WHAT IS HAPPANING AT IIM( news from IIm)

IIT, IIM Alumni Association Now Serving Society Too

IITAND IIM alumni associations are increasingly becoming more than just a convenient way of keeping in touch with batchmates. These associations are now serving as platforms which enable ex-students to contribute to their alma mater and the society as well.
The class of 2006 at IIM, Ahmedabad, has decided to raise funds to the tune of Rs 1 crore by 2010-11 , while the IIT Bombay Heritage fund, a nonprofit organisation set up by the US-based alumni of IIT-B , has helped raise over $20 million over the past 10 years. These funds have been used to finance infrastructure, scholarships, awards, funding for research and funding for inviting distinguished academics from foreign universities.
Besides, alumni associations facilitate interaction between the alumni faculty and students, awarding distinguished alumnus, fund raising and tracking of the alumni-sponsored projects. They also help bring industry stalwarts to the campus through their networks.
Fund raising is perhaps the most important activity of these associations. Many of the associations are incorporated under the Companies Act and donations are exempt from income tax. With many of these institutes seeking to expand within the country as well as increase their global presence, fund raising has had to go global. For instance, the alumni of IIM-A has set up three trusts - in Mumbai, London and the US.
IIT, Delhi, received $350,000 from alumni based in the US in 2005 and the money was used to set up an information technology school at the institution.
Interestingly, after taking the step of being more than an old boys club, these associations have also made contributions outside of their alma mater. The IIT alumni Canada association raised funds for the Prime Minister's relief fund for tsunami survivors in 2004. It also raises funds for local charities and organises blood donation drives. The IIT Bombay Alumni Association paid for the infrastructure costs of setting up the Village Knowledge Centre near Bangalore, which helps empower children and villagers by equipping them with a library, computers. Going national , IIM-L alumni raised funds during the Kargil War, and sponsored a desalination plant after the tsunami. The alumni association have also intervened on policy issues that have a direct bearing on their institutes. Recently, IIM alumni joined the anti-quota campaign, and in 2003-04 , it was the alumni that helped in the agitation against the proposed fee reduction at the IIMs.
Sponsorships for these associations are more than forthcoming, due to the IIT/IIMs global brand value. For instance, Citibank offers a zero annual charge IITBAA affinity gold card. ICICI offers a lifetime free card to alumni of IIM, Bangalore. ICICI, Western Union and SBI are some of the sponsors of the IIT Canada Association.
These associations work both at the pan-Indian and transcontinental level. IIT alumni associations in the US and Canada include the IIT Delhi alumni of Houston, Texas, the IIT Madras Alumni Association of North America, the IIT Alumni Canada Association . The IIM Ahmedabad Alumni Association has twelve chapters in India and four outside India in London, Muscat, Singapore and the US.

 

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Ganguly, Greg back in School

Ganguly, Greg back in School


THE Indian Institute of Management, Ahmedabad (IIM-A), may add a new, but a rather positive, chapter to the Sourav Ganguly-Greg Chappell spat. The controversy, which cost India's most successful cricket captain the job and eventually his place in the side, will be discussed in IIM-A classrooms this year as a classic case of HR management in sports.
Philip Kotler's ideas on marketing aside, students at India's best known management school will also get a dope on Ganguly's leadership skills on the cricket field, and Brazil skipper Cafu's strategies on the football ground. They will also take lessons from the rise of Sania Mirza a brand ambassador, and draw analogies between her approach to the game of tennis and a product launch.
Professors at the institute told ET that IIM-A is set to introduce a leadership module, which will be entirely based on sports, for students of the recently-started PGPX programme. The institute is already in touch with ace sports commentator and an IIM-A alumnus Harsha Bhogle to conduct the module. Mr Bhogle and his wife Anita (also an IIM-A alumnus) have designed the module.
"We have discussed the issue with Harsha and he has expressed his willingness to conduct the programme. He himself would be conducting the programme," Mr Bakul Dholakia, director of IIM-A , told ET. The institute had approached Mr Bhogle when he was at the institute early this year.
The institute wants to use sports to harness leadership qualities among students, especially the ones in the PGPX course. These students, with around seven years' experience in the field, are already knocking on the doors of leadership positions. Asia's premier business management institute recently launched PGPX, a one-year fulltime residential MBA for executives with substantial work experience. The objective of the programme is to develop bright, enthusiastic and inspirational executives into management leaders and change agents in the global arena.
"The module will have case studies from all major sports including cricket, football and hockey," said an IIM official.

 

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Future managers hit the grassroots trail

Implementing simple ideas to coming back enlightened: for a bunch of IIMA students, it was in all a learning experience. Moreover, the 15-day trip — a part of Agri-Business Management — to rural areas for these 30 final year MBA students was also a welcome retreat.

The most important thing these future managers have learnt is about happiness that has little to do with money.

