year-old population that makes up the bulk of full-time MBA enrollment.
“In the U.S., the population of 25 through 29 year-olds is expected to increase by more than 13% through 2020,” he says. “But Europe is expected to see an 8% decline in the age group during this period. In contrast, in Latin America and Asia this demographic group is expected to grow by 11% and 20%, respectively.”
Elissa Ellis, from the Forté Foundation, thinks market forces may eventually help to balance out supply and demand.
“As aging baby boomers retire, businesses may find a shortage of experienced management-level employees,” she says. “And the so-called Millennium generation workforce, male and female, will likely demand flexibility in their jobs. When businesses hurt, they tend to be more responsive; so there’s a good chance that in coming years we’ll see the kinds of changes in the workplace that will make it more attractive. And that may bring in more women and others that can refill the ranks of MBAs. The change will not come at lightning speeds, but I think it will come nonetheless.”
As companies strive for a competitive advantage, a bachelor’s degree is often no longer enough. Instead, an increasing number of enterprises are looking to recruit and advance MBAs, and graduate programs are changing to meet new business demands. Responding to the lure of greater mobility and increased salaries, more students are pursuing post-graduate business studies.
“We see a lot of people, including engineers and IT professionals, looking at the MBA as a way to broaden their opportunities with their current employers,” says Susan Gilbert, an associate professor in the practice of finance and associate dean and director of the Evening MBA Program at Emory University’s Goizueta Business School. “Quite a few students move from an IT specialist position to finance, marketing and managerial positions.”
Part of the reason is the prospect of higher compensation. In 2006, the average newly minted MBA will earn $92,360 during his or her year on the job, up 4.2% from the $88,626 received by graduates in 2005, according to the Graduate Management Admission Council (GMAC). The McLean, Va.-based organization administers the Graduate Management Admissions Test (GMAT), an entrance assessment tool used by business schools As part of the admissions review process.
Individuals who hold an MBA are also more likely to quickly secure a job. According to GMAC, 52% of respondents to a 2006 global survey said they had received or accepted a job offer before graduation, compared with 50% in 2005, 42% in 2004 and 36% in 2003.
To compete in today’s labor market, employees must have more skills and must be adaptable throughout their careers to changing technology, product demand, and global competition, according to a Rand Corporation research paper titled The 21st Century at Work. It also notes that a key challenge for the public and private sectors will be the creation of an education and training system that’s responsive to the needs of the twenty-first century labor market.
As Associate Dean and Director of MBA Admissions at Emory's Goizueta Business School since 1988, Julie Barefoot has seen an evolution in MBA programs and the students who are taking the courses.
“In response to the changing business market, the MBA curriculum at Goizueta has added components,” observes Barefoot. “There’s a greater emphasis on leadership development and communications skills. Of course we’re not neglecting accounting, analytical and qualitative studies, because companies still expect students to have the ability to analyze data and solve problems. However, in terms of one broad skill set that graduates need—the bar keeps rising.”
She adds that today’s recruiters expect new MBA hires to quickly add value to their company; and the makeup of candidates reflects this trend.
“A decade ago, MBA enrollees had an average of two years of work experience,” she relates. “Now they have about five years. As companies cut back on the training programs they offer to new hires, the timeframe in which MBA graduates are expected to start contributing keeps getting shorter. A candidate’s prior work experience has an increasingly larger impact on his or her ability to quickly ramp up performance.”
Barefoot points out that the impact of globalization is also reflected in the makeup of MBA candidates.
“As more companies do business across international borders, they’re looking for job candidates that can function well in a multicultural environment,” she explains. “At Goizueta, we’re seeing an incoming student population that’s internationally diverse, with candidates that are forging a global network of contacts that will have a positive, critical impact on their job performance.”
Many students say they are coming back to school to advance their career or increase their opportunities, but Andrea Hershatter, a senior lecturer in organization and management at Goizueta, says that the value of continuing education goes beyond that.
“I believe continuing education, both in the form of degree programs as well as other educational opportunities, is absolutely necessary, perhaps now more than ever,” says Hershatter, who also serves as associate dean and director of Goizueta’s Undergraduate Program. “I think there are three key reasons behind this: environmental, cognitive, and developmental.”
Addressing the environmental driver she notes that individuals today operate in a knowledge-based economy, where conditions change rapidly.
“The people who will thrive will be those who can not only understand what is transpiring, but can also forecast the related implications,” she says. “To make sense of a world that is simultaneously expanding in scope and contracting in reach requires both intellectual capacity and academic grounding.”
Taking up the cognitive issue, she notes that even very successful people can develop tunnel vision, since intentional, absolute focus—the kind that characterizes effective people—requires a screening process that may not be conducive to innovation and growth.
“In contrast, creativity requires combining interesting and seemingly unrelated bits of information in new and unexpected ways,” Hershatter advises. “The educational process, by definition, broadens perspectives and assimilates new approaches, methodologies and information. At its best, it is enlightenment. So even individuals who are returning to school with specific objectives find that the experience provides non-linear opportunities to refine, redefine, or refocus one's professional endeavors.”
Continuing education also enhances personal growth, adds Hershatter. “Even if going back to school simply pushes us out of our comfort zone and shows us how much we do not know, it is still a very liberating process,” she maintains. “All research shows the contribution of lifelong learning to the full development of the individual. Learning is a fundamental human need that does not diminish with age or accumulated wisdom. In fact, the more we know, the more we benefit from exposure to great thinkers and the frameworks they have developed for understanding the world.”
The importance of an ongoing educational process appears to be further underscored by the Rand study, which notes that, “Shifts in the nature of business organizations and the growing importance of knowledge-based work” favor the development of non-routine cognitive skills, including abstract reasoning, problem-solving, communication, and collaboration.
“Within this context, education and training become a continuous process throughout the life course involving training and retraining that continues well past initial entry into the labor market,” according to the study. “Technology mediated learning offers the potential to support lifelong learning both on the job and through traditional public and private education and training institutions.”
Adjoined Consulting, which was acquired by the global IT services firm Kanbay International in March 2006, actively recruits MBAs directly from top business schools as well as MBAs with several years of post-MBA experience. Managing Director Andrew Duncan explains that the MBA graduates “have consistently elevated themselves more quickly through the organization into important leadership and firm development roles - including driving our own post-merger integration activities."
Erin Melick, a Goizueta evening MBA alumnus, for example, has been working full-time in the Post Merger Office since the Kanbay-Adjoined merger. Chris Miller, another Goizueta MBA alumnus, references the firm's track record in demonstrating the value of MBAs.
“Our tuition reimbursement program is significantly greater than other firms simply because we have been able to quantitatively and qualitatively define the exceptional value that MBA graduates have contributed to our success,” Miller explains. “Every year the focus and allocation of resources to MBA programs has grown exponentially.”
Yet despite education's demonstrated value-added, and the ability of technology to make the transmission and transfer of knowledge widely accessible, some disturbing signs are emerging.
For example, only 55% of American students who start college actually complete it within six years, according to a 2005 report issued by the Society for College and University Planning, an Ann Arbor, Michigan-based organization that promotes research into issues affecting higher education. Among African American and Hispanic students, the number drops to 41%.
Women make up another group that tends to be under-represented in MBA programs, according to Elissa Ellis, executive director of the Austin, Texas-based Forté Foundation. The organization, a consortium of corporations, business schools and nonprofit organizations, focuses on ways to educate and direct women toward leadership roles in business.
“In general, women have been found to be more risk-averse than their male counterparts, and are thus less likely to sacrifice the time needed to complete an MBA,” she explains. “For women who are already in the workforce and either have children or plan to, any initial doubts about going for an MBA may be compounded by issues like balancing work and family, further discouraging them.”
All of this is taking place against a rising demand for MBAs. But will there be enough of them to meet that need?
One leading indicator of future supply—the number of students taking the GMAT—has remained stagnant and even dipped a bit, according to a report issued in May 2006 by the London Business School. Drawing on data gathered by the Graduate Management Admission Council, the institution says that during the period from 1995 to 2005, the number of students taking the graduate admissions test fell from 131,118 to 109,852. During that period however, it rose in Europe from 72,050 in 1995 to 86,500 in 2005.
Part of the decline in overall U.S. numbers may be due to opportunity costs, says Joan Coonrod, director of admissions of the W. Cliff Oxford Executive MBA Program at Goizueta.
“Many people today can’t afford to take the time to go back to school full time for a graduate degree,” Coonrod says. “Despite the clear advantages, people in general seem to be taking more time before deciding to enroll in an MBA program. And more of them are signing up for part-time programs, such as executive or evening MBA programs. These programs allow immediate application of learning back to the workplace—a real bonus for both the students and for their companies. Executive MBA programs tend to attract higher level professionals, so the faculty and class interaction is much more applicable to the business issues they are facing.”
The increase in the European MBA market is driven by a number of factors says Dan LeClair, vice president and chief knowledge officer at The Association to Advance Collegiate Schools of Business. The Tampa, Florida-based organization is made up of educational institutions, corporations and other organizations with a focus on business-oriented higher education.
“Through an initiative known as the Bologna Accord [a June 1999 agreement aimed at creating a system of standardized degrees throughout the European Union by 2010], it’s easier to transport degrees and studies throughout the EU, which encourages the pursuit of higher education,” explains LeClair. “MBAs are also gaining in importance in Asia, where booming economies are spurring demand.”
Meanwhile in Japan, the rotation away from the lifetime employment model has spurred competition among job-seekers, and more students are enrolling in MBA programs as a way to stand out from the crowd.
Looking ahead, LeClair sees significant differences in worldwide trends in the key 25-to-29 year-old population that makes up the bulk of full-time MBA enrollment.
