Top ten Profile

The b-schools are on the roll and it is only natural that the momentum has come from institutes at the top of the pile. The biggest highlight of the past year was, without exception in each of the campuses listed in our Top 10 and in nearly all the schools in the A+ listing, top companies had to go back empty-handed. The top 30 schools listing that we compiled to study the phenomena showed that the proportion of offers per student was an unprecedented 1.7 or nearly two job offers for every single student in our list. In all the IIMs, the students were permitted to opt for only one job but everyone got the best that was on offer. There had been a lot more lateral and pre-placement offers this year than anytime in the past.

The IIM Ahmedabad stays a colossus among the b-schools, a pride that is recognised globally by international rankings of the school. We have been listing IIM-a unchanged from the start. Leaving aside older schools from the '70s vintage and beyond had always the edge, like three of the four original IIMs, IIM Kolkata, IIM Bangalore and IIM Lucknow, Jamnalal Bajaj and Faculty of Management Studies fms Delhi. Such comfort is no longer available as everyone except perhaps IIM-a, is fierce competition from their peer and also from the newer and more market savvy schools of the '90s vintage. These autonomous schools, without the baggage of government ownership or control, are highly focused, nimble and are able to align themselves with the market easily.

The final line up depends upon the survey focus as much as the innovation and creativity that the schools in our megalist have always reported over the years. Less easier has been the task of identifying occasional dark horses who break into the top listing once in a while breaking the myth about the invincibility of the top branded b-school.

Business India has a fair record of recognising and according prima donna status to many such schools. iit Delhi, xim Bhubaneshwar, imt Ghaziabad and Icfai among our Top Ten line up. We also brought to focus the powerful presence of some top schools like scmhrd from the Symbiosis stable as an effective competition to decades of supremacy of XLRI Jamshedpur, which still is the last word in hr in the country. Institutes like Lalbahadur Shastri Institute of Management (lbsim), Delhi, University Business School, Chandigarh, Indian Institute of Plantation Management, Bangalore, Alliance Business Academy, Bangalore, Xavier Institute of Management and Entrepreneurship Bangalore, Nirma Institute of Management, Ahmedabad, School of Management and Communication Sciences of Cochin, psg, Amrita and Karunya from Coimbatore, School of Management Sciences Varanasi, Institute of Technology and Management, Mumbai, Institute of Business Administration and Technology (ibat), Bhubaneshwar, South India Education Society Institute of Management, Mumbai were some of the schools which we highlighted at different times in the past five years.

We also discovered and brought to light the efforts of some unconventional academians like S.B. Majumdar of Symbiosis, Pritam Singh of MDI, Biswajit Pattanayak of Institute of Management, M.S. Pillai of Sadhana Institute of Management who risked going alone hoping and also proving that companies would support any effort to provide quality, never mind if it has official sanction or not. In the same vein we are talking about the efforts of two achievers separated by two generations from the cradle of higher education, Pune, who dared to be different in this issue (see Flying with hope' on page 110).

In the write up that follows, we will present brief highlights of the institutes from the top 10 category. Our task of presenting a fair picture of the line up had become difficult with the unexpected and unexplained decision of the IIMs to keep out of Indian surveys this year, choking the availability of detailed information that we had sought and obtained from our list of around 128 respondents.

The line up includes Jamnalal Bajaj Institute Management Sciences (jbims) the old war horse of Mumbai, a hot favourite of the '80s, who proved it has still has the verve and freshness to take on the best in the country. We have the pride of welcoming back Bajaj among the top 10 line up. The listing also shows isb, Hyderabad moving one notch upwards endorsing the excellent results the institute posted this year.

