ISB's CLASS OF 2002

Upfront

The Hyderabad-based Indian School of Business appears to have put behind initial fears about its students not finding decent placements this year. Placements for the first batch of ISB grads are chuggling along fine, the economic downturn notwithstanding.

Promoted by Indian corporates in a unique collaborative relationship with three of the world's leading business schools "" Kellogg Graduate School of Management at Northwestern University, Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania, and London Business School "" ISB has a unique placement model that is well differentiated.

The School has a rolling placement strategy, which is distinctive from the practice of "placement week" followed by other business schools. At ISB, the last three days of every week "" Fridays to Sundays "" are set aside for placement-related activities. The school allows for off-campus interviews and multiple rounds, as the hires from ISB are largely lateral.

Placement-related activities for the first batch passing out of the school commenced on January 11 for three days every week with a break between February 1 and 10 for end-term examinations. ISB does not have a closing date and placements could, technically, continue till June. According to the Dean of ISB, Pramath R.Sinha, an old McKinsey hand, the model is designed especially with recruiters' needs in mind, as it gives them sufficient time with candidates.

In the on-going maiden placement season for the 123-strong Class of 2002, ISB has seen 41 premium recruiters so far making 134 offers, of which 103 are lateral and 83 are unique offers.This should be viewed against ISB's USP which has always been that it is the first Indian campus which is a source of quality lateral hires.

While the average experience of ISB students stands at 4.6 years, there is Puneet Dhamija, a B.Tech from IIT, Delhi, who has worked for Schlumberger for 11 years before deciding to join ISB. Puneet's work in Schlumberger provided him with an excellent opportunity to work in various general management and functional positions in countries all over the world. He chose to pursue a management degree to add to his present level of business awareness and help him further develop and refine his understanding of the analytical and conceptual tools of business management. " The ISB programme is very well suited for motivated and experienced managers who are considering a career change", says Puneet.

Equally interesting is the case of Kaushik Sethuraman who has a Master's degree in Computer Engineering and eight years' experience as a management consultant with Cap.Gemeni, Cincinnati, and PwC, San Franscisco. Kaushik says that his decision to do the ISB programme was fuelled by his pursuit of the "perfect learning experience "" one that would elevate me to the next strata of business thought".

Ajit Andhare was heading Hindustan Lever's $ 10 million food business in North India and has about six years of experience in business and project management. He had reservations about taking a break from a fast track career in a highly regarded FMCG company. But having finally opted for ISB, he has no regrets. " The ISB has opened my eyes to a new world", he says.

Understandably, the bulk of the ISB candidates have been recruited several notches higher than entry level, with positions ranging from senior managers to global business development managers to country heads. Montreal-based transnational Bombardier, for instance, has recruited an ISB student to head its new foray in India.

ISB's global offers stand at 31 "" which include offers made by Indian companies for global operations as well as offers made by overseas companies "" and domestic offers are 99. The global recruiters include Goldman Sachs, Lehman Brothers, Novartis, Bombardier, Capital One, InfoUSA and Symphony Ventures. These apart, Infosys, Satyam, NIIT and Dr Reddy's Laboratories are among the domestic companies who have recruited for overseas positions.

The domestic recruiters include luminaries such as GE, GE Capital, Citibank, HSBC, Standard Chartered Bank, Hindustan Lever Ltd, Coca Cola and Glaxo-SmithKline, among others. The average Indian salary offered has been a healthy Rs 8.35 lakh while the average global salary is $ 70,000. The highest domestic salary offered is Rs 28 lakh, while the highest global salary is $ 95,000. With the average salary of the incoming class at Rs 3.36 lakh, the domestic salary at Rs 8.35 lakhs shows a 2.5X jump"" a great takeaway from a one-year MBA course. Not bad at all for an inaugural batch that has no alumni network to work with. The Placement Office and the Dean's office, however, continue to push hard to get more companies to visit .

(This article was published in the April 2002 issue of Indian Management)