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Journalism of Courage
If last year, graduates from reputed business schools found it difficult to get their kind of jobs, 1999 may turn out to be worse. For business schools and experts are expecting fewer companies to approach B-schools for campus recruitments and a further drop in the growth rate of entry-level salaries.
At the entry level, even the top-level institutes like Faculty of Management Studies (FMS), Delhi, are expecting a further drop in campus recruitment over last year. “This year, we expect a little problem in placing our students,” says A. S. Narang, Dean, FMS Delhi. The institute has postponed its date for campus interviews from early-January to second week of February, when the Indian Institutes of Management (IIMs) hold campus recruitment interviews. B-Schools are worried that big ticket recruiters like Citibank and Coke may not hire anyone this year.
“Instead of management jobs at Rs 15,000 a month, graduates from B and C-grade business schools had to settle for sales jobs at Rs 4,000 a month last year,” says Malhotra. Companies used to throng campuses earlier. Today, students are forming placement committees and are personally approaching companies for jobs. Business schools are beginning to market themselves. For example, according to Suvendu Banerjee, President, Enterprise Public Relations, students of FMS Delhi approached their agency to do a PR exercise and manage the institute’s image so that better placement opportunities would come their way. Similarly, Standard Chartered approached the same agency in 1997 for a PR exercise to lure IIM graduates to join their company.
In terms of emoluments, the entry-level salaries for students of the top-10 B-schools are still growing. Albeit at a modest rate. “Their kind of jobs may be less, but there is no dearth of jobs for students from goodB-schools,” says Ravi Virmani, Head of Indian operations, Noble & Hewitt, an HR-consultancy. According to J. L. Nayar, Director-General, Fore School of Management, Delhi, who till last year was Director, IIM (Lucknow), the average salary for graduates of IIM(L) last year was Rs 3 lakh per annum. The best offer came from Deloit & Touche — US $ 60,000 per annum. At Fore, the best offer last year was Rs 2.75 lakh per annum, while the average salary was Rs 1.75 lakh per annum.
Interestingly, this year, FMS Delhi has seen a 10 per cent drop in the number of applicants. But Malhotra says that an MBA diploma has not lost its glimmer. Out of the 100 calls a day and 5,000 letters a month Malhotra receives, an overwhelming number are students who want the MBA stamp.
“Students are also getting realistic and accept the first good job that comes their way,” says Virmani. In the mid-90s students of top institutes had a basket of good jobs to choose from. Nayar also feels that this year will bring in moredifficulties for the MBA diploma holders. “But if the insurance sector opens up, the future of students specialising in finance would look up,” he says.
At the middle-level, trends are more industry specific. In the financial industry, for example, a shake-out is still happening and there is uncertainty. “In the sunrise industries — telecom, FMCGs, software firms and professional services firms — there are jobs,” says Virmani. While consumer durables and the automobile industry is witness to fierce competition and this is expected to affect jobs and salaries.
“People issues have assumed importance,” says Virmani. He feels that companies that do lip-service to people issues have a bleak future in terms of growth rates. “You can’t buy people. The HR departments in companies have to be more business focussed in this respect,” he adds. Many companies have already adopted this route and have begun to do well.
A new phenomena is emerging at the middle-level. People with five or six years experienceare increasingly getting attracted to Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) — that deals with computerisation of all stages of production and delivery of a manufacturing firm. Companies like SAP, BAAN, Oracle and People Soft manufacture this expensive software (that costs up to Rs 1 crore) and has to be installed in stages. “Several mid-level managers approach me to learn more about ERP,” says Malhotra. Consultancies like Arthur Anderson and KPMG take in these experienced professionals, train them in ERP or send them abroad for training. They come back and get phenomenal salaries.
At the top-level, “salaries are flattening out, but growing,” says Nripjit Singh Chawla, Korn/Ferry International, a head-hunting agency dealing with top-level executives. Virmani terms top-level executives with over 12 to 15 years of experience as the business managers of tomorrow’. And according to a recent study undertaken, of which Virmani was a part, there would be no problem for this A-class bracket till 2020 AD. “Theseare potential CEOs. For them, the job market has not shrunk,” he adds. But their packages are certainly changing and becoming more target-oriented.
The Indian job market today is essentially undergoing a process of metamorphosis. Gone are the days of job security. A direct link between employment and market conditions has already been established. And both the employer and the employee have become more mercenary in their attitudes.
But experts maintain that the worst is over. Multinational corporations over-estimated the Indian market and that hit their bottomlines hard, resulting in downsizing. “Companies who don’t read the writing on the wall will face a similar predicament,” predicts Virmani.
In future, “the Indian job market will be witness to super-specialisation,” says Virmani. According to him, the future is for the highly competent and for those who can survive in tomorrow’s business environment. The key lies in adaption and upgradation of skills. For the consumer is becoming ever-morediscerning with the information boom. We are already seeing a fallout of this in advertising. In the case of automobiles, for example, advertisements give detailed comparisons on the basis of technical specifications of cars to help the consumer in making the right choice.
But for the job market to look up, public spending must increase. “Our economy, has traditionally been driven by public spending,” says Chawla. And during this decade, we have seen a cutback in public spending and fiscal indiscipline. Until major investment in infrastructure projects takes place, the economy will not look up. And neither will the employment scenario.
