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OR MOST of her life, Divya Mehta
(name changed) remembers chasing her dream to join one of the Indian
Institute of Management schools. It wasn’t to be be. Diyva didn’t
make it to what is considered the A-list. She had the option of
either going back to her books, and try again next year. What she
did was apply for admission to a B-school a little lower down the
pecking order. Today, she has no regrets. “At that time it felt like
I had lost a major battle. All my friends made it to the top
B-schools. I didn’t want to waste a year and lag behind my peers.
So, out of desperation, I decided to join one of the Bschools that
was offering me admission. However, today I am happy about my
decision as I am earning more than a lot of my friends,” says the
26-year-old, currently working with Hutchison, Mumbai. She started
at Rs 3.5 lakh, three years ago, and now earns over Rs 7 lakh
annually.
Divya is not alone. This only shows that when
it comes to entry-level placements, there is no second or third
rung. The economy is growing and graduates from the top B-schools
cannot feed industry demand. Also the IIMs and their ilk come with
hefty premium attaches. “At top B-schools, students also grade the
companies and the placements are almost over within the first day.
Companies coming on the following days do not get a good bargain and
hence turn towards the next tier of B-schools,” says Krish
Lakshmikanth, founder CEO and MD, Head Hunters
India.
With growing demand for skilled manpower,
companies today hire by the dozens and logistically, it becomes
impossible for them to afford hiring a lot of only top B-schoolers.
“Its difficult for companies to afford the heavy-weights from
A-grade B-schools. These students are hired for positions involving
strategic planing, while students from second-rung B-schools are
good at operational skills. So a company hires a few candidates from
top B-schools and then moves on to the second-third rung,” says
Sonali Mohla, co-director Savills.
The thrust is on
producing leaders, with a flair for innovation and passion for
excellence. There are Bschools that might not fall in the league of
IIMs, but can definitely feed the industry’s demand for talent. Take
for instance IMT, Ghaziabad. The institute has shown some very
promising placement records for the past few years. “In past five
years, the number of recruiters has grown. The consistent 100%
placements shows that there is a demand for the combination of
skills and attitude that we ingrain in all our student managers,”
says Professor Nilanjan Chattopadhyay, associate professor and
chairman placements cell, IMT.
Placements figures have
been very flattering with salaries ranging from 4.5 lakh per annum
to as high as 17 lakh. For international placement, the salary went
up to $95,000 per annum. “This year we registered 100% placement
within a span of a few hours. The entire PGDBM batch was placed in
the first session of day one. Traditionally, IMT had been following
a policy of ‘one student-one offer’. However, we are now confident
because of the encouraging demand from the industry and for the
first time we are allowing multiple offers to all the students this
year. Candidates can now hold a maximum of five offers till
accepting one,” says Chattopadhyay.
Another such case
is ICFAI Business School (IBS), that was established in 1995 and has
now gained recognition from the industry, academic circle and
professional bodies. The institute has registered about 20% increase
in the average annual package for its students. “More then 350
companies recruited from IBS Campuses this year. All the students
were placed by the end of January ‘07. While we have been drawing
upon the best practices from the other premier institutes, we have
always believed in evolving our own unique model. We believe in
inclusiveness of the educational institutions rathe than
exclusiveness. The result is that the corporates are very positive
about the quality of students as well as the kind of academic
infrastructure at the various IBS campuses,” says professor SK
Sharma, director, planning and coordination, IBS.
It’s
not surprising to hear Atul Chauhan, CEO Amity University agreeing
to the point. “No one can compete with the age old IIMs but we are
aiming at a different industry segment that needs people
with
specialised skill-sets But there is a huge demand
supply gap and we are tying to fill up this gap by providing the
talent that the industry needs.” To make its MBA candidates more
attractive to the industry, ABS always invites industry people to
sit in the recruitment panel. “These students are going to work for
the industry and there is no better judge than industry people as
they are the ones who are going to recruit once the candidates steps
out of the class,” adds Chauhan.
The placements
statistics, according to the university, has been very impressive
and encouraging. “We have companies like Accenture, Adobe, Adlabs,
Satyam, Philips, CitiBank, Bharti and British Airways coming to the
campus. The list has been increasing every year. The packages range
any where between 5.25 lakh to 15 lakh annually depending on the
position the students are being taken for,” says the additional
director general, ABS, Dr Sanjay Srivastava.
According
to the industry experts, in the present times when we are transiting
into a new world, what is termed the world of “Knowledge Capital”,
the drivers of this brave new world are critical thinking capacities
and the search for new paradigms in the echelons of higher
education. Education that goes beyond the narrow categorisation of
tier one or tier two business schools.
“More than a
degree, the industry needs talent. Though there is no comparison of
the IIMs but other B-schools are doing reasonably well. One reason
why the companies go to these institutes is that they get value for
money. Industry is open for young talented folks who might not
necessarily be from a A or B grade B-school,” says Anil Koul, executive
director, Omam Consultants.
Even the corporate
world is now recognising the talents that these Bschools are
providing. LG is famous for hiring candidates from tier II-III
Bschools. “These B-schools help us in choosing from a much larger
number of candidates who are skilled and fit the criteria. These
students are keen to strive hard prove themselves. However, ensuring
the quality becomes a concern while recruiting and the person
responsible needs to have a clear picture of exactly what skill sets
does the organisation require and match them with the caliber of the
candidate,” says Dr. YV Verma, director HR & MS,
LGEIL.
Do A-listers necessarily agree? Well, almost. V
N Dalmia, chairman of Dalmia Continental, and a Darden alumnus also
echoes the same sentiments. “We already have several such B-schools
on the rolls and they’re doing an excellent job! It is the
individual that matters. At a B-grade school, the quality of the
individual results from the personal effort and investment put into
the educational process. In an A-grade school, the average quality
of the product is high. So, we look at the individual carefully and
the selection process is tighter when recruiting from a B-grade
school. If you get lucky, B-grade school grads provide excellent
value for money.” |
