Many positive changes have taken place in IIMs throughout the country that have ushered a new and diverse group of people taking admissions in India’s top B-Schools. According to reports from the Business Standard (dated 3/5/14) and DNA (dated 4/7/14) IIM Ahmedabad introduced the following changes in the recruitment and admission process:

Along with the conventional weighted average of CAT scores and prior academic performance, CAT toppers from five broad academic classifications were also included in the merit list to arrive at a final set of candidates invited for WA-PI round.

Selection in the Written Analysis & Personal Interview(WA-PI) round was based on the holistic perspective, taking the academic performance into account, written analysis, quality of interview, extra-curricular activities, awards and work experience.

“Diversity of perspectives contributes greatly to the discussion-based learning that we employ at IIM-A. Having a broader mix of participants without compromising on quality will enrich the academic experience of IIM-A students even further” – Ashish Nanda, Director IIMA

The implementation of these changes has seen a phenomenal rise in the diversity of the college, with IIMA boasting an 11percent share of non-engineering students, as opposed to 5% or less in the past 3 years. IIMA has also seen its highest ever occupancy in the number of girl students in its 2014-2016 PGP batch. The percentage of female students went up to 30% in 2014 as opposed to 21.58% in 2013.

Several other IIMs too have initiated changes to ensure diversity. One such measure is the “Diversity Factor” included in the admission policies of IIM Lucknow, IIM Calcutta and IIM Kozhikode. The Diversity Factor is further divided into Diversity Factor – Academic, and Diversity Factor – Gender. The Academic Diversity Factor ensures diversity in academic streams and the Gender Diversity factor aims at a proper ratio of males to females, by awarding a certain percentage of marks to the female candidates. The weightage of these factors varies depending on the branch.

*based on 2014 admission policy.

With diversification becoming a growing trend among the IIMs, its only a matter of time that the others follow suit and encourage students from diverse academic backgrounds and different genders who possess the calibre and help them reap the benefits of their intellect.

For information regarding CAT preparations, visit Career Launcher, India’s Premier institute for CAT coaching.

The Master of Business Administration (MBA) is an internationally-recognized degree designed to develop the skills required for careers in business and management. The MBA in today’s times has become one of the most coveted degrees, specifically in India. Every year we have several candidates coming to us for guidance while preparing for CAT and various other management aptitude tests. However, one aspect which is as important as scoring in CAT is choosing the right B-School. The first thing that needs to be done is to ascertain which programme you want to enrol for. While most B-Schools like IIMs offer a General Management Programme which gives students the flexibility to join any sector, thereby ensuring maximum diversification and placement opportunities, there are Institutes like XLRI, MICA, IRMA and TISS provide programmes catering to a specific sector or specialising in a specific area.

After you have singled out the programme of your choice, the next step is to choose a school that is best suited to ensure maximum opportunities for growth. The main parameters that will enable you to choose the right school for yourself are –

Faculty:
Diversity, calibre, expertise and achievements of the mentors is a huge plus for conducive classroom environment and wholesome learning. It is preferable to have mentors with significant practical experience and who have worked in the industry.

Students:
It important analyse your prospective peer group in any school by studying the batch profile of the B-schools. A good peer group will accelerate the learning process. Apart from this, getting in touch with current students will help you in getting first hand information regarding the B-school, campus life, courses offered and the faculty. Try to get in touch with multiple students to get a comprehensive view.

Placements:
The kind of companies coming in for campus placements, positions offered to students and salary given. Make sure that you pick a school that has good campus placements in the stream that interests you.

Ranking:
Rather than going for ratings of generic websites, it is recommended to go for more credible ratings from specialist institutional bodies like Career Launcher. Talk to multiple sources.

Return on investment:
Checking the average payouts of the B-school and calculating the Return on Investment for spending a substantial amount of time and money on the B-School will help you come to a consensus regarding the viability of you joining it.

Alumni:
Reading up about how the alumni of a school are placed in the corporate world will help you get a fair idea about the kind of skills and education imparted. Besides, a well connected alumni network is always a plus, especially for people looking for funds for their start-ups.

Batch Size:
Since the number of jobs available at campus placements is limited, larger batches reduce the chances of placements. If the B-School is ranked in the top 10, you don’t need to worry about this.

Location:
B-Schools near business hubs welcome many companies from such hubs during campus placements. Companies often find it much easier to recruit management graduates from institutes located geographically closer to their own headquarters rather than go to an institute which is located far away. Such locations also help in securing summer internships even if the B-School is unable to provide you with one.

