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.
MBA Admissions / B-schools / Articles / Business / Tech news
Thursday, March 30, 2006
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.
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