March 3, 2008

Campus placements@ B- Schools: A biannual stage show



Disclaimer: The views aired in the below articles are my personal views. No offences are meant towards other students of B Schools and placement committees (Acronym: PLACOM). Finally I also rely on the campus and placom for my placement in the arcade of corporate jugglery.
P.S. there are few metaphors which have been used.
B Grads --> Artists
Company hiring personnel--> à Producer and Directors or Dramatists
Company -->à Film
Job Profile--> à Role in a film

Hiring Process--> Stage Show

Acronym

Campus Placements--> CP

You must be wondering why I have written campus placements as a biannual show, so just to avoid the confusion, there are few B Schools which have got two intakes as in December and in June and as a result they have to place the students in corporate twice corresponding to two intakes.
These Campus placement (CP, all B-grads love to use acronyms and I am trying to be one of them) is like a stage show which are organized in all the B Schools which attract many producers and directors for the stage show from the corporate to hire some musketeers who could act on their will, at any time , any place. Since these stage shows are only ROI’s for the students, so these do have a divine place in all the Junior and senior artists (B Grads). Some of the B Grads compare CP with a BUS, every body wants to ride in this bus but no body knows where the bus is going and no body wants to miss it.
From the day one a student becomes B grads, he is continuously bugged up with this buzzword, placement. There are few PLACOM which will tell you lots of horror stories regarding the CP such that you might have few drops in your paints while sleeping and them dreaming about CP. Only one thing remains in air, network network and network. The immediate effect is that the number of friends in the orkut gets doubled and students will even start contacting the people whom they hated most. So please don’t get surprised when you get such pleasing mails from your so called friends.
Since this stage show is a coveted show, so a preparation and rehearsal is inevitable to make the show successful. All the B grads will put their hearts and soul for the acme performance in this show may come what. The preparation starts well in advance for the biannual ritual show for selling the uncooked pieces of fleshes as packaged meals for delicacies to the customers. The poor chaps, final semester B Grads (The official participants for the stage shows) are asked to read read and read. Forget about all the things, whether be a personal life or some times they forget even to sleep and other Maslow’s basic needs. For the final performance in the stage show, the B grads buy costumes which will be ironed and placed with utter care in fact more than their wedding dresses also. I have seen few B Grads who believe in optimum utilization of resources so they use their wedding suits for these stage shows. Before the grand finale, the rehearsal ism must and some times I mistook the practice shows for the final show and in fact I congratulated few of them and later they told they have come here for the mock show and then I changed my congratulations to all the best and wished them for doing better in their final stage performance.
The Stage performance on Day 1 is of utter reputation for the institute as well as for the corporate jugglers. Institute will boast of the number of artists who have been given roles (Placements) in their director’s or producer’s films (companies) after the flawless performance in the stage show.
The artists are told to mug up the ready responses to clichéd questions like ‘Tell me about yourself’ or why you have done your MBA in marketing while your previous work experience is in Banking. The simple question ‘tell me about yourself’ becomes so difficult that it takes almost 100’s hours of coaching from 10’s of people who give their expertise for the straightforward questions. Personally I believe that the answer to this simple question does not reflect any thing except that the director or producer (Interviewer) does not have time to go through the casting section of your script (CV). The placom makes sure that every artists who is giving the stage performance gets a role in any film irrespective of the shooting location (Company location), it could be Arab, China, Bahrain or some times even in Nigeria also. The placom also tries to lure all the directors and producers by telling about the quality of the food of the office canteen, the seating couches of lecture halls, and the qualification of hired faculties and some times even cleanliness of the toilets also. All the directors and producers come with a Jazzy and Flashy presentations (PPT- Pre Placement talks).
Before one to one performance, the group stage show (GD) is organised in which the B Grads who ate together, smoked together now become biggest enemies. After the blabbering in GD, the artists are shortlisted for one to one performance. The few of the rejected artists from GD shout, some cry, some drink and some even go to sleep and I wish that they get a silent sleep. In one to one, the artists who vomits with a perfection and shows that he will wear all the costumes given by the producers and directors is offered a role in the films. The B grads who has done master in marketing goes for IT Management and it is said that the artist has got multitude of skills. Artists get any role (Job profile) in any film (company) irrespective of his expertise. It is some thing like this that Ranjit(Bollywood Villain) gets a hero role. Need not to guess, what will happen with the film and hero but as of now both have got some thing to look forward.
The process of purchase –hire stage shows continue till all the artists get a role in films or some times even in TV Serials also. Artists jump from one selection to other, changing their career choices during the different stage shows. The stage show is a hard process and takes a toll on weaker artists and a visious circle sets in. The less confident artists is likely to forget his dialogues in the stage show and loses more hope. To rescue these artists, the placom come forward and make sure that all the artists have got a role.
Just wanted to tell one thing that CP is a bus and Day 1 is just the few front rows in the bus and even if we miss day 1 still we could get the place in the bus. And some times it might be a better idea to start our own BUS and then take the BUS for a CP(Campus Placement).