Having come back thrilled, they made presentations this week, displayed thermocol models of the villages highlighting key observations made and exchanged their new-found knowledge.

And, they can’t wait for December when they go back for the second phase of Rural Immersion Programme wherein they will chalk out development plans for the areas.

In April, the batch of 30 formed six groups and fanned out to villages in Maharashtra, Andhra Pradesh and Rajasthan.

Helped by local NGOs, the groups gathered data on topography, panchayat system, rural economy, development, infrastructure and mindsets.

Anand Rajan and his grop which camped in Margasini village near Pune, trained some villagers in testing milk when they found that middlemen exploited them over the milk’s ‘low quality’.

“Now, they too can carry out tests and compare the results. This way they can demand a good deal,” says Rajan. The group organised a painting competition for village kids and even attended the panchayat meeting where “all issues except land and theft” were resolved. And, despite just two TV sets and six telephones, Rajan observed, the village folk were far more content than urbanites.

Rajan feels the soil there is ideal for floriculture. “Though animal husbandry is the main occupation, floriculture will be a good option as the soil here is ideal for growing chrysanthemums. We’ll be here in December to work out the idea,” he says.

Lakshmi R and her group stayed with a family in Andhra Pradesh’s Gaddumanugu village.

“The village has seen large scale migration. Girls are not encouraged to study. Those around are mostly elders. There’s a separate area for the backward community. But interstingly, the panchayat president was from a backward caste.”

Lakshmi plans a processing unit at the village which produces tomatoes in abundance. “It will help them during glut period,” she says.

For Rimjhim Srivastava’s group, it was a bit of an uphill task. Camping at Patdi, a hamlet in Rajashthan, the students had to walk several kilometres as each house is located on a separate hillock.

In the second phase, the group will submit a plan to ITC to explore possibilities of growing medicinal plants in the region.

Indranil Ghosh, who stayed in Ratnagiri district’s Tarwal village, was shocked to find rising AIDS cases among the educated villagers who often went to Mumbai for painting jobs.

The place is rich in mangoes and cashewnuts. It experiences heavy rainfall but also has an undulating terrain. “One needs a system to hold water in this scarcity-hit village and enhance the supply chain,” he says.

 

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IIM-A The reluctant champ

A survey on India's best institutions of higher education has reconfirmed what most already knew: That the Indian Institute of Management, Ahmedabad, is still, unquestionably, the best B-School in India.

Ironically though, not too long ago, the six IIMs had taken a joint decision to abstain from such ranking surveys, except for a select few international ones conducted by the likes of Business Week and Financial Times. So is IIM-A angry at being declared numero uno, despite abstaining from the competition? "The news did come as a bit of a surprise," says Indira Parikh, Dean, IIMA, adding that the institute did not divulge any information to the survey team.

But shouldn't everyone participate in such surveys so that students get a better idea? Professor in the Faculty of Management Studies, MSU, Kiran Joshi says: "Sometimes an institution reaches a level where it doesn't need to be ranked. It is like trying to rate Shah Rukh Khan or Amitabh Bachchan." Anup Singh, director, Nirma Institute of Management, though, doesn't agree. "The survey may not have required active participation from the institutes themselves. However, it is desirable for institutes to participate in such surveys so that information can be disseminated among the student community," he says.

Most students agree that such surveys sometimes help them make an informed choice. "Nobody really thinks these surveys are completely accurate. Often, undeserving institutes get unexceptionably high rankings. But overall, they give us a general idea regarding resources and placements," says Ashita Mehta, waiting to crack the CAT next year

 

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Business - It’s raining jobs for agri-business graduates at IIM-A

Reflecting the recent trend of an upswing in the agri-business industry, the average salaries offered to the pass-outs of Agri-Business Management (ABM) at the Indian Institute of Management (IIM), Ahmedabad, saw a 35 per cent rise at Rs 7 lakh this year.

In 2004, the average salary offered to ABM graduates was Rs 5.20 lakh.

In terms of annual salary, ITC’s International Business Division came up with the highest offer in India at Rs 8 lakh. Al Ghanim’s, a Kuwait-based corporate, was the top overseas offer at $55,000.

Al Ghanim along with KUOK Oils, a business house in Singapore and Malaysia, National Commodities Derivatives Exchange (NCDEX), the biggest commodities exchange in India and ICICI Lombard were among the companies that visited the IIM-A campus for the first time for recruitment this year.

Eleven other recruiters like, Godrej Agrovet, ITC HDFC, Murugappa National Dairy Development Board too came calling for recruits.

According to Vinod Ahuja, Chairperson of the Agri-Business Management course, ‘‘The placements process, which got over today, reflect two things. One, the course is being recognised by the industry. And secondly, there is a general trend that the agri-industry is looking up.’’

