Placements 2006: Of Laterals, Media Hype & Collateral Damage

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However, the hype which has marked Placements 2006 - where even e-mails between a student and a director made to front page of a newspaper as if a matter of utmost general concern and importance - might not augur well in long-term for IIMs with increased batch sizes. IIMs don't need any media support or publicity to prove their point, they are well-established centers of excellence and will continue to be so, but this kind of hype related to placements might shift the focus where emphasis will be more on getting a highest salary number than adding significant value to a person looking for business education.
Further, such a heavy emphasis on Day Zero might create a phenomenon where lot many recruiters may shy away from IIMs, fearing that they might not be able to afford IIMs, while the reverse might be true since the whole batch does not get placed on Day Zero, and there is always 10% population left behind.

Some of the companies, whom CoolAvenues contacted, decided to opt out of IIMs due to hyped-up salary figures, as they believed that IIMs are getting past their budget, and this scenario will lead to a situation where the number of Tier-II recruiters would shrink while IIMs will be having a larger batch size (almost all of IIMs are planning to increase intake). And in case of a economy down-turn - after all economies follow a cyclical path - even the best might be left high and dry, as it happened in year 2001 where lot many companies having burnt their fingers in Placements 2000 (they failed to get desired numbers at IIMs) decided to reduce their intake from IIMs, which ultimately resulted in significant crisis (2001 was one of the worst years due to overall global slowdown), and heavy networking was put in place to get the companies back to the campuses and place the batch.

However, those concerns are for future, and today we celebrate the success of Indian education system as we rejoice at Sensex surpassing Dow Jones, and hope that in future IIMs will surpass Harvards and Whartons of the First World, and herald the arrival of India on the global scene as the next center of excellence and economic prosperity.

Amen!

- by CoolAvenues Editorial Team

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