“In the U.S., the population of 25 through 29 year-olds is expected to increase by more than 13% through 2020,” he says. “But Europe is expected to see an 8% decline in the age group during this period. In contrast, in Latin America and Asia this demographic group is expected to grow by 11% and 20%, respectively.”
Elissa Ellis, from the Forté Foundation, thinks market forces may eventually help to balance out supply and demand.
“As aging baby boomers retire, businesses may find a shortage of experienced management-level employees,” she says. “And the so-called Millennium generation workforce, male and female, will likely demand flexibility in their jobs. When businesses hurt, they tend to be more responsive; so there’s a good chance that in coming years we’ll see the kinds of changes in the workplace that will make it more attractive. And that may bring in more women and others that can refill the ranks of MBAs. The change will not come at lightning speeds, but I think it will come nonetheless.”
Wednesday, June 14, 2006
India's Top-Ranking B-Schools Are at a Crossroads
Academicians and industry captains are cognizant of India's emergence as an economic power due to globalization strategies, which are transforming various sectors of the economy including the fast developing sector of higher education. India is undergoing a paradigm shift, which is reflected in the present economic boom and growth rate. For example, stock exchanges are considered the barometer of economic growth and the Bombay Stock Exchange stock index has touched a historical peak of 12k, placing it among the top five stock exchanges of the world. There have been fundamental and irreversible changes in the economy, in government policies, in the outlook of business and industry, and in the mindset of Indians.
India has become a surplus nation in food and foreign exchange earnings, currently up to $1.3 trillion from a meager $4 billion to $5 billion in 1991. This unprecedented increase has been partly due to direct investment by foreign companies and partly due to outsourcing activities. The modernization of industry is now a front-runner in the emerging knowledge-based economy with a diversified and large industrial base, which is becoming globally competitive. For example, Tata Steel and National Aluminum Company Limited (NALCO) are the lowest-cost manufacturers of steel and aluminum in the world. Some Indian companies have gone global with a presence in 60 countries, including the United States, Europe and China. India is one of the top ten producers of bulk drugs in the world and 60 percent of its bulk drugs production is exported. India is the second-largest cement producer in the world with 110 million tons. The auto parts industry has emerged as one of the country's fastest-growing manufacturing sectors; this is expected to reach $8 billion in 2006. India's services sector growth rate has been very high too.
A large and growing market of 1.1 billion people, out of which, 300 million are middle-class consumers, has been attracting investment in India by world-class companies because of the high profit-making potential. Furthermore, because India has stable, mature, vibrant and exemplary democratic governance, institutions and transparency, it has a great potential to build world-class intellectual capital. For example, the rise of India as an innovation hub has attracted great admirers of Indian prowess in the I.T. area at a global level. All these new developments have increased the confidence of India on the international level, and its ability to decrease the level of poverty. These factors indicate that India's new economic policies are working. It is emerging as a global economic power and having an impact on the fast growth of the educational sector. Based on certain parameters and issues, this article attempts to evaluate whether India's top ranking B-schools are emerging as world giants.
Business Schools in India
In line with the changing economic scenarios, B-schools are also diversifying their programs to attract the world market and thus contributing to this transformation process as they are run in a businesslike fashion. There are over 950 B-schools approved by the All India Council for Technical Education (A.I.C.T.E.) in various categories including the Indian Institutes of Management (I.I.M.'s), university departments and autonomous private institutes. However, the sudden spurt in these B-schools has also raised concerns about quality and the need for regulatory mechanisms among academia and industry captains. In India, ranking surveys come out with different sets of rankings for B-schools. The following table lists the top 10 ranked B-schools in 2005 from one such survey, all of which have the potential to emerge as world giants in the future.
Rank in 2005 Management Institution
1 Indian Institute of Management, Ahmedabad
2 Indian Institute of Management, Bangalore
3 Faculty of Management Studies, New Delhi
4 Indian Institute of Management, Calcutta
5 Xavier Labor Relations Institute, Jamshedpur
6 Indian Institute of Management, Lucknow
7 Indian Institute of Foreign Trade, New Delhi
8 Symbiosis, Pune
9 Jamnalal Bajaj Institute of Management Studies, Mumbai
10 Narsee Monjee Institute of Management Studies, Mumbai
Source: Business Today
Indian School of Business (I.S.B.)
Among B-schools, the Indian School of Business (I.S.B.) in Hyderabad comes first to mind when we talk about emerging world-class institutions in India. It was set up in 2001 as a private B-school with the blessings of Fortune 500 companies and top Indian organizations. I.S.B. is considered a world-class institution because it meets a number of established parameters, for example, quality teaching and qualified faculty, quality research published in reputable international journals, admittance of quality students (G.M.A.T. and not C.A.T.), innovative curriculum, excellent infrastructure and library resources, intensive industry-interface, international association with top schools of the world, rich placement, dynamic dean and so on.
It collaborates with the world's leading business schools like the Kellogg School of Management and the Wharton School in the United States and the London Business School. It offers an innovative post graduate and executive development curriculum. Its faculty is drawn from top B-schools across the world. It has an ideal mix of resident and visiting faculty that gives students the benefit of international exposure while providing content that is contemporary and global in its perspective and at the same time giving students a flavor of Indian management practices. It offers a one-year Post Graduate Program, a Post Doctoral Research Fellowship Program and the short-term Open and Customized Executive Program. For 2006, in its post-graduate program, it had around 350 intakes, over 70 of whom are foreign students from all over the world.
Indian Institutes of Management (I.I.M.'s)
An emerging world-class B-school seeks to impact the management profession by offering high quality learning to students and executives from all parts of the world. Their programs are expected to be delivered by faculty who are recognized for their dedication to teaching and high quality research, and who have close ties with the international business community. The six government-funded I.I.M.'s (located in Ahmedabad, Bangalore, Calcutta, Lucknow, Indore and Kozhikode) are considered elite and privileged B-schools as every youth dreams of graduating from one of them. They all together admit about 2,000 students, and faculty numbers around 500. Among the six, I.I.M.A., I.I.M.B. and I.I.M.C. are among the top ranked in India as well as also highly ranked among institutions in the Asia-Pacific region. This status increases their potential to become world-class institutions. Furthermore, they have adequate resources as the director of one of the I.I.M.'s stated in a recent interview to Press Trust of India, "All the top B-schools are large in terms of their size, have diverse activities, world class infrastructure and a focus on research and consultancy." At the same time, I.I.M.'s pursue a business model in which they admit high quality students, nurture them under a management philosophy and promote the pinnacle of success as a "brand."
Program Curriculum and Teaching
I.I.M.A., I.I.M.B. and I.I.M.C. offer M.B.A., Doctoral and other programs. It has been claimed that their M.B.A. program nurtures world-class managers by exposing them to real life unstructured situations along with analytical tools and business philosophies. I.I.M.A. has also initiated exchange programs with more than 25 foreign institutions of equal repute. Every year, the Institute selects close to a quarter of its students and gives them a chance to spend one term at some of these other institutions.
In an endeavor to seek global recognition by enhancing their world ranking, I.I.M.A. and I.I.M.C. have started an innovative program, P.G.P.X.: a one-year Postgraduate Program in Management for Executives from all nationalities. I.I.M.A. has a tie up with University of British Columbia, Canada for the international immersion module. For the first time, G.M.A.T. will be one of the criteria for admittance of students. However, this was a long felt need as they started collaborations with H.B.S. and M.I.T. in the 1960's. The question is why these institutions realized this need for global recognition just recently. Why not at inception in the 1960's?
Some Salient Features
A perusal of the course structure of these B-schools shows a well-knitted component in core as well as elective courses from different areas of concentrations. They are also assisted by their international affiliates in the design and update of the curriculum. For example, the I.S.B. curriculum is designed by the associate schools (L.B.S., Kellogg, Wharton) emphasizing a global approach. Others may also receive input from industry stalwarts and alumni-turned-recruiters in order to incorporate practice-oriented materials including emphasis on communication skills. It appears that the need for offering a course on "Business Ethics" is not realized by them. Does this mean that M.B.A. students have been developing a negative attitude towards learning behavioral courses? Courses like International Accounting, Government or Public Sector Accounting, and so on are also not offered.
In these B-schools, students come from different spheres of life with various educational backgrounds such as commerce, management, economics, science, engineering and humanities, which bring with them all the advantages, disadvantages, fairness and prejudice of centuries of cultural heritage. A multicultural institute with a multi-disciplinary approach enhances the scope for a deep participatory learning approach.
One main bane of their education is less appreciation of Indian management ethos and practices and more use of American case studies, management theories and philosophy. Furthermore, it looks as if students are taught a great deal of generic strategies, which may lead students to perceive that management is largely analytic and generic which may not be true.
From certain quarters, it is also argued that the teaching approach of many Indian B-schools give students a compartmentalized view of management by function — finance, marketing, human resource development, production, and so on — and only a few give them an integrative approach to management education. In actual practice, all of them in one way or another are related.
In academic literature a number of teaching strategies and learning techniques have been suggested, such as enhanced (modified) lectures, questioning and discussions, writing in cases, problem-based learning: cases and guided design, group learning-teamwork, group learning-cooperative learning, drama, simulation games, technology-visual and computer-based instruction, technology-based delivery, fieldwork-service learning, and fieldwork internship and project work. Effective teaching not only implies pedagogic achievements, but also means sensitization in many areas for enlarging vision that is critical for attaining effectiveness. Self-learning is very important and an instructor would know how to motivate a student for self-learning. These days, I.S.B. and the I.I.M.'s widely use technology-based teaching in their M.B.A. and business executive education. Even World Bank offers online noncredit courses to the students of I.S.B.
