Surviving Slowdown

Leading B-schools are confident that the economic slowdown will not hit them, but other schools are concerned.

- E. Kumar Sharma

It is a mid-September Sunday morning when the director of one of the Indian Institutes of Management (IIMs) receives a call from a student from last year’s batch. The former student (anonymity was requested) is worried; he and a few of his batchmates have been laid off, just five months into the new job they had landed through campus interviews. This IIM is among the dozen-odd that were launched during the past decade and had done well in the last placement season. The former student’s predicament reveals three things. First, it could be an isolated incident and, therefore, cannot be generalised for this or other campuses. Second, no slowdown can be underestimated as it can colour recruiter sentiment in more ways than one. Third, and perhaps the most important point, is that a slowdown sentiment will hurt inadequately prepared companies the most, as with the one that laid off the young graduates. The company, a non-tech player, saw its growth plans come a cropper. Students who are in business schools (B-school) with the sole intent of landing a job at the end of the programme, the message is an unpleasant one.

Sentiment Matters

There is clear evidence that these are troubled times for the economy and industry in India, and despite various announcements made by the government aimed at rebooting the growth engine, concerns remain. Therefore, when Business Today reached out to B-schools for this issue on the best management institutes in India, concerns over how the current year will pan out were inescapable.

The leading B-schools across India, however, remain strong, having posted good numbers on placements, job offers, salary offers and range of recruiters visiting their campuses.