Commenting on the placements and the profile of the companies that visited the campus this year, Ahuja said, ‘‘It reflects a thrust of the agri-industry in commodity trading, agri-insurance sector and retail management.’’

‘‘Agri-Business Management course at IIMA was started four years back keeping in mind the demand for professional managers in the agriculture sector. And since then, we have constantly restructured our courses, deleting some old elements and introducing new ones over this period,’’ added Ahuja.

A total of 22 students of the 2003-05 batch were placed in 12 of the 15 companies that visited the campus this year. For the first time, four students — 20 per cent of the batch — got placements abroad. Last year, there was only one overseas placement.

There were 35 other domestic offers of which just 14 were lapped up by the students, while seven students got placements during the ‘laterals’ (where the institute puts forward suitable students for interviews).

 

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On Cairo’s streets, they pave the way for India’s biggest B-brand

How does an institute, that has shown the ropes of management to India’s
best, handle its own ventures overseas? Three distinguished men,
currently pounding the streets of Cairo, offer a clue.

As IIM Ahmedabad prepares to launch its first management course in Egypt
this May, it says it first wants to understand the ‘‘contextual
reality’’ of the place.

So it has despatched three of its leading professors to understand and
imbibe the business, financial and management cultures of Cairo, the
country’s capital.

IIM-A has ventured abroad before, but this one is special. It comes at a
time when countries are opening their doors to institutions of higher
education and brand names matter more than ever before. If successful,
the four-day course for Egypt’s senior and promising middle-rung
executives could lead to contracts with other campuses.

It could also pave the way for a long-term possibility—IIM-A could one
day be running its own full-fledged campuses abroad. The sheer effort
going into the project suggests that the institute could be rehearsing
for the big stage and wants the Egyptian venture to be perfect in every way.

Just the stature of the three management gurus now getting a feel of the
ground in Cairo, talking to the managers and multinationals doing
business there, shows how serious IIM-A is.

Prof Pankaj Chandra is a leading authority on Production and Quantum
Methods, Prof M M Monipally is regarded a master in communication
strategy, Prof Abraham Koshy is a marketing expert. All three are now
familiarising themselves with typical Egyptian business practices as
they prepare the course that will be taught in May.

IIMA wants its team to get a grip on the ground realities so that its
course can be made more relevant. Prof Indira Parikh, the Dean of the
institute, said that its experts had even exchanged notes with the
Aditya Birla Group’s Alexandria Carbon Black. It happens to be one of
the few Indian companies that have a joint venture in Egypt.

The experts are also learning about manufacturing practices, management
practices, approach to accounting and even the attitude towards
management professionals.

‘‘We are also looking at the people's marketplace,’’ said Prof Parikh.

If more proof were needed of how seriously IIM-A is taking the course,
then a look at the faculty members who will conduct it is a pointer.
Nine of the institute’s biggest names will fly down to Egypt in three or
four batches to lecture the Egyptian executives.

Apart from the three management gurus already in Cairo and Prof Parikh,
the list will include Prof Bakul Dholakia, director of IIM Ahmedabad.

In fact, four other big management education names from the campus,
Professors M R Dixit, Ramesh Bhatt, Sunil Maheshwari and Sanjay Verma
will go down to Cairo as soon as the first batch returns to gather more
inputs and incorporate Egypt-related specifics into the curriculum.
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Ganguly, Greg back in School
Harit Mehta & Abhishek Shanker, Ahmedabad
IIT, IIM Alumni Association Now Serving Society Too
Priyanka Talwar, New Delhi
Future managers hit the grassroots trail
Swapna Nair
IIM-A The reluctant champ
Business - It’s raining jobs for agri-business graduates at IIM-A
IIM-A to drive on India's education diplomacy track
Front Page - On Cairo’s streets, they pave the way for India’s biggest B-brand
IIMA to conduct Amaethon annually
IIM-A grads turn financial sector`s favourites
IIM-A explores offshore tie-ups with Wharton, Stanford business schools

 

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IIMA to conduct Amaethon annually

Even as agribusiness has been gaining popularity, the Agri Business Centre (ABC) of the Indian Institute of Management, Ahmedabad (IIM-A) will organise `Amaethon 2005’, the maiden B-school meet on agribusiness, rural management and allied fields.

Amaethon is the ancient god of agriculture. The purpose of Amaethon 2005 is to converge the best brain in the sector to focus on emerging trends, avenues and challenges in agribusiness, to spur interest in the sector and to develop a problem-solving ability through friendly competition in a times format.

Students from various B-schools would participate in the two-day event, that begins at IIM-A from Saturday. The major events at Amaethon are Saakar - the business plan contest, Shodh - the paper presentation contest, Agri’gate - the case analysis contest and AgriMARK - the marketing plan contest.

IIM-A director Bakul Dholakia said on Friday that the institute will make this an annual event, even as the scope of agribusiness is increasing fast.