The B-schools use the lecture-cum-case studies as a dominant method for transmission of knowledge. They rely heavily on American or Harvard cases that only provide students with past stories and scenarios and this may hinder the students' critical and lateral thinking in dealing with unstructured business situations. American culture, theories, levels of motivation and methods of doing businesses are largely guided by a culture of individualism and high uncertainty avoidance, which is different from the cultural values and business environment of India. Top ranked I.I.M.'s claim to have developed thousands of Indian cases. But why haven't such cases been popular?
Industry captains often argue that a few of the faculty in B-schools work on consultancy assignments but lack the cutting edge to drill deep as most assignments are either training programs or low-intensity workshops. Hence, there is some lack of exposure to real-life working environments. To gain this experience, the better method would be to intern with accounting companies for a limited period.
Students' Admittance and the Label of Elitism
To be admitted to an M.B.A. program, students have to go through a selection process, which includes entrance/admission tests, a group discussion and an interview if the candidate is successful in the written test. The aim of the test is to evaluate, under stress, a candidate's general verbal, mathematical and analytical abilities. Passing the management entrance test in India will require a superior command of the English language, quantities skills and a sharp mind.
The policy of the I.I.M.'s has been to admit students through the Common Admission Test (C.A.T.) and not the G.M.A.T. The C.A.T. result is less than 2 percent of the applicants who take this test, which means that only elite sages gain admission into the I.I.M.'s programs. But students who come from less privileged societies and less known colleges/universities — Uttar Pradesh (U.P.), Bihar, Uttaranchal, Rajsthan, Jharkhand and Madhya Pradesh (M.P.), for example — may not be able to pass this test easily due to language problems as Hindi is the medium of instruction in most of these institutions. How do I.I.M.'s expect such graduates to pass their C.A.T.? Furthermore, one can argue that in a changing society, talent is not the only monopoly of a small section. Therefore, talent from less-represented sections must get an equal opportunity to study in these institutions, which were created and funded by the government. This leads us to the debatable issue of creating reservations for other backward castes (O.B.C.'s) in these institutions.
Faculty Research
It is generally seen that top B-schools around the world have a very strong research base and flavor with their deep impact on industry and society. Publication of high quality research in prominent internal journals is a prerequisite for a B-school to be considered an international institution. In the past, several committees appointed in India (for example, the Nanda Committee 1981, the Kurien Committee 1992, the Ishwar Dayal Committee 1995 and the Management Education Review Committee 2003), recommended efforts to promote a strong research culture in management institutions. However, rapid progress has not been achieved in this regard. According to a joint survey conducted by COSMODE Management Research Center and Business World-India (COSMODE-B.W.), in 2002 there were only 3,600 Ph.D.'s in Indian B-schools. "What they really need is 11,000," the survey said. "The gap is not going to be closed anytime soon: the Top 100 B-schools produce around 110 doctorates annually while an additional 20-24 come from overseas every year."
When it comes to publishing their research in Indian and regional journals, the faculty from the I.I.M.'s have a record of accomplishment. A few of them also have their research published in reputable journals around the world. However, it seems that scholars from two fields in particular — Production and Quantitative Methods, and Information Technology — contribute about half of the Indian articles published in international journals, which is not surprising to us because Indians are known globally for their expertise in these areas. On the other hand, faculty in the core management areas — finance and accounting, marketing, behavioral sciences and so on — publish comparatively few articles in international journals. Compared to the publishing output of faculty at top B-schools like McCombs School of Business in Texas or the Tuck School of Business at Dartmouth in New Hampshire, I.I.M.'s faculty members have a long way to go.
C. K. Prahlad of Michigan University once remarked, "The lack of a research culture also feeds back into the system as a lack of quality faculty. If the number of publications in … [reputable international] journals is any indication, the B-schools' faculty has miles to go. It is no wonder that there is a dearth of good role models in business management research in the country. One hopes that business schools and businesses are slowly realizing the need to strengthen research. The software giant Infosys has been supporting doctoral research at various I.I.M.'s. The Bharati Telecom has initiated similar funding at I.I.M. Lucknow."
Furthermore, the faculty of I.I.M.A. seems to have large research projects funded by international and national agencies. There is a good participation by its faculty at national and international conferences. However, I have not come across any accounting and finance faculty participating in the world congress of either the European Accounting Association (E.A.A.) or the American Accounting Association (A.A.A.).
On the other hand, most of I.S.B.'s faculty publications are in top journals, which give it a slight edge compared to other B-schools. However, according to Jayant Sinha of McKinsey, there is room for improvement:
"Even I.S.B., which gets an all-star visiting faculty from some of the best global B-schools every year, needs the physical presence of faculty for a longer period if it has to get research going. From the perspective of making I.S.B. known for thought leadership, we need to have research, and for that we need permanent faculty," Sinha says.
Some time back, in order to promote and encourage Indian accounting researchers to review and publish papers in international journals, I sent a few manuscripts to them for a rigorous review. The quality of the reviews (of those who responded) was worse than that of the manuscripts.
Faculty members from Western B-schools sit on the international committees of the World Bank, UNESCO, U.N.D.P., the Association of Commonwealth Universities and accreditation boards. They act as external referees on the evaluation boards that recommend the promotion of professors in other universities and institutes. They are invited by international journals to be guest editors of special issues. Unfortunately, not many people from Indian B-schools can claim that honor.
Job Placement and Industry Interface
Management experts forecast that businesses in the 21st century will be composed of groups of specialists who work together on a specific project and then disband. Management education offers all the necessary tools to handle successfully various business and management related issues in a fast changing global economy. Consequently, according to one estimate, about 10,000 M.B.A.'s are churned out by I.I.M.'s and a host of other universities and recognized institutes every year in India. A graduate with a good M.B.A. degree has no problem getting a good job. An M.B.A. degree is considered ideal by job seekers as well as employers. Recent graduates are generally inducted as management trainees for limited periods before being absorbed in regular scales.
Job placement is the impetus for Indian B-school rankings. The I.I.M.A. claims that when it comes to recognition by major recruiters worldwide, there is an increased global recognition to job placement and job diversity. For 2006, I.I.M.A.'s 235 M.B.A. graduates had, on average, three job offers per graduate. The majority of the placements came from multinational enterprises (M.N.E.'s) and elite industries. Other I.I.M. cases were more or less similar. However, not increasing the intake in their institutions may have resulted in a big demand-supply gap, as R. K. Gupta argues:
"Placement is the excuse they have found to create hype and cover their weakness as they have made little contribution to management theories. On the same coin, they use public grants but cater to a niche market of capitalists and multinational enterprises," Gupta says.
What percentage of their graduates joins the public or social sector? Electricity, health, education, transport, urban planning and rural development sectors are mostly mismanaged and this in need of qualified managers. However, it seems that the aim of current management graduates is to earn money for themselves in order to cover the expenses they have incurred acquiring their skills.
"The placement mania makes M.B.A. students regard jobs and salaries as the be-all and end-all of things," say Vivek Kaul and Hasan Ahmed. "This attitude is inculcated in very bright, young and impressionable students, right from the time they enter the B-schools. Instead of imbibing a spirit of idealism and developing a strong desire to change the world for the better, students leave their B-school after graduation totally obsessed with making money and progressing in their career."
As can be seen from the above, B-schools have a good rapport and interface with industries. Many of them also receive sponsored projects, consultancy assignments and internship for their students. Many of their former graduates are C.E.O.'s. As a result, some members of the faculty, especially those from I.I.M.A., are external members on the boards of many companies. This may also help them gain their practical knowledge.
Setting Up Overseas
After a great deal of public debate, on Feb. 2, 2006, the government of India allowed I.I.M.'s to open branches overseas after meeting certain criteria. I.I.M.B. is the first institute to open a branch in Singapore. The S.P. Jain Institute of Management and Research, in Mumbai, has had a campus running at Dubai since 2005 and a new Singapore campus is expected to be functional by 2006. Furthermore, the Institute of Management Technology (I.M.T.) in Ghaziabad announced that it would open a branch in Dubai this year. This overseas expansion is expected to generate extra revenues, resulting in a reduction of government grants especially for I.I.M.'s. Furthermore, by offering incentives, I.I.M.'s and non-I.I.M.'s alike may also attract talented faculty to improve the quality of teaching and research. Faculty will get good exposure to how business is conducted in other parts of the world and conduct quality research in a different culture. Globalization will promote Indian social, cultural and educational values and skills overseas, resulting in great respect and pride for the country.
World Ranking
The I.I.M.'s at Ahmedabad, Bangalore and Kolkata consistently have been ranked among the top by almost all surveys. Presently, Indian B-schools are ranked in India and Asia-Pacific, but when compared to global rankings, they fail to appear in the top 100 global B-schools in the ranking surveys of Business Week, Financial Times and Forbes. Even Chinese B-schools figure among the first 40 in these surveys. There is a strong feeling that the I.I.M. is a highly coveted brand and its M.B.A. program is overrated, especially that of the I.I.M.A.
Currently, no Indian B-school has international accreditation from the Association to Advance Collegiate Schools of Business (A.A.C.S.B.) or the European Quality Improvement System (E.Q.U.I.S.). The I.S.B. is currently just getting underway with the A.A.C.S.B. It is a long process but the I.S.B. is on track to be the first A.A.C.S.B.-accredited B-school in India. However, very recently, Management Development Institute (M.D.I.) Gurgaon has been accredited by the Association of M.B.A.'s (A.M.B.A.) in Britain, making it the first B-school to receive an international accreditation.
