Business Today Rankings 2007 dissected

It’s the season of bschool rankings once again. First, Business Today – which has definitely gotten worse. If such a thing were possible.

I won’t go into the details of why their methodology is flawed. I’d outlined my objections to the A C Nielsen ‘Winning Brands’ methodology last year and you can read it here. In a nutshell, winning educational brands are not built along the same parameters as winning FMCG brands – and hence can’t be measured in the same way.

If you use a weighing machine to measure height you will obviously get strange results…

Instead of acknowledging the problem, BT has simply gone ahead and staged a repeat performance with even more mindboggling results. Take a look (click for larger view):













• not in top 30 last yr/ did not participate last year

Chief objections
- No student will choose Symbiosis over IIM L, K and I – keep dreaming
- No student will choose ICFAI Hyd or NMIMS over S P Jain and FMS
- You simply can’t rank MDI Gurgaon # 18 and ABS Noida # 20 as if both are at the same level!
- XIMB should definitely be in the top 20.

Observations
The survey was conducted in 2 phases. In phase 1 ”we shortlisted the 30 b schools that were to be ranked by asking MBA aspirants and recruiters to name those they would consider applying and hiring from, respectively.”

- The first boo boo is at this stage itself. Important schools like NITIE and SJSOM are missing (although IIT Delhi makes the grade).
- Goa Institute of Management, IMT Ghaziabad and IMI Delhi (which any student should count in the top 30) are also missing
- Symbiosis seems to be a ‘blanket’ brand – SIBM, SCMHRD, SIIB, SIFT are not listed separately.
- Sectoral schools like IRMA, MICA are not considered at all, although many students would prefer to join them over other options included in the BT top 30.
- 'BIMT' is apparently in Chennai. It’s actually BIM Tiruchirapally.
- For reasons unspecified, IIPM Delhi has not been included. The college ranked an amazing # 11 last year, ahead of IIM K and S P Jain. The sudden disappearance of IIPM Delhi (and the fall of IIPM Mumbai from # 16 last year to # 26 this year) begs an explanation.

And well, I could just go on dissecting the vagaries of this wasted exercise. But I shall cease and desist. Artistic tables and graphs are all very well but … credibility is another thing altogether.

On the positive side, there are some interesting stories accompanying the rankings.

- ‘A Tale of Two cities' examines the slide of FMS and IIFT in the rankings and notes that both institutes are taking steps to upgrade infrastructure. And that both are ‘centres of learning that have a lot to offer budding MBAs and India Inc’. Their selection procedure is rigorous, course fee reasonable and placement excellent.

FMS in particular – didja know it’s the ‘least expensive management school in the world’ (Rs 20,000 p.a. wonly).

- ‘Chasing the gravy train’ – finance and consulting are the favourite career choices of bschool grads. Of course this is true mainly in elite schools… further down the ladder you are basically marketing financial services, IT. It’s what the economy needs, stupid. You don’t have much of a choice

- ‘Essentially entrepreneurs’ – snapshots of recent passouts who’ve started their own companies.

However, none of this compensates for the lapses in the survey itself.

Overall rating to BT bschool rankings 2007: D.

Kindly re engineer to make this a useful and relevant exercise!

Tomorrow: Outlook bschool rankings 2007 – not perfect but quite useful