Forget about that passionate speech from B-School faculty about disclosures (or rather the lack of it) by Indian corporate. Forget about those case studies or impassioned write-ups in newspapers urging industry to move towards GAPP or SEC (Securities & Exchange Commission) disclosures. Probably it is the B-school itself which needs to search for skeletons in its cupboards and disclose a lot to its stakeholders, i.e. admission seekers, recruiters, students and alumni.

Sometimes, what they teach you at B-schools may be different from what they practice.

When it comes to transparency & sharing information with stakeholders, Indian B-schools' press releases are like balance-sheets of Enron, hiding more than they reveal.

For example, try to compare placement data related to top B-schools in India & abroad. If you are curious about Post-MBA salary at any Ivy League B-school, all one needs to do is to log on to any USA B-schools' website and presto! you will get comprehensive data related to placements. But back home, things might be tough as most of Indian B-schools' web sites carry little data related to placements, and if all they do carry, the data is beyond comprehension for average MBA aspirants. Many of the B-schools approached by CoolAvenues.com refused to give data for "confidentiality" reasons!!! And whatever was presented was a case of too little after much perseverance. So much so for teaching "Corporate Disclosures & Ethics" at B-schools!

One look at the admission process and one understands that veil of secrecy starts from here onwards. Students who pass out from IIMs are almost clueless about their CAT score, and questions as to why they ended in C or L always remain unanswered. Even weightages assigned to various aspects of overall admission process remain only guesswork. And if you do not get through CAT, you would never know why you didn't make it. Compare this to Ivy League B-schools, where they even tell sometimes why one didn't make it to the Harvard! One can download every detail related to salaries, people placed with highest and lowest salary, from the websites of top B-schools like Harvard or Wharton. In comparison, little is available on Indian B-schools' websites, and even if the data is available, it is not the real picture. And even schools like ISB - the Wharton of east - has chosen to follow the non-disclosure format, e.g. the stakeholders of school lodged heavy protests against an article (read the article), and even went to the extent of advising the site to withdraw the article, but at the same time shied away from denying the article or providing any information that would contradict the contents of the article.

There is little or no information whatsoever on the salary details, company offers, how many people joining which firm etc. While US B-Schools quote base salary and median salary, Indian B-schools provide you total gross salary, average salary (which ranges around 6 lakh, plus after converting $ salaries at exchange rate of Rs. 46/-). For example, while declared salary by a leading Indian FI known for its mass recruiting at campuses is 6.5 lakh p.a., the take home salary to 98-99 batch still comes around to Rs. 21,000-23,000 p.m. only. Clearly, salaries have been hyped up with adding of canteen fees, bus transport, etc. Same goes for many other firms.

While this year, the placement weeks went on and on and on, the success of a B-School placement is measured by the minimum time it takes to place its entire batch!!!

Placement weeks are getting shorter and shorter, every institute is claimimg to place its students in 72 hours, 60 hours and some even in 24 hours. (Tne institute which last year claimed to place its entire batch in straight 24 hours has decided not to release any data in view of newly discovered confidentiality agreements with corporate).

Placements have been projected as not a recruitment exercise but a 100 meter sprint race or an Army recruitment camp. Forget about "job fit", "culture fit" taught in HR courses! Compare this with Ivy League where recruiters take upto three months and a series of personal meetings before making an offer. Every Institute is claiming 100% placement and refuses to confirm "about students yet to be placed". Though there are always certain students who opt out of placement process due to their personal commitments or better opportunities available to them elsewhere! "I felt like a child of lesser god whose parents don't want to own him because of his failure…" said one student who was one of the last few to be placed.

But things seem to be changing.

While institutes like IIMB, IIM Kozikode, IIFT, IMT Ghaziabad are leading by example by practicing what they teach, for other B-schools, market forces are at play. Discussion Boards of CoolAvenues have become a popular ground for interaction among B-School students and other MBA community stakeholders. Heavy protests and outcries over "beefed" figures made many B-schools clarify the things, e.g in year 2001, while one school claimed USD 100,000 as its highest salary in the press, a barrage of protests on the forum forced it to change the figure to Singapore Dollar.

Therefore, while things are changing and B-schools like IIMK, IIMB provide information as fast as possible to the stake-holders, for others, it is still miles to go…

Well, times are a'changing…slowly.

©CoolAvenues.com

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 2000

Read complete story of Placement 2000 as it happened along with analysis and comparison across the Indian and US B-Schools and segment-wise analysis.

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