Conclusion
Certain critical issues face Indian B-schools in their quest to mold students using a holistic and fully integrated approach based on academic rigor, building character, and nurturing values and a curriculum for meeting industry expectations and the external environment. Among them, the I.S.B. has greater autonomy and flexibility because it is in the private sector and can pursue the goal of being the first world-class Indian B-school very soon compared to the I.I.M.'s, which are in the government's domain. The I.I.M.'s face frequent interference in their governance and autonomy matters, which throws a wrench in their functions, impedes rapid growth and creates barriers to raising the level of India's intellectual capital in the new era of the 21st century. Only by raising the level of intellectual capital, can I.I.M.'s achieve their dream. They must hold to the advice of F. D. S. Choi, emeritus dean of the Stern School of Business:
"The key ingredients to be a world-class institution are: (1) faculty commitment to research and teaching excellence; not one or the other; (2) a committed professional staff who understand higher education, (3) quality of students admitted; (4) financial resources and (5) leadership of the dean/director. If any one of these is missing, becoming a recognized world-class institution is not in the cards."
India has become a surplus nation in food and foreign exchange earnings, currently up to $1.3 trillion from a meager $4 billion to $5 billion in 1991. This unprecedented increase has been partly due to direct investment by foreign companies and partly due to outsourcing activities. The modernization of industry is now a front-runner in the emerging knowledge-based economy with a diversified and large industrial base, which is becoming globally competitive. For example, Tata Steel and National Aluminum Company Limited (NALCO) are the lowest-cost manufacturers of steel and aluminum in the world. Some Indian companies have gone global with a presence in 60 countries, including the United States, Europe and China. India is one of the top ten producers of bulk drugs in the world and 60 percent of its bulk drugs production is exported. India is the second-largest cement producer in the world with 110 million tons. The auto parts industry has emerged as one of the country's fastest-growing manufacturing sectors; this is expected to reach $8 billion in 2006. India's services sector growth rate has been very high too.
A large and growing market of 1.1 billion people, out of which, 300 million are middle-class consumers, has been attracting investment in India by world-class companies because of the high profit-making potential. Furthermore, because India has stable, mature, vibrant and exemplary democratic governance, institutions and transparency, it has a great potential to build world-class intellectual capital. For example, the rise of India as an innovation hub has attracted great admirers of Indian prowess in the I.T. area at a global level. All these new developments have increased the confidence of India on the international level, and its ability to decrease the level of poverty. These factors indicate that India's new economic policies are working. It is emerging as a global economic power and having an impact on the fast growth of the educational sector. Based on certain parameters and issues, this article attempts to evaluate whether India's top ranking B-schools are emerging as world giants.
Business Schools in India
In line with the changing economic scenarios, B-schools are also diversifying their programs to attract the world market and thus contributing to this transformation process as they are run in a businesslike fashion. There are over 950 B-schools approved by the All India Council for Technical Education (A.I.C.T.E.) in various categories including the Indian Institutes of Management (I.I.M.'s), university departments and autonomous private institutes. However, the sudden spurt in these B-schools has also raised concerns about quality and the need for regulatory mechanisms among academia and industry captains. In India, ranking surveys come out with different sets of rankings for B-schools. The following table lists the top 10 ranked B-schools in 2005 from one such survey, all of which have the potential to emerge as world giants in the future.
Rank in 2005 Management Institution
1 Indian Institute of Management, Ahmedabad
2 Indian Institute of Management, Bangalore
3 Faculty of Management Studies, New Delhi
4 Indian Institute of Management, Calcutta
5 Xavier Labor Relations Institute, Jamshedpur
6 Indian Institute of Management, Lucknow
7 Indian Institute of Foreign Trade, New Delhi
8 Symbiosis, Pune
9 Jamnalal Bajaj Institute of Management Studies, Mumbai
10 Narsee Monjee Institute of Management Studies, Mumbai
Source: Business Today
Indian School of Business (I.S.B.)
Among B-schools, the Indian School of Business (I.S.B.) in Hyderabad comes first to mind when we talk about emerging world-class institutions in India. It was set up in 2001 as a private B-school with the blessings of Fortune 500 companies and top Indian organizations. I.S.B. is considered a world-class institution because it meets a number of established parameters, for example, quality teaching and qualified faculty, quality research published in reputable international journals, admittance of quality students (G.M.A.T. and not C.A.T.), innovative curriculum, excellent infrastructure and library resources, intensive industry-interface, international association with top schools of the world, rich placement, dynamic dean and so on.
It collaborates with the world's leading business schools like the Kellogg School of Management and the Wharton School in the United States and the London Business School. It offers an innovative post graduate and executive development curriculum. Its faculty is drawn from top B-schools across the world. It has an ideal mix of resident and visiting faculty that gives students the benefit of international exposure while providing content that is contemporary and global in its perspective and at the same time giving students a flavor of Indian management practices. It offers a one-year Post Graduate Program, a Post Doctoral Research Fellowship Program and the short-term Open and Customized Executive Program. For 2006, in its post-graduate program, it had around 350 intakes, over 70 of whom are foreign students from all over the world.
Indian Institutes of Management (I.I.M.'s)
An emerging world-class B-school seeks to impact the management profession by offering high quality learning to students and executives from all parts of the world. Their programs are expected to be delivered by faculty who are recognized for their dedication to teaching and high quality research, and who have close ties with the international business community. The six government-funded I.I.M.'s (located in Ahmedabad, Bangalore, Calcutta, Lucknow, Indore and Kozhikode) are considered elite and privileged B-schools as every youth dreams of graduating from one of them. They all together admit about 2,000 students, and faculty numbers around 500. Among the six, I.I.M.A., I.I.M.B. and I.I.M.C. are among the top ranked in India as well as also highly ranked among institutions in the Asia-Pacific region. This status increases their potential to become world-class institutions. Furthermore, they have adequate resources as the director of one of the I.I.M.'s stated in a recent interview to Press Trust of India, "All the top B-schools are large in terms of their size, have diverse activities, world class infrastructure and a focus on research and consultancy." At the same time, I.I.M.'s pursue a business model in which they admit high quality students, nurture them under a management philosophy and promote the pinnacle of success as a "brand."
Program Curriculum and Teaching
I.I.M.A., I.I.M.B. and I.I.M.C. offer M.B.A., Doctoral and other programs. It has been claimed that their M.B.A. program nurtures world-class managers by exposing them to real life unstructured situations along with analytical tools and business philosophies. I.I.M.A. has also initiated exchange programs with more than 25 foreign institutions of equal repute. Every year, the Institute selects close to a quarter of its students and gives them a chance to spend one term at some of these other institutions.
In an endeavor to seek global recognition by enhancing their world ranking, I.I.M.A. and I.I.M.C. have started an innovative program, P.G.P.X.: a one-year Postgraduate Program in Management for Executives from all nationalities. I.I.M.A. has a tie up with University of British Columbia, Canada for the international immersion module. For the first time, G.M.A.T. will be one of the criteria for admittance of students. However, this was a long felt need as they started collaborations with H.B.S. and M.I.T. in the 1960's. The question is why these institutions realized this need for global recognition just recently. Why not at inception in the 1960's?
Some Salient Features
A perusal of the course structure of these B-schools shows a well-knitted component in core as well as elective courses from different areas of concentrations. They are also assisted by their international affiliates in the design and update of the curriculum. For example, the I.S.B. curriculum is designed by the associate schools (L.B.S., Kellogg, Wharton) emphasizing a global approach. Others may also receive input from industry stalwarts and alumni-turned-recruiters in order to incorporate practice-oriented materials including emphasis on communication skills. It appears that the need for offering a course on "Business Ethics" is not realized by them. Does this mean that M.B.A. students have been developing a negative attitude towards learning behavioral courses? Courses like International Accounting, Government or Public Sector Accounting, and so on are also not offered.
In these B-schools, students come from different spheres of life with various educational backgrounds such as commerce, management, economics, science, engineering and humanities, which bring with them all the advantages, disadvantages, fairness and prejudice of centuries of cultural heritage. A multicultural institute with a multi-disciplinary approach enhances the scope for a deep participatory learning approach.
One main bane of their education is less appreciation of Indian management ethos and practices and more use of American case studies, management theories and philosophy. Furthermore, it looks as if students are taught a great deal of generic strategies, which may lead students to perceive that management is largely analytic and generic which may not be true.
From certain quarters, it is also argued that the teaching approach of many Indian B-schools give students a compartmentalized view of management by function — finance, marketing, human resource development, production, and so on — and only a few give them an integrative approach to management education. In actual practice, all of them in one way or another are related.
In academic literature a number of teaching strategies and learning techniques have been suggested, such as enhanced (modified) lectures, questioning and discussions, writing in cases, problem-based learning: cases and guided design, group learning-teamwork, group learning-cooperative learning, drama, simulation games, technology-visual and computer-based instruction, technology-based delivery, fieldwork-service learning, and fieldwork internship and project work. Effective teaching not only implies pedagogic achievements, but also means sensitization in many areas for enlarging vision that is critical for attaining effectiveness. Self-learning is very important and an instructor would know how to motivate a student for self-learning. These days, I.S.B. and the I.I.M.'s widely use technology-based teaching in their M.B.A. and business executive education. Even World Bank offers online noncredit courses to the students of I.S.B.
The B-schools use the lecture-cum-case studies as a dominant method for transmission of knowledge. They rely heavily on American or Harvard cases that only provide students with past stories and scenarios and this may hinder the students' critical and lateral thinking in dealing with unstructured business situations. American culture, theories, levels of motivation and methods of doing businesses are largely guided by a culture of individualism and high uncertainty avoidance, which is different from the cultural values and business environment of India. Top ranked I.I.M.'s claim to have developed thousands of Indian cases. But why haven't such cases been popular?
Industry captains often argue that a few of the faculty in B-schools work on consultancy assignments but lack the cutting edge to drill deep as most assignments are either training programs or low-intensity workshops. Hence, there is some lack of exposure to real-life working environments. To gain this experience, the better method would be to intern with accounting companies for a limited period.
