A fabulous placement season all top B-schools witnessed. They saw eight of the world's top 10 Wall Street firms on Indian Soil. US based IT firms, working on cutting edge technology recruited from India. Leading MNC Banks and marketing firms are here. We feel like on top of the world. But the caveat is that reaching the top is difficult, but staying at top is even more difficult.

Caveat #1:

Institutes like IIMA, though having best placements in India, run woefully short in infrastructure with only 10 computers with Internet connection for 360+ students. There are around 120 computers for 360+ students. Compare this with individual computers at US leading B-schools in students' rooms. Even IIM Indore currently provides this facility with Individual computers with Internet connection in students' rooms.

Caveat #2:

The Course material, Case Studies need to be upgraded at almost all institutes, as most of these still teach from 60s and 70s cases. Students feel lost in these old time cases. Outside top 10 B-schools, other schools are shockingly low on fostering lateral thinking, so essential in management. Ability to question and ask why is not being developed. Worldwide Case Studies are recognised as best learning Pedagogy for management as it enables the students to learn from real life situations and real life problems and solutions. But apart from top Institutes, teaching method is same as any other Indian Univ., with focus on "rote". Question papers there, for example in marketing, ask how many types of pricing are there. Compare this with Case Studies in every marketing Class and exam at IIMs. No wonder IIMs have excelled. But even IIMs are known to be slow in upgrading the cases. An alumni tells, "There are no new cases being written by faculty that have been incorporated in the teaching material".

Caveat #3:

Websites of Institutes are not updated regularly, sometimes not for 6 months at a stretch. Websites are poorly designed too. Compare this with websites of Ivy league schools. For example, website of Harvard Business School (HBS) takes you to the guided tour of Harvard, where you can see 20 different major landmarks at Harvard campus using QuickTime player. For example, you can even see as to how the mess at Harvard look from inside, outside (different angles) and what does an average day's menu comprise off. Graduate School of Business, Stanford Univ. offers job notifications for its alumni. It's shocking that Indian top B-schools, particularly IIMs, though claiming to be at the pinnacle of learning, haven't been able to make use of Internet to reach out the corporate, alumni and interested graduates. Rather than becoming interactive sites, these are "edifice" sites.

Contd...

Placements 2001

Read complete story of Placement 2001 as it happened along with analysis and comparison across the B-Schools and segment-wise analysis.

Placements 2002

Read complete story of Placement 2002 as it happened along with analysis and comparison across the B-Schools and segment-wise analysis.

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