The Best B-Schools
You may think that doing a B-school study in the middle of the biggest Depression in 70 years—surrounded by gloom and anxiety about the business environment—is a thankless task. In fact, it has turned out to be quite the reverse. Financial upheavals compel people to alter their consumption choices, change their perceptions and, to paraphrase Star Trek’s Captain Kirk, go where few men or women have boldly gone before—and the one that we’re smack dab in the middle of certainly seems to have forced B-schoolers to do just that, judging by the many revelations that the BT-Nielsen study has thrown up this year. But first, let’s talk about the study.
The one major trend in our survey this year is dramatic—but hardly surprising considering the mayhem that the financial meltdown has caused: namely, the ascent of what are generally known as “Tier II” schools. These are institutions that don’t have the same sheen or credentials of the elite IIMs, or even an XLRI—but instead offer different, compelling value propositions for your average student today. Both Amity Business School (or ABS) and Loyola Institute of Business Administration (or LIBA) have clawed their way into the top ten this year for the first time in the history of the list, and were unanimous hits across almost every category polled.
How is it possible for an Amity to share the same rarefied atmosphere that, say, an IIM inhabits? A lower price-tag can hardly be a reason—both schools charge upwards of Rs 4 lakh a year for tuition. Amity’s faculty is less accomplished than that of the IIMs and its ability to attract topshelf recruiters, modest. Instead, a school like ABS is best at taking an average product and shaping him or her into a skilled hire for many entry level or corporate trainee positions across India. So, while a big name bank may be wary of picking a vaunted IIM graduate for a trainee rotation programme that forces her to log four months as a bank teller—kind of like picking a prized stallion to give children rides at the local fair—it is comfortable with a competent, Tier II graduate who has the skills for the job but none of the attitude or lofty career expectations of an IIMer. Moroever, a severe downturn puts pressure on recruiters to look for value-for-money hires which schools like Amity now offer, boosting them from a lower rank into the top ten. Also, don’t forget the advertising onslaught that some private institutions have undertaken in the past few years, which has probably impressed prospective students.
Our B-school coverage also unearths another transformation sweeping the corporate landscape. With Lehman Brothers and Bear Stearns evaporating overnight, and many of the world’s top investment banks still reeling from the mortgage derivative debacle, finance—the holy grail of MBA students—has virtually vanished as a career option. In general, the slowdown has forced campus recruiters to drastically slash hiring or stop recruiting students for the year altogether. This has meant that the era of stratospheric salaries has ended, and graduates have been forced to significantly lower their expectations. In fact, these students are now willing to take up jobs at public sector companies such as Bank of Baroda, Steel Authority of India Ltd, and Bharat Heavy Electricals Ltd—something they would have probably been loath to do a year ago. Another interesting trend: Management programmes at some of the major IITs have started to become attractive options due to their ability to churn out quick, unpretentious minds who are interested in both the job as well as the pay package rather than just the latter. This is the second time in three years that IIT Delhi’s management programme, for example, has shown up on this list.
Our study also throws up a few puzzles: While you’re scrolling through our rankings, you may come to an abrupt halt at the #13 slot, occupied this year by the International School of Business in Hyderabad. Why is a top-notch programme, rated in the 2009 Financial Times top 15 Best Global MBAs, not in our top 10? Its Rs 20 lakh price tag—compared to Rs 9 lakh at the IIMs—probably scares away your average middle class applicant.
Then, there’s the fact that it’s programme is a one-year course—too short for anyone who wants the more familiar two-year stretch to absorb the experience. Corporate recruiters, too, don’t seem to give them relatively high marks— probably because ISB’s graduates are more geared towards the international job market rather than the domestic one. In other words, ISB’s problem is that it is too much of a premium brand and in a downturn, this can be a disadvantage. However, when the economy revives, ISB’S fortunes—as well as its future ranking— is bound to improve.
Our B-school survey also explores the myriad problems that plague the world of management education in India. For instance, while the top three IIMs—Ahmedabad, Bangalore and Calcutta—have been impregnable fortresses occupying one of the top four slots every year that this list was compiled, its small town brethren like IIM Shillong are having a tough time registering on the national psyche.
One major hurdle facing schools like IIM Shillong as well as the thousands of schools that have popped up in the last decade—there are now over 2,000 programmes in India—is the abject lack of decent faculty, leave alone the lack of infrastructure or quality libraries. However, IIM Lucknow—which came a decade after the last IIM-B—has consistently been on our top 10 list and even IIM Indore has made encouraging strides in the rankings. So, perhaps time to evolve and grow is as important a factor as good teachers.
Even these issues take a sideline when you consider the overarching problem of MBA programmes being largely irrelevant to much of corporate India—NBFCs, service companies, real estate outfits, amongst others— who often turn to their less heralded, value-for-money peers in the economics, engineering and commerce arenas. The solution to many of these dilemmas is to make PhD programmes in India much more attractive than they are, by giving them appropriate incentives, forging corporate-institutional linkages and building a large bank of relevant cases that can even be marketed to global schools like Harvard.
Let’s face it—this decade hasn’t been the best of times for B-schools. Jeff Skilling—the architect of Enron’s cataclysmic collapse was, after all, a Harvard B-school graduate. Similarly, bankers from the world’s elite management programmes were steering the derivatives and trading desks of major investment houses who, in a frenzy of speculative greed in an era of minimal regulation, brought the world to its knees. Therefore, many management thinkers, journalists and business personalities are beginning to wonder if these programmes are focussing on the right things at all— such as instilling ethical business practices into graduates, instead of bolstering a fixation with personal and corporate bottom lines.
However, while the world is unlikely to remain the same as it was a few years ago, with its ballooning salaries and plush corporate perks like those lavish offsites in Goa, there is a silver lining to this apparent tale of woe. Most companies and managers— and B-schoolers—rarely get time to reflect on themselves and their businesses during boom times. It’s only when the chips are down, does one start the essential, agonising process of soul-searching and selfreflection. The companies—and individuals— who do this invariably emerge from these periods leaner, fitter and smarter than they ever were, ready to propel their firms and themselves to a new plane of existence.
Ultimately, India’s economy—and the world’s—is going to emerge from its current torpor, and when it does it will once again need new recruits to feed its engines of growth. Management graduates who have lived through the worst financial crisis in history will probably have learnt a thing or two about the world—and themselves— that not many would otherwise get an opportunity to. And this is probably worth more than the heftiest signing bonus you can think of.