Students' Admittance and the Label of Elitism
To be admitted to an M.B.A. program, students have to go through a selection process, which includes entrance/admission tests, a group discussion and an interview if the candidate is successful in the written test. The aim of the test is to evaluate, under stress, a candidate's general verbal, mathematical and analytical abilities. Passing the management entrance test in India will require a superior command of the English language, quantities skills and a sharp mind.
The policy of the I.I.M.'s has been to admit students through the Common Admission Test (C.A.T.) and not the G.M.A.T. The C.A.T. result is less than 2 percent of the applicants who take this test, which means that only elite sages gain admission into the I.I.M.'s programs. But students who come from less privileged societies and less known colleges/universities — Uttar Pradesh (U.P.), Bihar, Uttaranchal, Rajsthan, Jharkhand and Madhya Pradesh (M.P.), for example — may not be able to pass this test easily due to language problems as Hindi is the medium of instruction in most of these institutions. How do I.I.M.'s expect such graduates to pass their C.A.T.? Furthermore, one can argue that in a changing society, talent is not the only monopoly of a small section. Therefore, talent from less-represented sections must get an equal opportunity to study in these institutions, which were created and funded by the government. This leads us to the debatable issue of creating reservations for other backward castes (O.B.C.'s) in these institutions.
Faculty Research
It is generally seen that top B-schools around the world have a very strong research base and flavor with their deep impact on industry and society. Publication of high quality research in prominent internal journals is a prerequisite for a B-school to be considered an international institution. In the past, several committees appointed in India (for example, the Nanda Committee 1981, the Kurien Committee 1992, the Ishwar Dayal Committee 1995 and the Management Education Review Committee 2003), recommended efforts to promote a strong research culture in management institutions. However, rapid progress has not been achieved in this regard. According to a joint survey conducted by COSMODE Management Research Center and Business World-India (COSMODE-B.W.), in 2002 there were only 3,600 Ph.D.'s in Indian B-schools. "What they really need is 11,000," the survey said. "The gap is not going to be closed anytime soon: the Top 100 B-schools produce around 110 doctorates annually while an additional 20-24 come from overseas every year."
When it comes to publishing their research in Indian and regional journals, the faculty from the I.I.M.'s have a record of accomplishment. A few of them also have their research published in reputable journals around the world. However, it seems that scholars from two fields in particular — Production and Quantitative Methods, and Information Technology — contribute about half of the Indian articles published in international journals, which is not surprising to us because Indians are known globally for their expertise in these areas. On the other hand, faculty in the core management areas — finance and accounting, marketing, behavioral sciences and so on — publish comparatively few articles in international journals. Compared to the publishing output of faculty at top B-schools like McCombs School of Business in Texas or the Tuck School of Business at Dartmouth in New Hampshire, I.I.M.'s faculty members have a long way to go.
C. K. Prahlad of Michigan University once remarked, "The lack of a research culture also feeds back into the system as a lack of quality faculty. If the number of publications in … [reputable international] journals is any indication, the B-schools' faculty has miles to go. It is no wonder that there is a dearth of good role models in business management research in the country. One hopes that business schools and businesses are slowly realizing the need to strengthen research. The software giant Infosys has been supporting doctoral research at various I.I.M.'s. The Bharati Telecom has initiated similar funding at I.I.M. Lucknow."
Furthermore, the faculty of I.I.M.A. seems to have large research projects funded by international and national agencies. There is a good participation by its faculty at national and international conferences. However, I have not come across any accounting and finance faculty participating in the world congress of either the European Accounting Association (E.A.A.) or the American Accounting Association (A.A.A.).
On the other hand, most of I.S.B.'s faculty publications are in top journals, which give it a slight edge compared to other B-schools. However, according to Jayant Sinha of McKinsey, there is room for improvement:
"Even I.S.B., which gets an all-star visiting faculty from some of the best global B-schools every year, needs the physical presence of faculty for a longer period if it has to get research going. From the perspective of making I.S.B. known for thought leadership, we need to have research, and for that we need permanent faculty," Sinha says.
Some time back, in order to promote and encourage Indian accounting researchers to review and publish papers in international journals, I sent a few manuscripts to them for a rigorous review. The quality of the reviews (of those who responded) was worse than that of the manuscripts.
Faculty members from Western B-schools sit on the international committees of the World Bank, UNESCO, U.N.D.P., the Association of Commonwealth Universities and accreditation boards. They act as external referees on the evaluation boards that recommend the promotion of professors in other universities and institutes. They are invited by international journals to be guest editors of special issues. Unfortunately, not many people from Indian B-schools can claim that honor.
Job Placement and Industry Interface
Management experts forecast that businesses in the 21st century will be composed of groups of specialists who work together on a specific project and then disband. Management education offers all the necessary tools to handle successfully various business and management related issues in a fast changing global economy. Consequently, according to one estimate, about 10,000 M.B.A.'s are churned out by I.I.M.'s and a host of other universities and recognized institutes every year in India. A graduate with a good M.B.A. degree has no problem getting a good job. An M.B.A. degree is considered ideal by job seekers as well as employers. Recent graduates are generally inducted as management trainees for limited periods before being absorbed in regular scales.
Job placement is the impetus for Indian B-school rankings. The I.I.M.A. claims that when it comes to recognition by major recruiters worldwide, there is an increased global recognition to job placement and job diversity. For 2006, I.I.M.A.'s 235 M.B.A. graduates had, on average, three job offers per graduate. The majority of the placements came from multinational enterprises (M.N.E.'s) and elite industries. Other I.I.M. cases were more or less similar. However, not increasing the intake in their institutions may have resulted in a big demand-supply gap, as R. K. Gupta argues:
"Placement is the excuse they have found to create hype and cover their weakness as they have made little contribution to management theories. On the same coin, they use public grants but cater to a niche market of capitalists and multinational enterprises," Gupta says.
What percentage of their graduates joins the public or social sector? Electricity, health, education, transport, urban planning and rural development sectors are mostly mismanaged and this in need of qualified managers. However, it seems that the aim of current management graduates is to earn money for themselves in order to cover the expenses they have incurred acquiring their skills.
"The placement mania makes M.B.A. students regard jobs and salaries as the be-all and end-all of things," say Vivek Kaul and Hasan Ahmed. "This attitude is inculcated in very bright, young and impressionable students, right from the time they enter the B-schools. Instead of imbibing a spirit of idealism and developing a strong desire to change the world for the better, students leave their B-school after graduation totally obsessed with making money and progressing in their career."
As can be seen from the above, B-schools have a good rapport and interface with industries. Many of them also receive sponsored projects, consultancy assignments and internship for their students. Many of their former graduates are C.E.O.'s. As a result, some members of the faculty, especially those from I.I.M.A., are external members on the boards of many companies. This may also help them gain their practical knowledge.
Setting Up Overseas
After a great deal of public debate, on Feb. 2, 2006, the government of India allowed I.I.M.'s to open branches overseas after meeting certain criteria. I.I.M.B. is the first institute to open a branch in Singapore. The S.P. Jain Institute of Management and Research, in Mumbai, has had a campus running at Dubai since 2005 and a new Singapore campus is expected to be functional by 2006. Furthermore, the Institute of Management Technology (I.M.T.) in Ghaziabad announced that it would open a branch in Dubai this year. This overseas expansion is expected to generate extra revenues, resulting in a reduction of government grants especially for I.I.M.'s. Furthermore, by offering incentives, I.I.M.'s and non-I.I.M.'s alike may also attract talented faculty to improve the quality of teaching and research. Faculty will get good exposure to how business is conducted in other parts of the world and conduct quality research in a different culture. Globalization will promote Indian social, cultural and educational values and skills overseas, resulting in great respect and pride for the country.
World Ranking
The I.I.M.'s at Ahmedabad, Bangalore and Kolkata consistently have been ranked among the top by almost all surveys. Presently, Indian B-schools are ranked in India and Asia-Pacific, but when compared to global rankings, they fail to appear in the top 100 global B-schools in the ranking surveys of Business Week, Financial Times and Forbes. Even Chinese B-schools figure among the first 40 in these surveys. There is a strong feeling that the I.I.M. is a highly coveted brand and its M.B.A. program is overrated, especially that of the I.I.M.A.
Currently, no Indian B-school has international accreditation from the Association to Advance Collegiate Schools of Business (A.A.C.S.B.) or the European Quality Improvement System (E.Q.U.I.S.). The I.S.B. is currently just getting underway with the A.A.C.S.B. It is a long process but the I.S.B. is on track to be the first A.A.C.S.B.-accredited B-school in India. However, very recently, Management Development Institute (M.D.I.) Gurgaon has been accredited by the Association of M.B.A.'s (A.M.B.A.) in Britain, making it the first B-school to receive an international accreditation.
Conclusion
Certain critical issues face Indian B-schools in their quest to mold students using a holistic and fully integrated approach based on academic rigor, building character, and nurturing values and a curriculum for meeting industry expectations and the external environment. Among them, the I.S.B. has greater autonomy and flexibility because it is in the private sector and can pursue the goal of being the first world-class Indian B-school very soon compared to the I.I.M.'s, which are in the government's domain. The I.I.M.'s face frequent interference in their governance and autonomy matters, which throws a wrench in their functions, impedes rapid growth and creates barriers to raising the level of India's intellectual capital in the new era of the 21st century. Only by raising the level of intellectual capital, can I.I.M.'s achieve their dream. They must hold to the advice of F. D. S. Choi, emeritus dean of the Stern School of Business:
"The key ingredients to be a world-class institution are: (1) faculty commitment to research and teaching excellence; not one or the other; (2) a committed professional staff who understand higher education, (3) quality of students admitted; (4) financial resources and (5) leadership of the dean/director. If any one of these is missing, becoming a recognized world-class institution is not in the cards."
