Global firms flock to IIM-A to hire executives

Nearly 40 companies have expressed interest in giving international consultancy projects to executive-students this year.

After the tremendous response from recruiters to the first batch of IIM Ahmedabad's Post Graduate Programme in Management for Executives (PGPX) students, the second batch has also been flooded by offers from companies to take up international consulting projects under the institute's international immersion programme (as working on international projects is called).

The first batch, which passed out in March 2007, had seen 60 students choose from 39 international projects. Around 25 companies had visited the campus.

This year, for the 'International Immersion' programme due around November, close to 50 projects have almost been finalised by companies including Microsoft, TCS, Unilever World and Capgemini.

Typically, the project is a consulting assignment for the firm sponsoring it, executed by the PGPX participants and overseen by a faculty guide. The output is specified by the sponsoring firm.

Firms sponsoring students for their project are expected to provide project specifications, help in selecting project teams with appropriate organisational access, facilitate pre-travel arrangements and contribute in-part towards project-related expenses including international travel, local travel in the host country, boarding and lodging.

The participants of PGPX I (2006-07) had done their company projects at Cognizant Solutions, Delta Lloyd, Gridstone, Kotak International, Microsoft, Naukri.com, NCDEX, OLAM, Tech Mahindra, Titan, Unilever, VSNL etc. The countries they went to included Australia, Canada, China, Europe, France, India, Malaysia, Netherlands, Singapore, UAE, the UK and the US.

"As was indicated in the final placements of the first batch, there is a positive response to the programme. Potential recruiters are interested in interacting with participants through the international immersion programme and other lectures and workshops conducted during the year," said Arvind Sahay, Chairperson, PGPX.

IIM-A has also increased the number of university collaborations through which each participant is associated with during the time of the stay.

Last year, 18 students were associated with the Chinese University of Hong Kong, 18 with University of British Columbia, Canada, six with University of Leeds, the UK, 15 with University of Amsterdam, Netherlands and three with the ESC Bretagne Brest, France.

For the PGPX II Batch (2007-08), IIM-A has undertaken collaborations with three more international universities including University of Texas, Austin, Columbia Business School, New York and Frankfurt School of Finance & Management, Frankfurt. This year, 35 students will be taking up projects in the US, 18 in Netherlands, 17 in China and three in Germany.