“Students from various B-schools will participate in the event, which we hope will become an annual feature,” Dholakia said.

A panel discussion on the emerging dairy industry in India and the world will also be part of the event. The discussion, called `The Milky Way Forward’ will include speakers like Gujarat Co-operative Milk Marketing Federation managing director B M Vyas and others.

P R Anil Kumar, chief manager, rural microbanking and agri business group of ICICI Bank, will also be one of the speakers at Amaethon.

Until recently, the agriculture sector, in spite of being a private sector, was primarily funded by the government. But of late, many corporates and private banks have begun investing in the sector to tap the potential of the rural market.

 

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IIM-A explores offshore tie-ups with Wharton, Stanford business schools

India’s premier B-school, the Indian Institute of Management, Ahmedabad (IIM-A) is looking at possible tie-ups with leading North American universities including Wharton, Columbia, Stern and Stanford for its new one-year post-graduate programme in management for executives (PGPX) scheduled to commence from April 2006.

In Europe, preliminary discussions have been held with the London School of Economics, Leeds University as well as the University of British Columbia. Speaking to FE, IIM-A director Bakul Dholakia revealed that IIM-A would devise a one-month global immersion module in collaboration with these B-schools, which would be part of the PGPX course. “This module would comprise four weeks of academic activities abroad focusing largely on industry visits with an element of foreign school exposure as well,” Dr Dholakia disclosed.

The foreign schools would also assist in identifying companies where these students can work and get on-the-job training, he said. The cost of this one-month overseas module would most probably be absorbed within the Rs 8 lakh fee.

IIM-A currently has MOUs with 29 foreign universities in Europe, south-east Asia, Australia and New Zealand under its international student exchange programme. Under this programme, students attend one term of three-and-a-half months at universities abroad. However, unlike the PGPX course, the foreign component of the trip in the three-year PGP course is partially funded by IIM-A through scholarships, while the rest is funded by the student himself.

Interestingly, since the launch of the exchange programme in 1999, 193 students have availed of the programme over the past five years, while 158 foreign students have spent full terms at IIM-A.

Meanwhile, in the run-up to its latest PGPX programme, IIM-A is also in the process of kicking off a major marketing initiative to attract international participation next month. “The main reason for choosing GMAT as the entrance exam for this course is to attract larger number of foreign students,” Prof Dholakia maintained. Funds for these new initiatives would be raised through IIM-A alumni working abroad.

The institute is also in the process of launching a short duration three-week course in Cairo. The icing on the cake, however, is the formation of the Association of Asia Pacific Business Schools in Seoul a month ago as a benchmark and forum of business schools in the region. The IIM-A director is part of the four- member core committee and 20-member executive council of the association which is awaiting registration.

 

[bonddonraj]

at iim-k

India’s premier Industry – Academia conclave, brings together eminent IT industry practitioners, consultants, academicians and students from IIMs and other top
B-schools
This year's topics include:

Multivendor strategies
Emerging Business Models
Looking beyond the US
Just implementation and maintenance or consulting?
Policies, politics and an enabling environment
Global Giants: Why India?
Setting up the Indian connection: Key challenges and entry strategies
The Big Three: Just India centric trans-nationals or multinationals?
Contemporary issues in Consulting
Products: Goldmine or Placebo?
Research and Development: Cost centres or growth avenues
Managing a captive offshore facility of an MNC

 

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hi

:tea: hi friends do tell me how do you like this thread and how do i improve it!!

 

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The Need for the Competition

With the advent of liberalization and globalization economic prosperity of a nation now requires excellence in manufacturing and service. India has moved on from a primarily agararian economy to a service oriented economy while the secondary stage of development in the form of manufacturing excellence has failed to produce desired results. But to compete globally it is imperative that India utilizes its vast pool of technical knowledge and skilled workforce to develop manufacturing excellence, which is also necessary for the service sector to prosper.

In this backdrop there is a need for a broad policy framework to:

Ø Define the role of manufacturing in the development process of a developing nation like India

Ø To understand the role of manufacturing in India in the light of its size, population, skill level and employment

Ø To delineate the role of manufacturing in India in a Q.R. free post WTO regime.

We Think for India (WTI), a voluntary organization of eminent personalities undertook this novel initiative to address the critical issues facing Indian manufacturing, to bring together various perspectives and to provide links between Governance and higher Academia.

 

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The Final Placements at IIMA this year were held from 8th March -13th March 2006. 235 students of the Batch of 2004-06 were placed across 5 days of recruiting.

A total 510 job offers were made to 235 students who participated in placements, with 83 students placed in Slot 0. This is a 41% increase over last year’s 58. Of the total job offers, 72 students (30%) accepted overseas placements. Over 33% of students placed in India were offered pay packages over INR 10 lakh per annum, with the domestic average at INR 9.72 lakh per annum. Also, of the total students placed overseas, 50 were offered packages over USD 100000. The number of companies also increased from 83 to 110 this year.