Thursday, May 18, 2006
India Changing : Postcard from India
An American set out for India last year to begin a documentary on perceptions of America abroad. During the course of this trip, he became interested in a place he'd never heard of: Varanasi. The rhythms and rituals of daily life there are completely different from what most of us know and view it .
Sunday, April 23, 2006
Push and pull of the MBA bull run
It is about the Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania. Wharton offers the best undergraduate business program in the United States, considered equivalent to an MBA.
Founded in 1881, Wharton has pioneered innovative business curricula and launched the business careers of thousands of Wall Street and Fortune 500 tycoons.
The School takes 500 of the world’s brightest students willing to stake a whopping $120,000 investment in their education for the next four years. We are taken through the ivied walls of Wharton into the maelstrom of the Class of 2004 recruiting season as experienced by the hearts and minds of seven seniors coming from multiple backgrounds.
It is a gripping account of their story, their aspirations, the challenges they encounter, their capacity to cope with unexpected obstacles and its collective result.
They include Jon Gantman, a ‘legacy’ student whose parents studied at Penn. About ten percent of every Penn class is usually reserved for ‘legacy’ students, Shimika Wilder, an athletic African American, who was brought up in Maryland comes next, Shreevar Kheruka, brought up in Mumbai, and Anthony Sandrik, (originally from Lebanon), brought up in Manhattan, who wanted to ‘pursue a life where borderlines rarely exist.’
Finally, Grace Yoon from Los Angeles, who soon learnt the perils of “out of the box” thinking and the nitty-gritty of interviewing.
In contrast, Regi Vengalil, is a first generation Indian American, who wanted to become the ‘master of the universe’, a common MBA dream! And Jessica Kennedy from Austin, Texas, who was born with both drive and discipline.
Wharton is a four-year marathon. It culminates in a final sprint that takes the form of a ten-week recruitment period that turns out to be more demanding than anything these tender youth have ever experienced in their lives. They work against the odds, doing with very little sleep, working long exhausting hours and yet they manage to keep their wits about them!
Burnout!
If they make it, the opportunity that awaits them lies in joining the ranks of the global financial and corporate elite! The allure of the dream is as heady as it is seductive. It means power, wealth, fame, recognition and a chance to shape history. It is an irony that stiff competition for high pay packets usually results in the recipients burning themselves out in the first five years!
This is a challenging area of research and worthy of serious attention.
Do these young graduates eventually shape up? Was it worth the effort, money, energy, time, lack of sleep and coping with the competition?
“Having met many of Wharton’s future business leaders of America”, writes the author, “I can say that Wall Street in the twenty-first century is in good hands.”
This is too pat, too neat and a little hard to digest! There will be many who will disagree at the record of corporate America.
I was strongly reminded of Swami Yogananda Paramahamsa: “Happiness does not consist in getting what you want when you want it! It consists in getting what you need when you need it!” Yet, there is no gainsaying that the book invites public discussion on how contemporary global values shape our youth in defining not only their own aspirations, but also equally, the ambitions of their respective nations in a deeply divided world.
Founded in 1881, Wharton has pioneered innovative business curricula and launched the business careers of thousands of Wall Street and Fortune 500 tycoons.
The School takes 500 of the world’s brightest students willing to stake a whopping $120,000 investment in their education for the next four years. We are taken through the ivied walls of Wharton into the maelstrom of the Class of 2004 recruiting season as experienced by the hearts and minds of seven seniors coming from multiple backgrounds.
It is a gripping account of their story, their aspirations, the challenges they encounter, their capacity to cope with unexpected obstacles and its collective result.
They include Jon Gantman, a ‘legacy’ student whose parents studied at Penn. About ten percent of every Penn class is usually reserved for ‘legacy’ students, Shimika Wilder, an athletic African American, who was brought up in Maryland comes next, Shreevar Kheruka, brought up in Mumbai, and Anthony Sandrik, (originally from Lebanon), brought up in Manhattan, who wanted to ‘pursue a life where borderlines rarely exist.’
Finally, Grace Yoon from Los Angeles, who soon learnt the perils of “out of the box” thinking and the nitty-gritty of interviewing.
In contrast, Regi Vengalil, is a first generation Indian American, who wanted to become the ‘master of the universe’, a common MBA dream! And Jessica Kennedy from Austin, Texas, who was born with both drive and discipline.
Wharton is a four-year marathon. It culminates in a final sprint that takes the form of a ten-week recruitment period that turns out to be more demanding than anything these tender youth have ever experienced in their lives. They work against the odds, doing with very little sleep, working long exhausting hours and yet they manage to keep their wits about them!
Burnout!
If they make it, the opportunity that awaits them lies in joining the ranks of the global financial and corporate elite! The allure of the dream is as heady as it is seductive. It means power, wealth, fame, recognition and a chance to shape history. It is an irony that stiff competition for high pay packets usually results in the recipients burning themselves out in the first five years!
This is a challenging area of research and worthy of serious attention.
Do these young graduates eventually shape up? Was it worth the effort, money, energy, time, lack of sleep and coping with the competition?
“Having met many of Wharton’s future business leaders of America”, writes the author, “I can say that Wall Street in the twenty-first century is in good hands.”
This is too pat, too neat and a little hard to digest! There will be many who will disagree at the record of corporate America.
I was strongly reminded of Swami Yogananda Paramahamsa: “Happiness does not consist in getting what you want when you want it! It consists in getting what you need when you need it!” Yet, there is no gainsaying that the book invites public discussion on how contemporary global values shape our youth in defining not only their own aspirations, but also equally, the ambitions of their respective nations in a deeply divided world.
Tuesday, April 18, 2006
Book Review: How to make it to the best B-school
Mohit Kumar Jain and M. Harindran, both IITians, have written Break the MBA Admissions Barrier, to help make it to `the world's best business schools'. The book, from Pearson Education (www.pearsoned.co.in), begins with the question `why MBA'.
Reasons are many, such as career change, better pay, preparation for own business, credibility, and so on. "Consider a top MBA programme to be a boot camp," instruct the authors. "It will keep you on your toes... You will be forced to participate in discussions and be prepared for the occasional embarrassment. You will need to learn and appreciate the importance of interpersonal skills and dynamics through study groups where you would collaborate with people from all over the world."
The book has inputs on `choosing the school', `managing the timelines', `money matters', and `visas'. Mohit and Hari lay down `the 10 commandments of a B-school application'. Such as: `develop substance', by picking from incidents that demonstrate your leadership potential; and `build on your strengths and address your weaknesses'.
The authors advise: "Well-written essays can tilt the balance in your favour despite a low GMAT score, GPA or a career that has involved many switches." Remember, that to make an impact on the admissions committee, essays need to be humane and realistic too. "Qualities like creativity, maturity, and leadership can be brought out in the essays in your own language."
Good counsel.
Reasons are many, such as career change, better pay, preparation for own business, credibility, and so on. "Consider a top MBA programme to be a boot camp," instruct the authors. "It will keep you on your toes... You will be forced to participate in discussions and be prepared for the occasional embarrassment. You will need to learn and appreciate the importance of interpersonal skills and dynamics through study groups where you would collaborate with people from all over the world."
The book has inputs on `choosing the school', `managing the timelines', `money matters', and `visas'. Mohit and Hari lay down `the 10 commandments of a B-school application'. Such as: `develop substance', by picking from incidents that demonstrate your leadership potential; and `build on your strengths and address your weaknesses'.
The authors advise: "Well-written essays can tilt the balance in your favour despite a low GMAT score, GPA or a career that has involved many switches." Remember, that to make an impact on the admissions committee, essays need to be humane and realistic too. "Qualities like creativity, maturity, and leadership can be brought out in the essays in your own language."
Good counsel.
Friday, April 14, 2006
US wants to replicate India's tech education success
The India-US education scenario is full of puzzles. Vastly larger number of Indians go to the US for higher studies than do Americans. On the other hand, US firms are recruiting Indian technical graduates in thousands, impressed by their quality.
“With a high quality of education and strong focus on Mathematics and Science, India is churning out large number of highly skilled people,” observes US secretary of education Margaret Spellings.
But despite the availability of such quality education the number of Indian students pursuing studies in various universities and institutions in the US is much higher than that of the US students studying in India.
Sources say that over 70,000 Indian students are undergoing higher studies in the US, which is the highest anywhere in the world. In contrast, there are just 780 US students presently undergoing studies in some Indian universities, mainly in IT, agricultural sciences and working with high schools to understand the pattern of higher secondary education in India.
Senator Michael B Enzi feels that “although more American students can come here, getting into universities here requires going through a very competitive process.” Although the same competitive process was there in the US, “but we obviously have much excess intake capacity in our colleges and universities.”
He, however, said that in the US interest to ensure that the students from other countries, who are getting educated in the US, should stay and work in the country. “We want their innovation skills and talents to be utilised in our country.”
Both Spellings and Enzi, who were the part of a delegation comprising some leading US Senators that visited Bangalore recently told Business Standard that the way India was churning out over 200,000 engineering graduates every year, while at the same time maintaining quality, really baffled them.
“Education of course is a shared value between the two countries and as the secretary of education, I am also anxious to know how you develop human capital and such a vast talent pool,” Spellings said. This was evident from the fact that so many American industries and companies were coming here to grow and expand, she added.
Underscoring the strong emphasis on Mathematics and Science in the Indian education system that produces large numbers of highly skilled people, the US education secretary said, “we need to incorporate this in our country”. This is one of the reasons why the US president has called for an ‘American competitiveness initiative’, which focussed on secondary education and Mathmatics and Science.