Using these parameters, you will be able to ascertain exactly which B-School is most suited to your goals. However, it is imperative that none of these parameters should be taken in isolation. An aggregate of the abovementioned criterion and a little help from us, Career Launcher, you can be assured that your goals will be realized to the maximum.

For information regarding CAT preparations, visit Career Launcher, India’s Premier institute for CAT coaching.

The 2015 Financial Times’ “top full time global MBA programmes rankings” has brought about some great news for Indian B-Schools. With the names of three of India’s premier B-Schools making it to the top 100 list, Indian schools have become a force to reckon with at the global level.

The 2015 rankings has placed IIM, Ahmedabad on #26, which is a significant improvement from last year’s ranking which placed it at #30. Financial Times has also taken into account the weighted salary that is the salary drawn by alumni of a business school 3 years after graduation. IIMA reported a weighted salary ofUSD 167,676 in 2015 and has shown an 88% increase from last year. IIM Bangalore, which made its debut in the top 100 at #68 last year, dropped down 14 ranks to #82 this year. Despite what seems to be a considerable drop, the weighted salary of IIMB has increased by 75% this year to USD 134,538.

Indian School of Business is the third Indian college that has been featured in the top 100 and has dug really deep here. Jumping up 3 ranks from last year to #33, ISB reported a weighted salary of USD 126,544,showing a whopping 131% increase from last year. Another aspect that enhances ISB’s quality of education is that 4 out of its 5 associate schools, namely Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania (#3), London School of Business (#2), Sloan MIT (#8) and Kellogg School of Management (#14) have been placed in the top 15. How does this benefit ISB? The portfolio faculty model of ISB is unique as it accommodates a mix of resident faculty and the visiting faculty which comes from its associate schools. Designated as “Area Leaders”, senior faculty members from its associate schools play a key role in the academic programmes and research. Apart from this, they actively engage in formulating the curriculum, attracting the best faculty to the School and mentoring junior faculty, all in collaboration with the resident faculty. Therefore having such top notch schools as its associates will definitely enhance the education imparted at ISB.

These rankings and indicators show that Indian B-Schools are doing well on the global platform, making the CAT exam a very important exam for aspiring management students.

For information regarding CAT preparations, visit Career Launcher, India’s Premier institute for CAT coaching.

Placements in Indian B-Schools are done in two stages – Lateral and Final Placement. While the lateral placement offers are made to students with prior work experience, the final placement is for the freshers.  IIM Calcutta has dug deep in the 2015 placements, with over 500 jobs being offered to 438 participants. Various top notch companies made 143 lateral offers, 134 pre-placement offers and 224 final offers to the 2015 batch students in the fields of Finance, Consulting, Sales & Marketing and E-Commerce. Some notable companies that participated in the campus placement process are Goldman Sachs, BNP Paribas, Boston Consulting Group, Accenture, Kelloggs, ITC, Coca Cola, PepsiCo, Reliance Industries Ltd, Amazon and Flipkart among others.

2015 Placements for other IIMs have also been very well. IIM Ahmedabad, which schedules 4 clusters for placements, saw the entire batch of 375 being placed within the 3rd cluster itself. Thanks to the “dream application” initiative, students were allowed to choose the sectors and functions for their final placement. The 155 companies that participated in the process hailed from diverse sectors such as Analytics, Banking & Financial Services, Management Consulting, Consumer Services, Internet & E-Commerce, Pharmaceuticals and Technology. Aditya Birla Group, Alvarez & Marsal, Amazon, Flipkart, Google, Microsoft and Star TV India were the top recruiters. IIM Bangalore’s 398 students were offered more than 450 jobs across 200+ profiles.

XLRI Jamshedpur achieved 100% placements in 3.5 days, which was the largest batch to ever sit for final placements in XLRI history. XLRI final placements had 108 recruiters from fields like BFSI, FMCGs, General Management, Consulting and Technology. ICICI was the largest finance recruiter and ITC recruited the largest chunk of students in the FMCG space. General Management, Consulting and Technology fields saw recruitments from companies like Reliance Industries Ltd., Price Waterhouse Coopers, KPMG, Microsoft, Lenovo, Samsung, Amazon, etc. XLRI reported an impressive median salary of Rs. 17 lacs per annum, which is higher than the median salary of the previous year.

217 students of Delhi University’s Faculty of Management Studies received 236 offers with an average Cost to Company (CTC) of Rs 17.04 lacs per annum. The highest recruiters in the Consulting and General Management field were Accenture Strategy and Deloitte USI (S&O). The finance field placements were dominated by Citibank, Deutsche Bank, Goldman Sachs and HSBC. Coca Cola, Nestle, Unilever, PepsiCo and ITC were among the top recruiters in sales and marketing whereas E-Commerce recruitments came from companies like Amazon, PayTM, MakeMyTrip, etc.