The highlight of the placements was the domestic offer of Country Head to a student from the batch, by RPG Enterprises with a compensation of INR 34 lakh per annum.

The highest international package was the Associate level offer by Barclays at an unprecedented USD 185000 (Singapore $300000). Further more, three such International Associate offers were made to students this year at IIMA.


Increased Global Recognition and Job Diversity


IIMA seems to have truly arrived when it comes to recognition by major recruiters worldwide. Not only did existing recruiters recruit in large numbers with IIMA, but many new recruiters also came down to recruit based on the growing global recognition of IIMA graduates. Table 3 gives exclusive details of acceptances by students to positions in companies that participated in Slot 0.
The number of companies offering overseas jobs was as high as 20 in 2006. International offers were made in Slot 1 as well with DBS, TAS, ICICI, TransIndus, etc. choosing to place students overseas.

Major investment banks such as Deutsche Bank, Goldman Sachs, Lehman Brothers, Merrill Lynch and Morgan Stanley continued their association with the institute. Barclays was the top recruiter across slots, with 16 students accepting the offer. That a single top investment bank could make 22 offers at one campus alone is a reflection on the depth of quality available at IIMA. Apart from this, Lehman Brothers (12 acceptances), Merrill Lynch (8 acceptances) and first time recruiter ABN Amro Hong Kong (7 acceptances) at IIMA total up to more than the corresponding numbers at other institutes combined. Other investment banks participating in the process this year included Citigroup, CSFB, HSBC and JP Morgan.

Top consulting majors participated in a big way too, with McKinsey, Bain, Booz Allen Hamilton, Accenture, KPMG, AT Kearney and BCG all making several offers. McKinsey and Company, making 2 Singapore offers for the first time, received a total 8 acceptances for its 8 offers.

Adding versatility to the consulting sector were niche firms such as supply chain specialists ECS-Limited and infrastructure consultants Feedback Ventures. Global eProcure, leading supply chain consultant participated for the first time and recruited 3 students exclusively for their Global programme. Overall, 27 new companies came to the campus this year. Table 4 provides details of some of the new recruiters.

There was greater choice available to the graduating batch both in terms of jobs being offered in new sectors and also greater diversity within a sector.
The sectors with fresh and growing presence in the process this year were BPO, KPO, travel and tourism, supply chain consulting, amongst others. Financial services, banking, marketing, IT, operations and consulting were the other sectors that continued to recruit. Overall, jobs were offered in various sectors, reflecting the all-round strength of the Institute’s curriculum. Table 5 gives the jobs accepted by sector.
(Some comments on location-wise distribution). Table 6 provides a location-wise distribution of jobs.


Growing Preference for Indian Locations

In what seems to be a growing trend, an increased number of students chose domestic placements over foreign offers this year. With growing preference for locations closer to home (18 students gave up foreign offers to take up domestic roles this year), it seems that the Indian success story has certainly led students comprising the cream of management talent to stay back, in order to play pivotal roles in organizations here.

Shraddha Vohra, a student who rejected a pre-placement offer from a leading investment bank for a marketing job from an FMCG major, says:
“I was not enjoying my work in finance as much as I had hoped to. Somehow, it could never match the thrill I would feel solving marketing cases or working on my independent project in branding. I also realized that I would rather take up a job that would make me get up in the morning and want to go to work, than one that would essentially offer me only money or glamour. Some of my peers have expressed surprise at my choice, but I believe firmly that life is too short to be spent living other peoples' convictions. I would like to spend my life pursuing my own sense of joy.”


Rise in salaries

The salaries offered to IIMA graduates have steadily increased over the past few years, and this year was no exception. Both domestic and international salaries increased substantially.

The highest Indian pay package was at INR 34 lakhs per annum, for a student placed as Country Head, with a leading Indian firm. The highest International package was $185000 offered to three students for Associate level positions with a leading investment bank.

The average entry level domestic salary increased by 23% to INR 9.72 lakhs per annum from INR 7.9 lakhs last year, while the international average stands at USD 92500, a rise of over 16%. The average lateral domestic salary increased to a high INR 10.6 lakh per annum.


Lateral Placements at IIM-A hit the roof

The Lateral Placements at IIMA for the 2004-‘06 batch were held in the months January-March 2006. This year the lateral placements were characterised by an unprecedented rise in number of offers, and the sheer diversity of jobs on offer. Apart from the highest domestic salary by RPG, over INR 16 lakh per annum offer was also made by Genpact.