She said in the changing scenario, more and more US students are interested to learn in India, particularly in the IT and systems management field.
“At Infosys, they were telling us there were 300 permanent employees who will come here for six months to two years from the US and then go back. These are growing programmes and will grow over time,” she pointed out.
“There are already some instances when both Indian and US students are part of joint online degree programmes with partnership between the institutions here and in US.” This is happening as the barriers, whether bureaucratic or geographic, are breaking down, she added.
“With a high quality of education and strong focus on Mathematics and Science, India is churning out large number of highly skilled people,” observes US secretary of education Margaret Spellings.
But despite the availability of such quality education the number of Indian students pursuing studies in various universities and institutions in the US is much higher than that of the US students studying in India.
Sources say that over 70,000 Indian students are undergoing higher studies in the US, which is the highest anywhere in the world. In contrast, there are just 780 US students presently undergoing studies in some Indian universities, mainly in IT, agricultural sciences and working with high schools to understand the pattern of higher secondary education in India.
Senator Michael B Enzi feels that “although more American students can come here, getting into universities here requires going through a very competitive process.” Although the same competitive process was there in the US, “but we obviously have much excess intake capacity in our colleges and universities.”
He, however, said that in the US interest to ensure that the students from other countries, who are getting educated in the US, should stay and work in the country. “We want their innovation skills and talents to be utilised in our country.”
Both Spellings and Enzi, who were the part of a delegation comprising some leading US Senators that visited Bangalore recently told Business Standard that the way India was churning out over 200,000 engineering graduates every year, while at the same time maintaining quality, really baffled them.
“Education of course is a shared value between the two countries and as the secretary of education, I am also anxious to know how you develop human capital and such a vast talent pool,” Spellings said. This was evident from the fact that so many American industries and companies were coming here to grow and expand, she added.
Underscoring the strong emphasis on Mathematics and Science in the Indian education system that produces large numbers of highly skilled people, the US education secretary said, “we need to incorporate this in our country”. This is one of the reasons why the US president has called for an ‘American competitiveness initiative’, which focussed on secondary education and Mathmatics and Science.
She said in the changing scenario, more and more US students are interested to learn in India, particularly in the IT and systems management field.
“At Infosys, they were telling us there were 300 permanent employees who will come here for six months to two years from the US and then go back. These are growing programmes and will grow over time,” she pointed out.
“There are already some instances when both Indian and US students are part of joint online degree programmes with partnership between the institutions here and in US.” This is happening as the barriers, whether bureaucratic or geographic, are breaking down, she added.
Sunday, April 09, 2006
Hyderabad B-school beats IIM
While IIM alumni are talking in lakhs, students of a five-year-old B-school in Hyderabad are getting ready to count crores.
A graduate of the Indian School of Business has got a never-before offer of $233,800 (Rs 1.04 crore) a year.
While ISB dean M Rammohan Rao was cagey about announcing the student's name or the organisation that made the offer — "it is infringement on privacy," he said — he let on that three others had got Rs 1 crore-plus offers.
Thankfully, there is gender parity in the overload of greenbacks, with two of the four who got over Rs 1 crore being women.
The Class of 2006 is one happy batch. The highest domestic salary was Rs 30.33 lakh and the average an Indian company offered was Rs 11.77 lakh, an increase of 18 per cent over last year. The average in ternational offer saw a jump of 21 per cent over 2005.
There are more companies queuing up on the Hyderabad campus. This year, 142 companies came hunting for whiz kids. US-based realty firm Tishman Speyer made its first foray into India by parking at ISB.
It is not just the money, say students, some of whom chose Indian companies over pay cheques in dollars. "I was offered a very interesting job by a US-based tech company but I wanted to be closer home," says Yashraj Erande.
"So I took a job offer which would help me work in India's business environment."
In a new drift, several ISB students opted for jobs with various media companies, including RPG Saregama.
Kartik Ramakrishnan always wanted to be a consultant and he got the offer he wanted. Then came another offer — to set up an FM radio station. And he opted for this new challenge.
A graduate of the Indian School of Business has got a never-before offer of $233,800 (Rs 1.04 crore) a year.
While ISB dean M Rammohan Rao was cagey about announcing the student's name or the organisation that made the offer — "it is infringement on privacy," he said — he let on that three others had got Rs 1 crore-plus offers.
Thankfully, there is gender parity in the overload of greenbacks, with two of the four who got over Rs 1 crore being women.
The Class of 2006 is one happy batch. The highest domestic salary was Rs 30.33 lakh and the average an Indian company offered was Rs 11.77 lakh, an increase of 18 per cent over last year. The average in ternational offer saw a jump of 21 per cent over 2005.
There are more companies queuing up on the Hyderabad campus. This year, 142 companies came hunting for whiz kids. US-based realty firm Tishman Speyer made its first foray into India by parking at ISB.
It is not just the money, say students, some of whom chose Indian companies over pay cheques in dollars. "I was offered a very interesting job by a US-based tech company but I wanted to be closer home," says Yashraj Erande.
"So I took a job offer which would help me work in India's business environment."
In a new drift, several ISB students opted for jobs with various media companies, including RPG Saregama.
Kartik Ramakrishnan always wanted to be a consultant and he got the offer he wanted. Then came another offer — to set up an FM radio station. And he opted for this new challenge.
Thursday, March 30, 2006
B-school grads seek mind over matter
Even as domestic average pay packets in the top B-Schools closed on the Rs 10-lakh mark this year, some students have opted for what they call the ‘right job’ instead of getting attracted by the lure of the lucre.
These students of top management institutes, including the IIMs and ISB(Hyderabad), took an offer that had package differentials to the tune of upto Rs 3 lakh, which translated into a differential of 20-30% of their total pay package.
In the case of the ISB, Hyderabad, whose placement cycle is in its final stages, at least seven students declined offers with a bigger pay packet. The list included Karthik Ramakrishnan, who has opted for a job in the media sector which offered him Rs 3 lakh lower than the offer from a consultancy firm.
According to him, “Although I always wanted to get into consulting, an entrepreneurial offer like the radio offer is hard to come by straight out of B-school. It involved a trade-off, since the consulting offer was higher paying, but for me the thrill of doing something new scores over money anyday.”
Some other students who opted for a lower package for a different job of their choice included - Akshay Singhal who opted for a consultancy over an IT company(differential of Rs 3 lakh), Amit Gupta who opted for consultancy over financial services (Rs 2 lakh) and Bhasker Mehdi who accepted the offer of a medical services company instead of an IT company with a difference of about
At IIM -A at least two students opted for A relatively lower packet within domestic offers, which translated into a differential to the tune of Rs 1-1.5 lakh per annum. These include Ravi Swaminathan and Preeti Patel.
In the case of IIM(Calcutta), which clocked the highest average domestic package amongst all IIMs(Rs 9.81 lakh) this year , the differential was to the tune of Rs 1.5-2 lakh where a student opted for a position in a FMCG company over a bank even though the latter was offering more.
As expected the biggest differentials were accounted for by students who opted for a domestic job over the dollar salaries offered for an international posting. This, however, needs to factor in higher living costs abroad.
These include names like Yashraj Erande of ISB who opted for consultancy firm Boston Consultancy Group(BCG) over a Dallas posting of an IT company, which had a package of $80,000 attached to it. The difference was to the tune of Rs 27 lakhs in Indian currency.
The differentials were again substantial in case of two IIM Calcutta students Abhimanyu Ganesh and Arpit Badjatiya who declined international offers in the Investment Banking space amounting to about $110,000 to opt for management consulting in India.
Two other ISB students also opted for a domestic job even as they had an international offer –– Bhagyashri Shinde settled for an IT company which offered Rs 8 lakh less than the offer from an international investment bank and Simran Khara who chose to forego a similar amount by choosing a consultancy firm in India as against an international offer from a financial services company.
These students of top management institutes, including the IIMs and ISB(Hyderabad), took an offer that had package differentials to the tune of upto Rs 3 lakh, which translated into a differential of 20-30% of their total pay package.
In the case of the ISB, Hyderabad, whose placement cycle is in its final stages, at least seven students declined offers with a bigger pay packet. The list included Karthik Ramakrishnan, who has opted for a job in the media sector which offered him Rs 3 lakh lower than the offer from a consultancy firm.
According to him, “Although I always wanted to get into consulting, an entrepreneurial offer like the radio offer is hard to come by straight out of B-school. It involved a trade-off, since the consulting offer was higher paying, but for me the thrill of doing something new scores over money anyday.”
Some other students who opted for a lower package for a different job of their choice included - Akshay Singhal who opted for a consultancy over an IT company(differential of Rs 3 lakh), Amit Gupta who opted for consultancy over financial services (Rs 2 lakh) and Bhasker Mehdi who accepted the offer of a medical services company instead of an IT company with a difference of about
At IIM -A at least two students opted for A relatively lower packet within domestic offers, which translated into a differential to the tune of Rs 1-1.5 lakh per annum. These include Ravi Swaminathan and Preeti Patel.
In the case of IIM(Calcutta), which clocked the highest average domestic package amongst all IIMs(Rs 9.81 lakh) this year , the differential was to the tune of Rs 1.5-2 lakh where a student opted for a position in a FMCG company over a bank even though the latter was offering more.
As expected the biggest differentials were accounted for by students who opted for a domestic job over the dollar salaries offered for an international posting. This, however, needs to factor in higher living costs abroad.
These include names like Yashraj Erande of ISB who opted for consultancy firm Boston Consultancy Group(BCG) over a Dallas posting of an IT company, which had a package of $80,000 attached to it. The difference was to the tune of Rs 27 lakhs in Indian currency.
The differentials were again substantial in case of two IIM Calcutta students Abhimanyu Ganesh and Arpit Badjatiya who declined international offers in the Investment Banking space amounting to about $110,000 to opt for management consulting in India.