Globally, whether in the corner offices or corporate boardrooms, in the media surveys or meeting places of top academics, an Indian mba is almost synonymous with that of IIM Ahmedabad. Such is the reputation of India's oldest national school of management set up almost weeks apart from its counterpart Indian Institute of Management, Calcutta. Surprisingly, despite the near absence of any industry around the place of its location and the nearest business capital Mumbai being a good eight hours drive away, IIM-a ploughed on to become India's icon for the best in management. IIM-a reported this year that almost every top-rated business school had more than one of its alumni as faculty, an endorsement of the true worth of a quiet institution tucked away in the textile capital of the country.

It has been a long cherished dream among the faculty and leadership of the Indian Institute of Management Bangalore to topple the uncrowned prince of B-schools IIM-a for the first place among business schools and going by the performance of IIM-b in the foregoing year, the trophy is almost within grabs. It has been a year of milestones for IIM Bangalore. The crowning glory came with the opening of its first overseas branch in one of the coveted international cities of the world Singapore. IIM-b also happens to be the first Indian school to set shop in the island nation and one of the few international schools to do so here. The IIM-b Singapore has been launched as a Research and Management Education Center offering initially an executive mba programme that would be followed by other flagship courses. The centre would also offer short duration courses. Among the Indian B-schools, this created waves not only because of the location but also the excitement of breaking into a market which is already getting crowded by the best of the b-schools of the world. IIM bangalore also happens the third school from the Wall Street Journal list of 100 schools to set shop in Singapore, the other two being insead and Chicago School of Business. Incidentally, IIM-b is the lone Indian school to be listed in the Wall Street's latest line of global business schools.

Ajit Balakrishnan of rediff.com, one of India's largest web services provider surprised many by announcing the setting up of a separate company to help iim c run new programmes. Balakrishnan's gesture was on behalf of the 6,000-strong alumni of the oldest iim of the country, IIM Calcuuta. While it was common with the IITs to get the wholehearted support of its grateful alumni, this was the first time, such generosity is being shown for an iim by its alumni. But then, you can't fault iim c for monotony or lethargy despite its remote location and an old world ambience for learning. Just like its alumni, when it comes to catching up with the prevailing trend, the iim c is as sure footed as a school of modern vintage and in fact among all the iims, iim c is closest to reflect the technological age than any other with its powerful e-learning programme and its initial forays into the Gulf region in a tie up with a local institute reported in these columns in the previous years. Apart from e-learning which is on the fast track, the institute has also consolidated its executive management programmes which are being broadened in scope and also in coverage. The school runs as many as 10 such programmes which include several one-year offerings.

Two decades in the life of any institution is not small and when it comes to a business school of the like of iim Lucknow the years that passed had real meaning. One of the oft-repeated complaints of iim Lucknow all along has been its remote location devoid of any industry worth the name. But that is history. The fourth iim to come in had leveraged all its other advantages of space, modernity and a youthful faculty to make a mark not only in the academic sphere but also in the executive education front in which it continues to build upon its advantages breaking its own records by the year. Its present director Devi Singh who exchanged places with his predecessor, Pritam Singh of MDI, has consolidated the institute's strength and is leading it firmly in the path of research, executive education and management training. The newly opened campus near Delhi at Greater Noida is seen as the window of opportunity that would finally end any doubts of the school's remoteness.

The MDI director, Dr Pritam Singh, wants to change the name of the bustling metropolis of modern era within the Delhi ncr region from Gurgaon -- literally meaning rawsugar village reminiscent of the rich sugarcane plantations that dotted this locale once -- to Gurugaon, meaning a village of teachers. Sounds uncanny and ambitious? Well that is MDI for you! The Management Development Institute, does just that, develops the management thinking process from the mundane to the munificent, thus turning the students from mere managers to mavericks with a special edge. "Lotussing self and realising the limits to push oneself is what we teaching here," Singh says seriously. The campus itself with its amateur golf course, hundreds of trees, aesthetically built brick buildings, the lilt of rare bird species all day long, stands in stark contrast to the glass concrete monoliths which is literally transforming this suburban mini- metropolis into a thriving hub of new India.

