ISB scores over IIMs; highest salary is Rs 1.04 cr

The Indian School of Business (ISB) has raced past its counterparts in the number game. The highest international salary bagged by one of its students is a whopping $233,800, translating into an approximate Rs 1.04 crore per annum. This figure is 29 per cent higher than what the ISB achieved last year and 21 per cent more than the highest figure of $193,000 bagged by a student of the Indian Institute of Management-Bangalore this year.

The student who has bagged this offer is in his mid-30s and has had 10 years of experience prior to joining the ISB. In his new role, the student will work in Europe. ISB declined to divulge the identity of the student and the company that has offered this salary. However, it is an Indian IT company that has made this offer for an international position. The average work experience of ISB students is five years. The companies which students worked with, prior to joining ISB, range from HLL and BSNL to Infosys and TCS. These include both entry-level and managerial positions.

Announcing the placement results of 2006, M Rammohan Rao, dean of ISB, said, "The student community at ISB has done very well academically. Many Indian companies have come forward to offer global positions to our students who have chosen pioneering roles in new industries. Big bucks have not necessarily been the prime criterion." ISB has a student strength of 345. While 17 students did not participate in the placement process, 10 are still in dialogue with the potential recruiters. Of the remaining 318, around 35 have accepted international offers.

Four students of ISB have received offers over $200,000. The average international salary offered to an ISB student this year is $120,700, up by 21 per cent over 2005. The highest Indian salary offered is Rs 30.33 lakh, up by 44 per cent over the last year. The average salary on the domestic turf has seen an increase of 18 per cent over the last year at Rs 11.77 lakh. A student spends Rs 13 lakh for the one-year post graduate programme at ISB.

The net value addition has been 100 per cent, according to Savita Mahajan, assistant dean of the post graduate programme at ISB. While the average annual salary for an incoming student at ISB is Rs 5.04 lakh, for an outgoing student it has increased to Rs 11.77 lakh.

Around 143 companies visited the ISB for recruitment this year with a total of 425 offers being made. Some of the companies that have recruited from the ISB include EDS, British Petroleum, Mittal Steel, Hindustan Lever Limited, ITC, HT Media and ICICI Securities. Incidentally, this is the first time that EDS and Tishman Speyer have done headhunting from an Indian B-School. For the first time, media houses like HT Media, Anand Bazar Patrika and Global Broadcast News made a beeline to the ISB as well.

The placement results of 2006 have also revealed some strategic career shifts among the students. While a person who was with the Indian Navy has joined as the chief operating officer in the healthcare services sector, another with a detective agency has got recruited as a vice-president for international marketing.

Meanwhile, according to Rao, women have broken the glass ceiling with two of their female students bagging offers that carry a salary tag of over $2,00,000. However, the average Indian salary among them is Rs 9.89 lakh, less than the overall average of Rs 11.77 lakh.