India - Indian companies climb on B-schools wishlist

Sujata Dutta Sachdeva

NEW DELHI: There may be a silver lining to the dark clouds of the meltdown for Indian corporates — top-notch talent is available, and willing to
settle for reasonable packages.

A survey conducted among final year students of India's best MBA schools — including the IIMs, XLRI Jamshedpur and Jamnalal Bajaj Institute of Management — shows that 71% would rather work in India than abroad, and don't expect a rise in average compensation packages from last year.

Besides, leading Indian groups like the Tatas and Reliance are among their most preferred employers, following the fall of top investment banks like Lehman Brothers and JP Morgan.

The study, ‘B-school Pulse' done by leading staffing company TeamLease, global research company Synovate and management portal MBA Universe throws up some interesting results. Traditional favourites like McKinsey, Hindustan Unilever, Boston Consulting Group and Proctor & Gamble make up the top four, while the MBA students shrugged off recent rumours about ICICI Bank to make it their fifth most preferred employer.

Tata Group moved up four places in the list of ‘Top 25 Most Coveted MBA Recruiters of 2008' to the sixth most coveted company to work for. A similar survey done in 25 B-schools last year ranked Tata Group at number 10.

The rise of Reliance Group is even more remarkable. It moved up a whopping 10 places and has become the seventh most attractive place to work for. Last year, the Reliance Group was ranked number 17. The Aditya Birla Group moved up two notches to No. 19 while Mahindra and Mahindra debuted on the list at No. 20.


"The recent meltdown of the financial markets has made a significant impact on majority of the B-school graduates. They prefer to tread cautiously in making career choices,'' says Sampath Shetty, VP, Permanent Staffing, TeamLease Services.

The fall of big investment bank like nine pins has meant they have lost their sheen among MBAs. Lehman Brothers, ranked number four last year and JP Morgan ranked number 11 last year have fallen off the list. Other foreign banks like Deutsche Bank and Barclay's Bank, too are no longer part of this coveted list. The void created by them is being filled by strong Indian brands like ICICI Bank, HDFC Bank, HSBC and others.

In fact, MBA graduates feel that the sectors most likely to benefit and pull more quality talent due to the meltdown is: Management Consulting, FMCG, Telecom and Retailing. Diversified and Manufacturing is also likely to benefit. Interestingly, the meltdown has also meant compensation package which hovered between Rs 6 to Rs 15 lakh last year has not really changed. Their expectations have not risen at all this year.