Two other ISB students also opted for a domestic job even as they had an international offer –– Bhagyashri Shinde settled for an IT company which offered Rs 8 lakh less than the offer from an international investment bank and Simran Khara who chose to forego a similar amount by choosing a consultancy firm in India as against an international offer from a financial services company.
Sunday, March 19, 2006
No Indian B-school on top
Coming close on the heels of the government reluctantly allowing Indian Institutes of Management (IIMs) to open branches abroad, a rather distressing but not unsurprising bit of news filtered through last week. According to a Financial Times survey, no Indian business school figures in the top 100 business schools in the world. One would have thought that the IIMs, established in the 1960s, would have forced their way into the elite group. After all, 45 years of being at the top in India should have created a global brand rubbing shoulders with the best.
Indeed, the timing of the survey is fortuitous since it comes at a time when supply of cross-border education and tuition fees charged by management institutes has been discussed passionately by both sides in this debate. One view has been that Indian business schools should be confined to addressing the domestic market before they venture abroad, while the tuition fees they charge should be capped at about one-third of what schools are on average charging at the moment.
Both steps are retrograde and fortunately neither of them is being pursued with any degree of seriousness. The IIMs have been allowed to go abroad and the Supreme Court has decreed that the fees should be decided by the individual school with the state government’s oversight.
Both these factors are among several that influence the quality of a business school and its international reputation. The others are quality of students, faculty, infrastructure and placements and the FT survey dutifully captures all of these. If the resultant index is interpreted as reflecting international competitiveness, then it can serve as a guide for strategic direction and policy initiatives.
That no Indian B-school is internationally competitive is a result of the lack of international and domestic competition. This may be a surprising statement given that 1,200 or more such schools exist in India. The market has settled itself into an equilibrium where there is not much “competition’ for students among the various segments. Competition is much more effective and severe among the students themselves. The status quo thus established is comfortable and as long as there is an endless supply of domestic students, the equilibrium is unlikely to be disturbed. This is similar to the protected market that was available to Indian automobile companies, for instance, in the 1980s, replete with long waiting lists and a conspicuous absence of innovative activity.
Allowing B-schools to establish branches abroad is a necessary but not sufficient condition to disturb the existing equilibrium. While such a move can no doubt act as a “window” of learning for the schools going abroad, it will not spur “innovation” in domestic management education. What is needed is lowering entry barriers for overseas business schools to establish branches in India (a la Singapore) as well as for private domestic players to enter the education market space. Niche players like ISB are unlikely to provide effective competition to the established schools. Foreign business schools will not pose a threat to domestic schools, given their high establishment costs. Ultimately, it seems that intense domestic competition and the fight for attaining leadership will provide the right incentives for a few Indian business schools to emerge as world class.
Indeed, the timing of the survey is fortuitous since it comes at a time when supply of cross-border education and tuition fees charged by management institutes has been discussed passionately by both sides in this debate. One view has been that Indian business schools should be confined to addressing the domestic market before they venture abroad, while the tuition fees they charge should be capped at about one-third of what schools are on average charging at the moment.
Both steps are retrograde and fortunately neither of them is being pursued with any degree of seriousness. The IIMs have been allowed to go abroad and the Supreme Court has decreed that the fees should be decided by the individual school with the state government’s oversight.
Both these factors are among several that influence the quality of a business school and its international reputation. The others are quality of students, faculty, infrastructure and placements and the FT survey dutifully captures all of these. If the resultant index is interpreted as reflecting international competitiveness, then it can serve as a guide for strategic direction and policy initiatives.
That no Indian B-school is internationally competitive is a result of the lack of international and domestic competition. This may be a surprising statement given that 1,200 or more such schools exist in India. The market has settled itself into an equilibrium where there is not much “competition’ for students among the various segments. Competition is much more effective and severe among the students themselves. The status quo thus established is comfortable and as long as there is an endless supply of domestic students, the equilibrium is unlikely to be disturbed. This is similar to the protected market that was available to Indian automobile companies, for instance, in the 1980s, replete with long waiting lists and a conspicuous absence of innovative activity.
Allowing B-schools to establish branches abroad is a necessary but not sufficient condition to disturb the existing equilibrium. While such a move can no doubt act as a “window” of learning for the schools going abroad, it will not spur “innovation” in domestic management education. What is needed is lowering entry barriers for overseas business schools to establish branches in India (a la Singapore) as well as for private domestic players to enter the education market space. Niche players like ISB are unlikely to provide effective competition to the established schools. Foreign business schools will not pose a threat to domestic schools, given their high establishment costs. Ultimately, it seems that intense domestic competition and the fight for attaining leadership will provide the right incentives for a few Indian business schools to emerge as world class.
Wednesday, January 18, 2006
B-schools grads salaries on the rise
They may not be the first business school most MBA aspirants in India want to get into (let's face it, IIM-Ahmedabad is still what everyone aspires for, followed by IIM-Bangalore and IIM-Calcutta), but there is no overlooking the fact that these B-schools are among the best in the country.
Places like Symbiosis Institute of Business Management (SIBM), IMT Ghaziabad and T A Pai Management Institute (TAPMI) have made their presence felt on the Indian management school scene and have, of late, started to register on the radar of companies like Colgate Palmolive and Nestle who earlier only went to the absolute top notch schools to recruit.
And the reason according to Varda Pendse, director, Cerebrus Consultants, an HR consultancy, is pretty clear too. "With IIM graduates preferring foreign companies, Indian companies are being forced to move to the next level of B-schools," she says.
But this does not mean that the companies are settling for anything but the best. The top students at these institutes are easily at par with the students at other IIMs, and also, these companies are given the first preference when interacting with the students at these institutes, so in the process end up recruiting the brightest students of the batch.
Most of these institutes have finished their final placements for 2006, and the numbers speak for themselves. The highest salary at TAPMI has gone up from Rs 6.75 lakh (Rs 675,000) last year to Rs 7.75 lakh (Rs 775,000) this year and Professor Raghunath, chairman, placement committee, TAPMI, says that one trend visible this year has been the increased recruiting by the IT and financial services sectors.
At IMT Ghaziabad too, it is a similar story. The highest domestic salary offered here was Rs 9.25 lakh (Rs 925,000) by Genpact, substantially higher than
Rs 7.52 lakh (Rs 752,000) which was the top offer last year, says Professor Nilanjan Chattopadhyay, chairman-placements, IMT Ghaziabad.
This is easily at par with the highest salary at Jamnalal Bajaj last year, which will have its round of placements only next month. At SIBM, the top international offer was $64,000, while the domestic one from JP Morgan was Rs 8.9 lakh (Rs 890,000). On most campuses, a fair number of companies had to return empty handed with placements being completed in between 5-8 hours for about 150 students.
Pendse points out: "While the salary for a particular profile would be the same irrespective of the institute, chances are that the differences in the compensation packages are a result of the difference in the functions."
The salary difference also depends upon whether the student has prior work experience or whether he is being taken at an entry level position. Prof Chattopadhyay says that this year has also seen a marked increase in the number of consultancy firms recruiting from non-IIMs.
"This is, however, primarily driven by the fact that they are not getting enough resources from IIMs alone, and therefore, it is more need driven than anything else." he explains.
Whatever the reasons, the students for one are not complaining about the increased opportunities (and heftier packages) coming their way.
more at www.rediff.com
Places like Symbiosis Institute of Business Management (SIBM), IMT Ghaziabad and T A Pai Management Institute (TAPMI) have made their presence felt on the Indian management school scene and have, of late, started to register on the radar of companies like Colgate Palmolive and Nestle who earlier only went to the absolute top notch schools to recruit.
And the reason according to Varda Pendse, director, Cerebrus Consultants, an HR consultancy, is pretty clear too. "With IIM graduates preferring foreign companies, Indian companies are being forced to move to the next level of B-schools," she says.
But this does not mean that the companies are settling for anything but the best. The top students at these institutes are easily at par with the students at other IIMs, and also, these companies are given the first preference when interacting with the students at these institutes, so in the process end up recruiting the brightest students of the batch.
Most of these institutes have finished their final placements for 2006, and the numbers speak for themselves. The highest salary at TAPMI has gone up from Rs 6.75 lakh (Rs 675,000) last year to Rs 7.75 lakh (Rs 775,000) this year and Professor Raghunath, chairman, placement committee, TAPMI, says that one trend visible this year has been the increased recruiting by the IT and financial services sectors.
At IMT Ghaziabad too, it is a similar story. The highest domestic salary offered here was Rs 9.25 lakh (Rs 925,000) by Genpact, substantially higher than
Rs 7.52 lakh (Rs 752,000) which was the top offer last year, says Professor Nilanjan Chattopadhyay, chairman-placements, IMT Ghaziabad.
This is easily at par with the highest salary at Jamnalal Bajaj last year, which will have its round of placements only next month. At SIBM, the top international offer was $64,000, while the domestic one from JP Morgan was Rs 8.9 lakh (Rs 890,000). On most campuses, a fair number of companies had to return empty handed with placements being completed in between 5-8 hours for about 150 students.
Pendse points out: "While the salary for a particular profile would be the same irrespective of the institute, chances are that the differences in the compensation packages are a result of the difference in the functions."
The salary difference also depends upon whether the student has prior work experience or whether he is being taken at an entry level position. Prof Chattopadhyay says that this year has also seen a marked increase in the number of consultancy firms recruiting from non-IIMs.
"This is, however, primarily driven by the fact that they are not getting enough resources from IIMs alone, and therefore, it is more need driven than anything else." he explains.
Whatever the reasons, the students for one are not complaining about the increased opportunities (and heftier packages) coming their way.
more at www.rediff.com
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