Banking on alumni networks

Alumni associations of domestic management schools merely maintained relations with their alma mater. Things are now changing.

Indian management schools are drawing plans to actively involve members of their alumni network, not only to spread a good word about them to companies, but also to seek their help in scouting for funding options.

For instance, in an attempt to raise funds through contributions from the batch of 2006 for sponsoring research and other academic pursuits, the batch of 2006 at the Indian Institute of Management (IIM)-Ahmedabad, has come up with the concept of Endeavour 2011.

By 2011, the golden jubilee year of IIM-Ahmedabad, the batch plans to rope in all the subsequent batches and raise a corpus of Rs 200 crore. Earlier, at Amaethon 2005 "" the Annual Agri Business Meet of IIM-Ahmedabad "" the alumni network contributed Rs 1 lakh towards the Research Fund Corpus.

In fact, during its alumni meet of the PGP 1983 batch this January, IIM-A Director, Samir Barua informed the association that the institute needs about Rs 300 crore over the next 4 to 5 years towards expansion, modernisation and rebuilding of existing facilities.

Following which, a five-person alumni body was formed to advise the institute and coordinate on alumni matters. Several alumni members also expressed interest in taking up a series of lectures in the domain they specialise in.

At the Indian Institute of Foreign Trade (IIFT), which so far has six alumni network chapters, the institute is thinking to open other domestic and international chapters.

"We are planning to open new chapters wherever we have a good number of IIFTians working and also planning to maintain a data of all members to contact them on different occasions," said Professor Munish Bharghava, corporate and placement advisor at IIFT.

IIM-Calcutta's annual alumni meet, Reminiscence, saw former students, now heading various positions in top companies, coming together to contribute to the curriculum review of the institute. The batch of 1981 had also raised funds for improving infrastructure facilities at the institute.

In terms of recruitment, placement co-coordinators are vocal about the fact that a number of new companies that come to the campuses every year do so because of the feedback they receive from their own employees who have studied there.

Swaran Sehgal, vice-president, human resources at Edelweiss Capital, which has recruited students from IIM-Ahmedabad and IIM-Calcutta said, "Alumni opinion is the most influential reason why a student accepts or rejects a particular offer. The alumni networks of institutes like the IIMs are very strong, and most companies visit the campuses with at least one alumnus of the particular institute, who is able to relate better with the current batch of students."

Even recent passouts from the institutes are now beginning to come back to their institutes to recruit from current batches. Elements Akademia "" a chain of vocational schools, which has been conceptualised, funded and run, by a group of IIM-Lucknow alumni "" is coming back to the institute to recruit their juniors as partners for their overseas ventures.

The alumni give projects to the students at IIM-Lucknow through their international start-ups in places like Zurich, Singapore and New York. If the performance is found satisfactory, they offer the students a chance of becoming a partner in their business.

It is not just in funding and recruitment that the alumni members have got involved with. Most of them are taking a strong stand when it comes to issues affecting the institute.

When the central government proposed caste-based reservations for Other Backward Classes (OBCs) in institutes of higher education, the Pan-IIM Alumni association took up the issue strongly with the government and even sent letters with alternate suggestions to the President and Prime Minister.

On the other hand, though the Indian Institutes of Technology (IITs) already have a strong alumni network in place, they are also looking at maintaining a proper database of their alumni. Each IIT has a dean of alumni affairs and an alumni association, which work in tandem with regard to alumni matters.

In most cases, these associations help raise funds through their network for activities which are not funded by the HRD ministry. Funds raised thus also help in establishing chairs and schools in the IITs. According to sources, the corpus fund with many alumni associations at IITs, goes over Rs 150 crore.