The Businessworld B school rankings are out. Again, when several prominent institutes choose to stay away there is a big problem. What to do about the missing institutes?
BW tries to get around this problem by not ranking the top 10 at all and just presenting the list in alphabetical order (like Outlook, secondary data has been used to include IIM A, B and C).
This is obviously a letdown as the 'rankings' start only from # 11 onwards. But the only other alternative would have been to rank MDI as # 1 and we know what a stir that would have caused - besides not reflecting the reality at all.
On a lighter note, Fore School must be glad for choosing to name itself by a letter of the alphabet before 'I' - in the alphabetical listing it comes out right on top!
My contribution
As you may have noticed, I have contributed a few stories to the BW B school issue - the main one is on the 'Faculty Dilemma' (my huge serious looking picture is next to the article :).
I've also done a small profile of Allwin (pagalguy.com) 'cause I think his forum has made a huge impact on the information flow in the b school admission process.
I've also written a small piece on the whole idea of B schools with multiple branches (I have mixed feelings about that - but I guess the demand for MBA is so high that it seems to make sense for established mid tier schools to 'scale up' - just like a coaching class would).
Lastly is a small note on placements - the fact that a student from IIM B has already got a pre placement offer of 105,000 pounds (Rs 84 lakhs) which is of course CTC and all that but I am fully expecting "IIM students gets Rs 1 crore salary" to be a headline next March. It's just a question of someone offering 15,000 pounds more.
Net: net I wish B schools could set aside the past and all come together for a comprehensive ranking exercise. Their concerns and problems should be addressed, of course. But staying away year after year is not really the answer.
I personally think rankings should be done every 2 or even 3 years. Because then there would be scope for real improvement or change in the status at a B school on the various parameters.
As they say in MBA classrooms it's time to think 'out of the box'.
I used to think the insti's have a closed mentalilty and are not willing to accept the fact, but being in a B-school, I must also say that the rankings are done with shoddy infromation. A year back, for the ratings, one of the magazines wrte abt perceptions of the existing students abt the insti. Whats shokcing was that not a SINGLE STUDENT from the whole insti was contacted. I really couldnt figure out how they can do a survey like that. And yes, I havent seen a single rating company ever in the campus. Writing abt infrastructure, students perception etc is bullshit. And I really dont think corporatees eeven spoke to them - and hence industry perception doesnt hold either. What's left is their own perception!
ReplyDelete// I personally think rankings should be done every 2 or even 3 years. Because then there would be scope for real improvement or change in the status at a B school on the various parameters.
ReplyDeleteAs they say in MBA classrooms it's time to think 'out of the box'.
This suggestion makes soooo much of sense..!! :-) Hopefully people who matter are reading this..!!
Hi Rashmi
ReplyDeleteTake a look at what Dr. Shukla thinks about all the brouhaha !
Gautam
I have some comments on the article about branches started by established B-schools.
ReplyDeleteI'm not too sure about the number of permanent faculty (80) in INSEAD S'pore. My understanding is that majority of the faculty fly down from Fountainbleu (Paris) for a few weeks and then return back to INSEAD France after their course is over. INSEAD Singapore's model is somewhat similar to ISB and GLIM.
IIMB's S'pore campus is not really a 'campus'. they have rented few rooms within an Indian International School. Since IIMB plans to offer only exec MBA / part time MBA and some exec development programmes it might not be viable for them to hire permanent faculty (this might not be viewed favourably by the student community). As per the S'pore laws IIMB may not be able to engage faculty who are on the rolls of other universities here. Hence IIMB might rely on its Bangalore faculty to visit Singapore and offer courses. Further IIMB Singapore's fee structure might be lower when compared to INSEAD. If IIMB decides to charge as much as INSEAD then it can probably use some of the fees to offer state-of-the-art infrastructure.
Irrespective of what the institutes and the students feel, the magazines would want to bring out the B-school rankings with clinical precision as it is a major money spinner for them. Given the subjectivity and the 'perception' surrounding the ranking methodology of some of the magazines, it makes sense for the IIM's to stay away from the rankings (atleast for the time being).
Faculty Gap: Apart from pure monetary considerations, prof's do enjoy a good quality of life (spacious quarters provided by the institutes and a job which may not be as stressful as a high-paying corporate job). IMHO a prof's job and a corporate job should not be compared just based on the pay. Further, the option to spend one semester in an university abroad and the freedom to pursue corporate consulting assignments (after giving a pre- determined percentage to the respective institute) are some of the aspects in favour of the Profs. A similar faculty gap exists at the engineering colleges also.
Ummm... that headline will have to read "IIM students gets Rs 96 lakh salary" if they only offer 15,000 pounds more!
ReplyDeleteOf course, if someone were to offer 20,000 pounds more (or the Rupee depreciates further), then we have a story, right?
:-)
Hey Rashmi!!
ReplyDeleteYour article "Tech It or Leave It" perfectly examines the present situation in the "(sh)IT industry in India!! I worked in one of the Tier I companies and all that I got to do there was talk, talk and sometimes, write a few mails and chat... Appraisals were more of ego clashes... Incompetent managers get to rate juniors which mostly depended on the social relationship one had but never the professional relationship or technical prowess. I never look at my case in isolation. I draft these point after having talked to at least hundred other people across my organisation (in the junior levels) and they too had the same stories. Our managers need a lot of attitude training... Back from their travel to the US of A, all that they get to talk of are about pubs they visited, iPods or their shopping in Walmart, but little do they pay importance to looking at the western professional attitudes and try to inculcate those habits here.. Actually, They speak of open work culture but they still linger around with the typical indian mentality... I think the whole industry is about to face a serious problem sometime in the near future... No wonder companies talk of "Mass recruitments" or else there wouldn't be any employee inside their offices (cos they keep quitting companies every other day!!)... There is no point in blaming just the employee.. HR managers have do some introspection instead of blaming employess job-hopping. I serioulsy wish America stops outsourcing or else this industry is spoiling the present as well as the future!!!
Best Employer in the IT industry(India)...Best B school ranking in India...Best Engineering schools in India....Most successful bollywood movie of the year...The rankings of all these keep changing..He he !
ReplyDeleteMost of the Bschool aspirants know that the rankings are not true. However, itz the parents of these aspirants who read the magazine and then think highly of the school.Rankings should be done once in two years..Just like Businessworld does it.
Ah B-Schools, the buzzword, and everything has been said here :!
ReplyDeleteDid u read this?
ReplyDeletehttp://ginsoakedgentleman.blogspot.com/2005/10/iipm-and-take-on-bloggers-and-blogging.html
These surverys appear based on very narrow parameters whereas they should probably be looking at the quality of people who have come out of these institutes.
ReplyDelete