B-schools find new clues in slowdown blues

Tarun Narayan in Mumbai

For B-schools, the signs of saturation in the job market has announced the arrival of the downturn. Corporates are shying away from providing pre-placement offers (PPOs). But even in this scenario of fickle career options and “fire before you hire” syndrome, for MBA trainees it’s definitely not time to declare defeat. Charged with the conviction to circumvent the crisis of a slowdown, management students are now culling strategies by way of frequent corporate seminars and innovative club initiatives to create a corporate friendly image.

“The slowdown has strengthened our initiatives to get connected to the corporate world,” says Amber Sharma, trainee (second year) at NITIE. “NITIE is knitting closer ties with the industry,” he adds.

The NITIE campus at Powai, Mumbai

Sample some of the “corporate connect” initiatives that are taking shape on the NITIE campus. “Concept 2000 (C2K), Round Table and FINCHART are some of the major moves that we have initiated to make ourselves market savvy,” says Mr Sharma. Through these forums, the students undertake regular projects from the
industry on every weekend. This is clearly a departure from the traditional summer internships for B-school students placed with corporates. With such regular forums being institutionalised, projects are now coming to hog the mainstream functions of management academia. The projects involve conceptualising solutions in the contemporary business environment.

Take “Round Table” for instance. “This is a forum that is founded on the principle of value creation. The forum focuses on conceptualising, developing and analysing live business situations through dynamic and proactive frameworks,” says Mr Gaurav Paul, a member of the group. “The forum also becomes a meeting point for conducting corporate-sponsored workshops and guest lectures,” says Mr Sharma. “Such initiatives are a regular mode of communicating to the corporates that we exist,” says Mr Vivek Anand, another trainee at NITIE. This also becomes a major industry-institute interface for the trainees.

But juggling strategies to justify their presence in front of the industry is not a trend that is restricted to second-rung institutes. Even for the premier IIMs, corporate networking initiatives by way of student-structured programmes and event management moves are a prudent route to proactive image projection before the industry.
Confluence 2001 — an academic and management competition fair to be kicked off from November 28, by IIM-Ahmedabad — elaborates the clear move towards getting closer to the corporate universe. “Confluence comprises four fairs in the fields of Strategy, Marketing, Finance and IT & Operations. Confluence 2001 has two dimensions. One is simulated games, workshops and case contests in which participant teams from national and international B-schools pit their knowledge and skills against each other in simulated real life situations,” explains Mr Pramod Shenoi, trainee (second year) at IIM-A. The second aspect is the talks and panel discussions in which industry leaders share their experiences on tiding business barriers despite circumstantial constraints. Confluence 2001 is an event where Sloan-MIT, Columbia, Richard Ivey, and University of Texas participate in the fair. “The organising committee expects at least 10 international B-schools to participate this year round,” adds Mr Shenoi. “We are taking the local initiative to leverage an international image,” reasons Mr Shenoi. Confluence
is being held between November 28 and December 2.

Toeing the line of lending a “professional touch” is more aggressively pursued by recently kick-started institutes aspiring to be in the acclaimed top league. “Along with the aspiration to stay atop, we are also labouring hard to create a conducive environment for placements amidst the lull,” says Neeraj Joshi, media co-ordinator and a second year student at IIM-Indore. “Experiential Learning,” a system created by IIM-Indore is an indication of another move to befriend corporates by recent starters in the arena of management academia.

In the second and third term of the post-graduate programme, students network with industries that are attached to places surrounding Indore. “Some of the corporates who have displayed their readiness to participate in such initiatives are Hindustan Motors, Eicher, Larsen & Toubro, IDBI Bank and ICICI,” says Mr Joshi.
The participants visit the corporates once every week to acquaint themselves with the attendant features and functions. This
is followed by an assignment relating to any management function. Such assignments sometimes arrive with a specific business
brief.

Seminars and guest lectures to interlink with the industry are sometimes linked with trying to get top-end assignments from corporate majors. “Getting real time projects that cut the learning curve is a method adopted by us to create a regular interface with the industry,” says Dr Leena Sen, faculty in charge from Narsee Monjee Institute of Management Studies (NMIMS). “The nature of our projects include creating strategy frameworks for new product development and launches, market analysis and promotional strategies, equity research and mergers and acquisitions,” informs Dr Sen.

Close on the heels of consolidating skill-enhancing projects, soliciting industry support for career counselling is also one of the initiatives embarked by NMIMS.

According to Dr Sen, since finance trainees were on the tenterhooks of making a career choice, the institute arranged for guest faculty to dwell on the employment potential and career growth trends in the industry. “We got a top corporate personality from HDFC Bank to break the stereotype and lack of specificity that the students have about careers. He also explained certain finance functions which are now dull but will become a prospect for progress in the future,” explains Dr Sen.

The institute also conducts student presentations from the syllabi which are rated by corporate professionals.

Chasing old connections to network with the industry is also acquiring acceptance in institutes. NITIE’s alumni, for instance, who occupy key positions in the industry conduct guest lectures and student mentoring programmes on the campuses. “The mentoring is done mainly on career related issues. But it arrives as an
added ingredient to lend strength in the industry-institute interface,” explains Mr Anand from NITIE.

Meet the brave new manager. Unfazed by the gloom, s/he is using the slowdown as an opportunity to a brighter future.