2015 has been a stellar year for placements in Indian B-Schools. Great placement records show that there is a huge demand of management students in top companies of the world. Going by the records, it seems that a good management degree is one of the most certain conduits to a fruitful career.

For information regarding CAT preparations, visit Career Launcher, India’s Premier institute for CAT coaching.

We always hear about graduates from the top management schools running successful businesses and holding top positions in billion dollar companies all around the world. Indian business schools have an arsenal of such alumni. From Indra Nooyi, who was a graduate from IIM Calcutta, to Ajit Balakrishnan, founder and CEO of Rediff and to Ajay Singh Banga, President and CEO of Mastercard, Indian B-Schools have consistently provided the world with such corporate stalwarts. However, the corporate ladder is not the only ladder one can climb and neither is the corner office the ultimate final destination after an MBA.

We all know the voice and face of Harsha Bhogle the eminent cricket pundit and commentator, what most people don’t know is that he is a graduate from IIM Ahmedabad. Another famous IIMA graduate made it big with the pen, and was inspired to write novels while studying there. That guy is none other than Chetan Bhagat, who wrote bestselling novels like “Five Point Someone”. Amish Tripathi, the author who rose to fame with his Shiva Trilogy, also happens to be a graduate from IIM Calcutta. Some graduates have also chosen the path of public service and governance; a few of the many examples are Arvind Subramaniam, Chief Economic Adviser to the Government of India, Prem Das Rai, MP of the 15th Lok Sabha, K. Radhakrishnan, former chairman of ISRO and Dr. Raghuram Rajan, Governor of RBI. Dr. Jairam Ramesh, former Union Minister, himself said in a discussion with the students of ISB in Mohali that management students can bolster administrative services.

One thing however is certain that, wherever the graduates of the top Indian B-Schools go, they excel. This is because management studies imparted in these colleges involves more than books and coursework. It aims at the holistic development of the student’s personality and brings out the best in them.

For information regarding CAT preparations, visit Career Launcher, India’s Premier institute for CAT coaching.

What is Entrepreneurship? It is the process of starting a business, a start-up company or any other organization. While a degree in Management is not a necessary prerequisite to becoming an entrepreneur, successful entrepreneurs display amazing management skill. MBA students definitely have an edge over the others when it comes to starting businesses and start-ups. The question arises that why should students from top management schools take the risk of entrepreneurship.

Entrepreneurship in India has received an unprecedented boost and with venture capitalists pouring in US$ 1.35 Billion into 69 deals in the first quarter of the year, Indian entrepreneurs are receiving funds like never before. The effect of such a positive attitude towards entrepreneurship can be seen in the meteoric rise of companies like Flipkart and Snapdeal, that have already achieved a valuation of US$ 1 Billion or higher.
Start-ups tend to fail. Despite the high funding received by most start-ups, a lot of them have improper revenue models and have spent recklessly on branding, which is a recipe for disaster. This should not be disheartening, because failing is very much in the nature of entrepreneurship. A lot many start-ups have failed or have been acquired by bigger companies, but the ones that have prevailed have revolutionized entire industries and will go on to inspire new age entrepreneurs in the long run.

Another aspect of the booming start-up industry is that along with big funding, a lot of start-ups have changed hands by means of various acquisition deals. As per a news story of Economic Times “Data from Traxcn, a startup that tracks deal-making involving startups, tell the story. In all of 2014, 43 startups were acquired; so far this year 41 have been bought. And the best part is that startups themselves have been the most acquisitive of the lot. Of the 41, just two deals were struck by large corporates – Godrej and Mahindra & Mahindra were the buyers.”

Such acquisitions have shown the nerve of Indian start-ups and the surfacing of a new breed of entrepreneurs and venture capitalists that are not afraid to take risks and have an amazing level of confidence in their businesses. The Indian Start-ups are now aiming for faster growth and have shown tremendous capability in dealing with the challenges of integration and refreshing and renewing their cultures and mindsets, which is the key to the survival of any successful business.
All these developments reflect that entrepreneurship as a career path for management students has gained importance and should be given its due share of consideration that it demands.

It has been a general trend among students to join an MBA program after two years of work experience, which is the minimum requirement in most of the schools. Certain people would jump into an MBA program as soon as they graduate if given that choice. However, an extensive understanding of the corporate realities, which can come only with extensive experience, helps you harness your MBA degree to its maximum potential. Here are

Reasons as to why you should wait for a few years before applying for an MBA:
1. Two years of work experience is little: Students with just a little work experience have not really been exposed to enough real-world case studies by employers and eventually they draw their understanding from limited background and perspective. Hence, reliance on theory is more than practice.