The diversity of job offerings for middle-management positions this time around has been a significant gain for students. Apart from the dominant IT sector, this year saw increased involvement from the BPO and KPO sectors as well. Among the leading recruiters in these sectors were Genpact (with an offer of 16 lakh per annum amongst others), Fractal Analytics and Dell Analytics, which came for the first time. IT was well represented by Microsoft, HP, first time recruiters US technologies and Adobe, Trilogy, Cognizant, HCL technologies, Covansys, Wipro, Infosys and many others. Consulting firms made a beeline for the process as well, with BCG, TSMG and ECS-Limited all participating. Other sectors were equally involved with big names including JP Morgan, LN Mittal and others picking up students for non-entry level positions. IT consult major, Booz Allen Hamilton and Bain and Company were here during slot 0 for lateral hires as well.

In the recently concluded process, as many as 133 offers were made to the eligible candidates, and 38 of them were accepted. The average domestic salary among offers accepted was Rs. 10.6 lakh per annum. The offers made also included 5 overseas offers, with the highest offer being GBP 47000 per annum.

Overall, the laterals process this year has reaffirmed the fact that IIM Ahmedabad is regarded by recruiters as a breeding ground for not just entry-level, but middle-level talent as well.



“Off the Beaten Track” – Growing entrepreneurial pursuits

As many as 6 students either opted out of placements, or rejected job offers in order to start their own enterprise. It reaffirms the fact that IIMA students have, over the years, had the strong will and confidence in their abilities to reject attractive pay packages to undertake riskier endeavours.
Says Mansur Nazimuddin, who gave up a Pre-placement offer with a leading investment bank and intends to make his mark in the gaming industry,
“IIMA trains us to be business leaders. By starting a company of my own, I hope to put to good use some of what I have learned over the past two years. The challenge of running a company of my own is what drives me most towards doing this. What I learned at IIMA will hopefully stand me in good stead in my efforts. I believe we should follow our hearts and not worry about the results. If I do my job well, the results will follow.”

More such students choosing to start up over high paying jobs:


Vineet Ladia & Aravind Venkataraman

Most of the graduate degree programs (B.Com, B.Sc., B.E.) in the country lack the skill based training approach. There is great opportunity for such training to directly enhance employability of the graduates from not-so-elite colleges.

“We see a huge need in the skill based training segment for the youth in the country and wish to contribute in this field. IIM A’s exchange program also gave us a platform to meet and network with people from across the globe. We met similar entrepreneurial minds and are working closely with them in other countries to leverage India’s strength in education. And response to why leave plush jobs: we wish to follow our dreams where even sky isn’t the limit on the upside and the IIM A brand would ensure very limited downside.”



Nikhil Vaswani and Rohit Shankar

The venture we have formed called "BePositive Wellness Services Pvt. Ltd." (It’s a registered company) is getting into a joint venture with a hospital chain and an IT park to setup a "wellness" centre. This centre will design "customized" wellness programs for its customers comprising of physical fitness (gym, sports, swimming etc.), nutrition (dietician's consul and a food court), attitudinal changes (yoga, meditation etc.) and professional healthcare. The program will be tailored to suit each customer's special needs and professional lifestyle.

“Our main motivation to do this:
To ensure that India stays competitive especially in the knowledge sector. We will be working on healthcare cost management for our corporate clients as well as contributing to reduced absenteeism and increased productivity of employees.
Both of us also have a sporting background and would like to open sports academies in the future. Such a venture is very close to this aim of ours and we will be able to use our learnings from such a centre when we diversify into sports.”


Looking to scale greater heights

Recruitments 2006 have once again underscored IIM Ahmedabad’s ranking amongst the top B-schools of the world. This year’s recruitments are a statement on the increasing recognition accorded to the best Indian B-schools, on par with the world’s best. The successful placement of the 241 strong batch of 2006 confirms the world-class quality of IIMA graduates. A remarkable feature this year has been the increased diversity of jobs on offer. Also, an extremely successful lateral recruitments process has ensured that students get credit for relevant work experience. The IIMA Placement Committee expects this trend to continue, bolstered by better job profiles, increasing pay packages, and more challenging opportunities with each passing year.


Table 1: Student profile: Batch of 2006
Sector work experience Percentage of students
IT & Systems 26
Manufacturing 1
Banking and Finance 2
Strategy and Consulting 2
General Management 2
Operations 6
Sales and Marketing 9
Others 16
N/A 36

Educational experience Percentage of students
Engineering/Technology 75
Medicine 1
IT 4
Commerce 8
Science 4
Arts 3
Business Administration 1
Others 4

Table 2: Slot-wise distribution of students placed
Slot Students placed
Slot Zero 83
Slot One 132
Slot Two 20
Total 235