XLRI surprised many by announcing a tie up with Reliance Webworld to offer a 14-month programme on logistics and supply chain management on e-learning mode. The course further strengthened the plethora of e-learning options the institute has been making for some years now. The school has always been sensitive to the market movements and had been ready to offer shorter and longer programme to suit industry needs. For instance, with competition biting on its heel with more top b-schools climbing into its gravy train -- MDI has already started its pghrm programme, IMT has put together one this year, IMI has one slated for the coming year, among others -- and XLRI is unfazed and is confident that it would remain uncrowned leader of the hr world. Its pghrm has always been constantly overhauled to suit the industry needs. Fr Casimir Raj fresh from the challenge of steering a south-based Loyola Institute of Management Chennai to a powerful b-school of national repute has already been experimenting in aligning XLRI as the school of the future.

One of the best endorsements came for Indian School Business (ISB), Hyderabad from the most unexpected quarter, namely the IIM-A when the latter decided to shape an one-year programme almost on the same lines of ISB, in the process vindicating what ISB's original founder dean Deepak Jain's choice of the one-year mba. The IIM-a's course would to a large extent resemble that of the global school at Hyderabad except that it would be primarily anchored by the resident faculty of IIM-A, a luxury the Hyderabad school is yet to afford, perhaps the only chink in the superb armour of the world beating school. The massive flow of overseas faculty had continued whole of last year to cater to the expanded batch which is rapidly growing to touch the tantalising 500 mark the soonest. The executive management courseshad been a big hit with Indian companies who see these programmes as the best reference point for the global markets. The board has also been continuously expanded in strength and quality, and the latest to come in is Shiv Nadar of HCL.

S.P. Jain is almost there, with a little push in terms of an independent integrated large campus, few more specialised permanent faculty on the roll, one or more new colleges addressing the new economy opportunity, and you will see S.P. Jain in global league. It has everything going for itself. Location, an independent governing board, a strong heritage of belonging to one of the large and powerful educational trusts of the country, a strong old boys club of alumni... you can't ask for more. S.P. Jain along with other Mumbai-based competitor Narsee Monjee Institute of Management is all set to rewrite the face of b-schools in the country. The advantages for S.P. Jain are many. It is perhaps, the first school among the new generation schools to breakaway from the university school syndrome. The school is now coveted as one of the fastest growing b-school in the entire Asian region, a fact endorsed by the speed with which its first foray overseas at Dubai could easily become reality. Building on the opening it had made at the commercial capital of the near east region, S.P. Jain is looking at other overseas opportunities for growth. A clutch of new courses, rapid expansion of its family business and executive management courses, handsome increase in faculty numbers not to speak of their faculty, the Andheri campus is the most happening place in Mumbai now.

Media rankings, including ours, literally rejected Jamnalal Bajaj as a has been school and yet, companies never lost faith in the school, and in the latest watershed year for b-schools, the grand old University School of Mumbai showed that it has a lot of fighting spirit left. The school's performance matched nearly all the schools in the list of our top 10 and as the school moves ahead, it can only do better. Alumni has been the school's biggest strength and its biggest weakness. They work closely with the school, handhold its students and make sure that they shape themselves as the best young managers as you can get, never mind there are no permanent worth the name on the campus.

In late 1970s, N.J. Yesaswy, the Hyderabad-based professional vowed to take his Chartered Financial Analyst Course a notch above the legendary Institute of Chartered Accountants of India exam considered one of the toughest exams of its kind in the world. For over two decades now Icfai, the institute that he founded has remained just that, an ethos, he brought to management education, thus producing one of the best combinations of rigour and extreme creativity in mba offering in the country. ICFAI University's business school has innovated on a number of counts on the premises, that India needed high quality managers in large numbers. In double quick time, it has spread to six cities notching up 800 students working on a pool model for intellectual capital. The total faculty strength is nearly 300 and is growing, and the school is now on the verge of becoming a role model of what an mba institution ought to be.