Annual placements at B-schools like cattle fair: Pradhan

 Annual placements at top business schools are like the "cattle fair" held at Pushkar every year, Tata Sons Chief (Group HR) Satish Pradhan said today.
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The placements held annually (at B-schools) are like the annual cattle fair held in Pushkar, Rajasthan, where every cattle which is to be sold is paraded before its potential buyer," he said at the 13th Annual Confluence at IIM-A -- an annual three-day B-School meet with participants from India as well as business schools abroad.

Pradhan said everybody competes hard to get into institutes like the IIM-A and after getting in, compete even harder to get ahead.

"By and large for me, the pinnacle of getting ahead is the cattle auction. When the highest price tag symbolises the highest accomplishment of two years," he said.

Pradhan posed some tough questions to the audience on competition.

"Is it a zero sum game (where one gains at the cost of other) in our mind that we will compete and will continue to compete as we become leaders of industry, institutions, organisation, multilateral agencies, government?" he asked.

"Will we compete with the sense of a zero sum game or is there something that we will bring to the perspective of pursuing excellence and to make things different?", he further queried.