2. Knowing what you want to do with a degree comes only with extensive experience. It is an unsaid truth that it is extremely unlikely to know exactly what you want to do with your career at 24 years of age. That being said, applying to a business school without a set reason or focus in mind beforehand will very often lead you to enrol into a certain program because it is perhaps your school’s speciality and not because it is in line with your vision. The fact of the matter is that you will get more value out of your program provided you know what you want to do with your MBA and the best way to know this is to work for a good number of years so as to understand the corporate mechanism and understand the area that interests you.

3. You are better equipped to choose jobs and a market. In our early and mid 20s, we are still very impressionable, i.e. get influenced easily. The direct aim of most students is to secure a good job, though, this can be influenced heavily especially if the student lacks substantial experience. Business schools have things like Career Development Centres whose entire focus is on the student getting a job, not on the profile of job s/he wants. With just two years out of college, it is easy to take this short term solution without thinking of its long term impact. Here’s where experience helps. It gives you a clearer picture of what you want to do, and provides you with a network outside your business school which is of great help in finding opportunities that are relevant to you.

4. Waiting helps you utilise the school’s resources to the fullest. Having an established network outside of business school will help you to take better advantage of the school and program’s resource. It will enable you to engage with your professors in more meaningful ways, provide thoughtful insights to classroom discussions. Moreover, when you have an extensive experience of 5 years or more, your professors will engage with you differently and will lead to a working relationship based on shared experiences and insights, which will consequently help you to access their network better.

These 4 reasons provide a strong basis to think about when to pursue an MBA, however in the end the choice is yours and yours alone. There are many who believe that the MBA should be done and over with as soon as possible, however, the truth is that if you want to leave business school with meaningful experiences and relationships, fully prepared for your next professional move, you should wait. Having a meaningful work experience before getting an MBA will make your learning worthwhile, an enhanced network outside school and a plan for your future which will lead to better opportunities and a brighter career path.

Ashish Nanda, the Director of the Indian Institute of Management, Ahmedabad has taken a stand about the recent Institutes of Management Bill of 2015, which is being proposed by the central government. His claim is that the current form of the bill would lead to serious erosion to autonomy of the prestigious Indian Institutes of Management. Before we understand this stance, let us go through a brief overview of the bill:

Institutes of Management Bill 2015:

Aim: “ to declare certain institutes of management to be institutions of national importance with a view to empower these institutions to attain standards of global excellence in management, management research and allied areas of knowledge and to provide for certain other matters connected with such institutions or incidental thereto ” (Source: mhrd.gov.in)

The bill proposes to empower the 13 IIMs to award degrees to students instead of diplomas. This bill, when passed, will mainly benefit graduates applying abroad for research opportunities. Currently, an IIM alumnus has to request his or her respective institute to provide a certificate saying that the diploma is equivalent to an MBA degree in India. This step will also help IIMs gain global recognition and attract more foreign students. As of now, their international appeal is limited to students of Indian origin.
Apart from this, the Human Resource Development (HRD) ministry is playing it safe by putting the bill up for debate and involving the people in drafting the fate of these centres of excellence. A draft bill has been uploaded on mygov.in, the government’s crowd sourcing website, inviting comments and suggestions.

Point of Contention:
DMK Treasurer MK Stalin claims that even though the bill ostensibly aims at empowering IIMs to confer degrees, it will increase government control over these institutions and will lead to micro-management of these institutes. He also pointed out that the bill seeks to increase the role of the central government in fee determination, service conditions of faculty, academic structure and curriculum. Ashish Nanda has similar concerns and claims that the proposed centralization of power will have the following consequences:

1. Bureaucrats will have considerable decision-making powers, though they may not have the specific knowledge of each IIM.
2. Since most of the decision making rights will vest with the government, the academic board of the IIMs will feel disempowered and will be reduced to an advisory body to the government.
3. There is a tendency of establishment of uniform rules and procedures that comes with centralized decision-making. And the tendency to find “one-size-fits-all” solutions to all institutions will curtail innovation.

The IIM bill will also put over 400 non-IIM B-schools in a precarious position. According to Harivansh Chaturvedi, alternate president, Education Promotion Society of India (EPSI), the bill will create a very unfavourable situation for all PGDM institutions being run by private trusts or societies. If the bill is passed by the Parliament, it would put the legal, financial and market validity of a PGDM in jeopardy.
Change always sees resistance from the existing system, the question is whether the bill survives this resistance or not. However, it is certain that the bill will open the government to a range of other issues that need to be addressed in order to make India a truly global destination for business and management education.