India - IIMs' New game plan is working

Sreeradha D Basu

KOLKATA: The IIMs’ strategy of inviting more companies on campus during summer placements this year seems to have paid off quite a bit, at a time
when the economic slowdown was supposed to impact placements in a big way.

It’s early days as yet, but so far, both stipends and offers seem to be more or less on track across campuses like IIM Calcutta, Kozhikode and Lucknow, which are either in the midst of or have wrapped up their summer placements. In fact, things probably aren’t going to be as bad as expected even in the investment banking and banking and financial services (BFS) front—the sector which earlier seemed likely to be most badly hit.

Almost all regular recruiters in the i-banking space have turned up across IIMs, in part to maintain their relationships with elite institutes. New recruiters in this space have also turned up, along with some which did not participate in summers last year. And while most of the big names may have cut down on individual offers, calling more companies seems to have done the trick. The total numbers of offers from the i-banking space, have, if at all, decreased by a marginal 10-15%, claim insiders, while those in the banking space have seen an increase.

For IIM Kozhikode (IIM-K), which finished its summers last week, it’s been good news all the way. “Contrary to general expectations of a drastic reduction in the number of offers in the financial domain, students at IIM-K received more offers in the investment banking, private equity, treasury, corporate banking space as compared to last year,” IIM-K placement coordinator Revant Bhate told ET.

According to him, nine i-banks made 23 offers this year at IIM-K, compared to 16 offers from six i-banks last year. Some 23 companies in the BFS space made 72 offers this time around, up from 51 offers by 18 such companies last year. New names in the i-banking space this year included IDG Ventures, Tata Capital, Deutche Bank while those in BFS included Citigroup, Futures First and Emergent Ventures.

At IIM Calcutta, which was still in the second day of its Slot Zero at the time of going to press, approximately 22 i-banks have turned up for the coveted slot, an increase of around five as compared to last year. This includes 03 Capital as well as names like Goldman Sachs, Deutsche Bank, Rothschild and Calyon Bank which had not turned up for summers last year.

“All the Slot Zero offers haven’t come in as yet but so far, over 50% of them have been offered by i-banks,” said IIM-C placement coordinator Raman Thakral.

When contacted about its ongoing summer placements, professor Sushil Kumar, IIM Lucknow’s placement cell in-charge
said, “It is a policy decision that no information about the placements goes out till the process is over.”However, he did say that things were on track, including in the banking space. “The earlier concerns were much worse than what the reality is turning out to be,” he said.