Firms are ready to pay for talent... we want a more diverse mix in our intake: Vivek Sane

Interview with Director, Symbiosis Institute of Business Management

Management schools in India are much more than only the IIMs, believes Vivek Sane, Director, Symbiosis Institute of Business Management (SIBM). His own institute, ranked among the top 20 B-schools in India, is taking various measures to keep pace with its clientele, he tells Shivani Shinde Nadhe. Edited excerpts:

What plans do you have for the institute?

We have been in existence for 35 years and done well. While the flagship programme has been doing well, we would be launching a SIBM Innovation and Venture Incubation Centre (SIVIC), giving an impetus to students who want to pursue entrepreneurship. We never thought we would need a structured effort for this. But looking at the demand and the fact that students cannot start without guidance, we thought this makes sense.
 

The Centre would be launched on June 4, 2014. SIVIC will create a platform for students and alumni to get mentorship and consulting support for generating and developing or evaluating business ideas in Phase-I. In Phase-II, SIVIC would seek to facilitate financial support for the ventures. It will operate from a dedicated space, with a dedicated person available for consulting on a weekly basis, supported by a host of guest mentors, consultants drawn from a pool of senior entrepreneurs and venture capitalists.

B-schools are looking at having more female students on campus. Are you laying any special emphasis on this?

There has been an uptick in demand from companies. When they come for placement, they ask for women students, as they want to incorporate gender diversity within the organisation. For us, we want to have a good mix of boys and girls; we have not made any special reservation for women. The good news is that the ratio of women is improving. For instance, for the batch of 2012-14, the male-female ratio was 79 per cent and 21 per cent, respectively. For the batch of 2013-15, the female ratio has gone up to 29 per cent.

Could this (imbalance) be because a majority of the B-schools have engineering graduates?

Yes. We want to change this. Additionally, companies are also asking for such students. Our entrance test is biased towards quantitative analysis. This is a universal trend. We want more students from a liberal arts or commerce background. But the influx of engineers is so huge that other students do not get a chance. We are making some changes in our entrance exams to accommodate this change.

Pune has a good share of foreign students in its universities. Does SIBM intend to increase foreign student intake?

Yes. At present, 27 international students join our institute on an annual basis. We have a separate international office, so we are looking at expanding this base. Meanwhile, we have also embarked on a student exchange programme with universities abroad. This being the first year, four students from Symbiosis, Pune, have been selected to go to Dauphine University, France.

What about international accreditation?

International accreditation is like an ISO certificate. If you want a stamp of approval from the world, you need such accreditations. SIBM is part of Symbiosis University, so certain accreditation is taken care of by the university. At this stage, we do not have any accreditation. But we have 33 collaborations with various universities. This is for faculty visits, industry collaboration, etc.

SIBM is going though its placement process. How does the environment look like?

So far, a little more than 60 companies have visited our campus for this year and the (yearly) salary offered was Rs 10-20 lakh. We are very happy with the progress. Leading companies like Mahindra & Mahindra, Asian Paints, Aditya Birla Group, Reliance Industries, Pidilite, Citi Group, J P Morgan, Goldman Sachs, ITC, GSK and Wipro have visited. Other than placements, we have been encouraging students to participate in international competitions. Every year, we have students who come in the top three on any large corporate event, and these students get picked up by companies even before the placement season.

Has there been any change in the choice of students in terms of sectors they wish to work with?

No. Students still prefer FMCG (fast-moving consumer goods) industries for marketing. If it is finance, they prefer banks or companies with a dedicated finance department or profile. I do see a sudden jump in HR (human resource or personnel management), specially with an industrial relations background. The change I have seen is from the companies. They are ready to pay for talent. The mandate by companies is, if there are good students, they would be picked up. They're becoming more stringent in their choice, as the number of colleges has gone up. And, hence, their demand to get the best has also increased.