February 6, 2008

FT Global MBA ranking of 2008 - Time has come to rebrand IIMage


The news that ISB is ranked 20th in world wide in FT Global MBA rankings(http://rankings.ft.com/global-mba-rankings) has made me proud that at least one of the Indian MBA colleges figures in Global MBA rankings. It is celebration time for Indian School of Business both for students as well as for faculty. When I was glancing through the rankings and after getting ISB at 20th position I thought why IIMs are not there! As per my impression, IIM A should have been there. There are reasons for IIMS not to be in the list. I will talk those later but I would like to relate the same ranking concept which influenced my joining in Wipro Technologies.

India Today's ranking of Engineering Colleges: I graduated from IT BHU in year 2001, yes the dreadful year when the software industries started bleeding after Dotcom burst. I sold myself to Wipro in the beginning of my final year ( Year 2000). By the time i came out of the college, things became murky and Wipro postponed our joining for indefinite time. After 6 month's time, we came to know that Wipro is giving joining in Batches, IIT Kanpur people joined in Jan 2002 and similarly other IIT's were in line in next 1-2 months. On the other hand we received a communication from Wipro stating that our joining has been deferred for indefinite time. It was a Shock for all of us as we always had this perception that IT BHU is having a brand value as the guys from IT BHU are also selected from IIT JEE exam. The reason why IT BHU boys have not been given joining was that IT BHU did not feature in INDIA Today's ranking of engineering colleges and Wipro being pioneer in transparency simply followed the rankings. Nothing to object for me as it was a quite simple decision for Wipro to invite the colleges on the basis of a Ranking.
We talked about this to our Dean and he ensured that IT BHU participates in such kind of rankings. I have given this example just to show what Branding means and how it impacts.

Why IIMS are not there??
Before going in introspection mode, let’s have a look at the criteria of FT for Global MBA rankings.
Peculiarity1- The particular survey only accepted institutes which are internationally accredited by a body such as the AACSB (Association to advanced collegiate Schools of Business), AMBA and Equis. None of the IIMS are certified by these institutes. The IIMS are all accredited to AICTE (All India council for technical Education). So IIMS were not part of the FT survey.

Peculiarity2- the Ranking is dependent upon the 2004 Alumni and their data which is quite debatable.

There are other perplexing bits and pieces of survey, but I don't want to go into nitty-gritty of these. I want to focus on the Brand Value of IIMS. Even though ISB has featured in the Global MBA ranking list, but IIMS have still got more points in terms of Alumni base (because of the long existence).Now here comes the question of Rebranding the IIM Status. What could be done such that IIMS also feature in these kinds of surveys because IIMs deserve the place? We need to ask few basic questions
1- Has IIM planned to portray them on international arena?
If yes what steps have they taken for it? If no then we could simply say that they are catering different sets of people.
2- The international recognition should be part of the IIM's vision?
3- Is there a diversity in students in IIMS (Most of the IIMs are flooded with IIT'ans)?

Conclusion:
The Global MBA ranking will be a path breaker for Indian School of business as its going to attract the foreign students and probably it will be on the league of INSEAD.On the flip side IIMs need to have an introspection of their visions and their Brand Marketing. Lets Hope that more Indian colleges feature in Global MBA Rankings... keep your fingers crossed.

February 4, 2008

GMBA at Dubai

Before i start pouring my thoughts let me give you the expansion of GMBA. Its Global Management Business Administration.Its global because the curriculam is based on the two city Model- Dubai and Singapore.One day i was just trying to think hard the fundamental of the globalism because whatever i was witnessing, that did not look global. The Teaching faculty is Indian, all the students are indian and placement also you get in India. so how it becomes global.
When classes started, the very first day one of the professors told its 1 year course and there is no time for you so have to be quick. In class he used to ask questions which you have to answer in a fraction of second. You have to start answer it fast and you also have to finish it fast.So defenitely i used to start blabber because being MBA student you are supposed to blabber as soon as you get something. I have learnt that but i don't where to stop, hopefully i will learn that too.Then professor will not say Bhashan (speech) band karo.
There is a lot more to come. I will be entertaining you with my experiences.