Table 3: Slot 0: Students placed, by company
Company Students placed
ABN Amro 7
AT Kearney 5
Bain Consulting 5
Barclays 16
BCG 4
Booz Allen Hamilton 1
Credit Suisse First Boston 1
Deutsche Bank 3
Goldman Sachs 2
HSBC 2
International Finance Corporation 1
J.P. Morgan 1
Lehman Brothers 12
LN Mittal 2
McKinsey & Co. 8
Merrill Lynch 7
Morgan Stanley 2
UBS 2
Grand Total 83

Table 4: New recruiters
ABN Amro Hong Kong International Investment Banking sector leader
Adobe Technologies Image printing and other product development major
Aim Trimark Investments Leading Canadian Funds Management firm
Ameriprise Financial Financial Services Consulting
Barings Private Equity Indian Private Equity space major
British Petroleum Singapore Global energy business major
Citigroup Hong Kong Investment Banking
Credit Suisse First Boston Investment Banking
Dabur Top Indian FMCG player
Dell Analytics Knowledge processing arm of Dell Inc
eBay Online auction platform major
ECS-Limited Supply chain consulting specialist
Global eProcure International supply chain consulting specialist
Hinduja Leading international conglomerate
IDFC Specialist financial infrastructure intermediary
Irevna Leading equity research firm
Marico Major Indian FMCG player
Merrill Lynch (For Finals recruitment) Reputed global Investment Bank
Oracle Corporation Leading ERP Solutions provider
Reach Technologies Information Technology Solutions major
Reebok International sportswear and accessories major
Reliance Infocomm Limited India’s leading telecom giant
RSG Integrated e-business solutions provider
RPG One of India’s largest industrial conglomerates
US Technologies Global IT and BPO services provider
Sandstone Capital Leading Hedge fund in India
TransIndus, London Leading travel and tourism player in UK

Table 5: Students placed by sector
Sector Percentage of students
Commercial Banking/Finance 9
Consulting 25
General management 5
Investment banking 31
Operations 2
Sales/Marketing 12
Systems/It/ITES 16

Table 6: Location wise distribution
India 70%
Overseas 30%
ASIA 11%
US 7%
EUROPE 12%

 

[bonddonraj]

Placements at IIM Calcutta came to an end on 17 March, reaffirming it as the top choice of recruiters across all industries such as investment banking, consulting, marketing, manufacturing and IT. From the 114 companies that had confirmed participation for the placements, only 89 could pick up students from campus as all the students were placed within a record time with 249 students having 505 offers to choose from.



IIM Calcutta: Making new records

Slot 0 witnessed 64 accepts out of 85 offers. Slot 0 firms that recruited the maximum number of students from IIM Calcutta as compared to other IIMs include global giants like Merrill Lynch (11 accepts), UBS (6), ABN AMRO (7), Bloomberg (6), BCG (5) Credit Suisse (2), and Ameriprise (2). The private equity firm SUN Group and global manufacturing giant Johnson Electric recruited exclusively at IIM Calcutta. Even in the last slot, the compensations offered touched a whopping high of 12.5 lakhs. This figure is indicative of the huge jump in salaries seen across all slots at IIM Calcutta. It is also significant that of the 77 foreign offers which were made across slots, 51 were accepted.



While IIM Calcutta retains the record for the highest package ever of USD 225,000 in 2001, it continues to maintain its leadership in attracting the highest average salary (9.81 Lacs, domestic only) across campuses: this for the largest batch across the top three IIMs (249 students). Without doubt, this is the best measure of the performance of an entire batch. IIM Calcutta saw twenty seven new firms recruiting this year including Merrill Lynch and Lehman Brothers (for finals), ABN AMRO, Bloomberg, Ameriprise, Diamond Cluster, Johnson Electric and UBS India.



Another strong measure of a student’s professional caliber is his/her performance during the summer internship where excellence results in a pre-placement offer or PPO. IIM-C’s phenomenal performance this year is also evident by 100% PPO conversion rate at top-league banks like Merrill Lynch (7/7), Barclays capital (3/3) and a significant number at Lehman Brothers, HSBC, JP Morgan etc.



IIM Calcutta: Intellectual Haven

IIM-C had the unique distinction of placing students across every profile in Investment Banking: pricing, structuring, trading, sales, strategy and advisory. True to Calcutta’s legendary intellectualism, IIM Calcutta’s students have become the first to be offered quantitative roles in NY and London by bulge bracket banks that have traditionally gone to American doctorates in Mathematics. A case in point is Abhinav Vikram (IIT JEE rank 31, 100 percentile in CAT), who holds the unique distinction of being awarded the prestigious AV Birla scholarship twice and has been hired for pricing exotics in London. Another IIM Calcutta student became the first ever hire from any IIM for a proprietary trading position for a bulge bracket investment bank in NY. IIM-C’s pre-eminence in finance was also reaffirmed by the carte blanche given by investment banks to many “hot” candidates to choose any international location and profile. Also, Bloomberg, which powers international banking platforms, has hired massively for positions in NY.
(click here for special report "IIMC - Bastion of Finance")



IIM Calcutta: Focused and go-getter

High end consulting retained its stronghold on campus. Some of the brightest students like Abhimanyu Ganesh and Arpit Badjatya turned down their international investment banking PPO’s to take up management consulting jobs in India. Top tier consulting firms like McKinsey, Boston Consulting Group, AT Kearney etc hired 17 students.



