IIM recruiters mulling package bars

With the first batch of IIM-A's PGPx (Post-graduate Programme for Executives) set to conclude its sessions on March 15 next year, the buzz on upcoming placements is in full swing.

While companies are thronging the campus for pre-placement presentations, most of them are playing the wait and watch card for the first offer which would give them some idea of the package bar.

The corporates, during their interactions with the students are also using the opportunity to gauge the expectations of students and faculty members regarding possible placement offers.

Since the programme will have lateral placements unlike the PGP programmes which have rolling placements scheduled for a particular week, around 15 companies have already quietly made their pre-placement presentations to the students and many more are expected in January.

In December, around 12 blue chip companies including the Tatas, Aditya Birla Group, Reliance ADAG, ICICI, KPIT Cummins and others have already made presentations on the company's upcoming strategies and the role they expect the students to play if they are inducted on board.

The number of companies to give presentations to the students is expected to be doubled in January.

What has worked into the students' favour is their recent five week international exposure module called international exposure which took place between November and December.

Each of the students studied for one week with a partnering university abroad and undertook projects with an international company for four weeks in consulting capacities. The students visited companies in Amsterdam, the U K, France, Netherlands, U S, Canada, Hong Kong, Singapore, China and others.

Mayank Srivastava, one of the students undertook a project with Unilever to construct business strategies for them in the food category, which in the recent times has seen sluggish growth of 2 per cent worldwide.

Other students took up projects like devising strategies to strengthen supply chains for Unilever, restructuring insurance major Delta Lloyd's Swedish subsidiary among other projects.

"The response of the companies after the presentations has been very encouraging. Although it would be too early to comment on how many international companies will come for placements, the international visit has definitely been instrumental in building new bridges between the students and possible recruiters," said Srivastava.

Another interesting mindset of the students ahead of their placements is that, there were many among the group who had international experience before and have applied for the PGPx programme as a platform to come home to a reputed Indian company.

"There are around 8 green card holders in the batch who, even if they receive international offers will be joining Indian companies owing to the tremendous growth opportunities within the country itself, " added Srivastava.

In the batch, 24 of the 26 students from abroad are non-resident Indians, four of them are foreign nationals and five others are permanent foreign residents.

The placements will take place over the next three months and the batch of 60 students, who have an average experience of nine years, international work experience of 42 months and an average income of about Rs 17 lakhs are all set to set the package standards for the batches to come.