IIM Calcutta: Serving the old order and the new

While the services sector hogged most of the limelight, the old economy also made a big splash at laterals hiring at IIM Calcutta. The global steel giant LN Mittal (more offers than the other two top IIMs combined) and Johnson Electric picked up students for international placements in various roles ranging from general management to supply chain and project management. Johnson Electric’s exclusive recruitment for four international positions at IIM Calcutta bears testimony to IIM Calcutta’s continued dominance in operations and supply chain management. Overall, the campus witnessed an astounding lateral season with 72 accepts out of more than 150 offers, international offers in excess of USD 100,000 (a first for any campus) and eight international offers (highest across all campuses).



IIM Calcutta: The place to be

Finally, IIM-C has come of age on Wall Street, the mecca of high finance, as it witnesses the arrival of 30 IIM C graduates (15 full time hires and 15 summer interns) across bulge bracket banks. Bankers from the top-most echelons of the global financial industry were deeply impressed by the caliber of IIM-C students and commented that their knowledge and aptitude for finance was of a level that they expect from a professional working in the industry for a significant period of time. Other global commercial centers like London, Hongkong, Tokyo and Singapore will also be swamped by over 70 IIMC Grads this summer.



Slot 0
Highest
Domestic
INR 23 Lakhs



International
152,000 USD


Average
Domestic
INR 14.65 Lakhs






Slot 1
Highest
Domestic
INR 16.75 Lakhs



International
125,000 USD


Average
Domestic
INR 9.65 Lakhs






Slot 2
Highest
12.5 Lakhs



Average
8.48 Lakhs







Total
Average
Domestic
INR 9.81Lakhs [1]








Slot zero accepts company wise



Companies
Accepts

ABN AMRO
7

AMERIPRISE
2

AT KEARNEY
3

BARCLAYS CAPITAL
2

BCG
5

BLOOMBERG
6

BNP PARIBAS
1

CREDIT SUISSE
2

DEUTSCHE BANK
2

DIAMOND CLUSTER
1

HSBC
1

LEHMAN
5

MITTAL STEEL
3

McKINSEY
6

MERRILL LYNCH
11

SUN GROUP
1

UBS
6

Total
64






Apart from the slot zero companies, foreign offers were also made by firms in other slots by companies like ICICI Bank, Inductis, Procter and Gamble, Johnson Electric, Techspan and DBS.





Appendix-1: Students’ Profile (Educational background)



Architecture
1

Arts
7

CA/CFA/ICWA
4

Commerce
12

Engineering
213

Management
3

Sciences
9






Appendix-4: Lateral hiring snapshots



Accepts
72
*

Number of International Offers
8
*

Average Domestic salary
9.6 Lakhs


Highest International Offer
103,000 USD


* : Highest across ALL campuses







Appendix-5: Slot 0 demography







Highest Domestic Salary
INR 23 Lakhs

Highest International Salary
152,000 USD






Appendix 6: Slot 1 demography







Highest Domestic Salary
INR 16.75 Lakhs

Highest International Salary
125,000 USD




Appendix 7: Slot 2 Offer demography







Highest Salary
INR 12.5 Lakhs

Average Salary
INR 8.48 Lakhs






Appendix-8: List of new recruiters



Company Name
Description

ABN Amro HK
International Investment Banking sector leader

Ameriprise
Financial Services Consulting

Bloomberg
Global financial services

Credit Suisse
Investment Banking

CSFB - India
Investment Banking

Dell
Analytics arm of Dell International

Diamond Cluster
Niche Technology Consulting

ECS
Supply chain consulting specialist

Essar Group
Leading Indian Conglomerate

Feedback Ventures
Infrastructural Consulting

Hexaware Technology
leading technology and IT services provider

Hinduja Group
Leading international conglomerate

IDFC
Specialist financial infrastructure intermediary

Johnson Electric
World’s leading manufacturer of motors

Lehman (for finals)
Reputed global Investment Bank

Merill Lynch (for finals)
Reputed global Investment Bank

Oracle
Leading ERP Solutions provider

Pepsi
International Cola Giant

Reach Technologies
Information Technology Solutions major

Reliance Industries Limited
India’s largest private business house

RPG
One of India’s largest industrial conglomerates

SAP
Major player in business solutions consultancy

Techspan
Leaders in business solutions

Trilogy
Leading provider of technology powered business services

UBS India
Dominant player in Investment Banking Division

US Tech
Global IT and BPO services provider