IIM Ahmedabad gave the yearning aspirants a jolt when it released its new eligibility criteria for the 2016-18 batch. In the new eligibility criteria, the cutoffs have been set for the class 10th, 12th and Graduation percentages. The various streams of graduation have been divided into seven groups AC1 to AC7. Each group has a different cutoff percentage. A candidate needs to be up and above all these cutoff percentages in order to be eligible for an IIM Ahmedabad call.


In 2011, IIM Indore made great headway with their attempt of reinventing the undergraduate management education system in India. It launched its ‘Integrated Programme in Management (IPM)’, a 5 year programme targeted at the students who have passed 10+2. Today, IIM Indore’s IPM Programme is one of the most accepted programmes of recent times. Consider this; in 2015 around 39,500 aspirants appeared for the Common Law Entrance Test (CLAT), an exam being conducted since 2008. In just four years of its inception, IPM mustered the interest of as many as 19,000 candidates for the IPM Entrance Test in 2015. Just numbers alone might not seem drastically different. However, factor into the picture that Law as a career option after High school has been around for decades, whereas IPM (Management course from an IIM right after high school) is a novel idea.


After all the work that has been put in, all the procrastination that has been done, all the concepts mastered, new words that have been learnt, MBA aspirants finally have a tangible feel  of what they were awaiting. They can sense that the time is now.
There are still 90 days to any MBA exam, you say. So why this early you ask? The answer is simple. It’s staring you in the face, rather you are staring it in the face. Two dates of utmost importance are approaching.

We all know that a resume is a document that is necessary for job applications. The resume is a tool with one specific purpose: to win an interview. It is an advertisement that aims at selling the idea of you as an employee to the recruiters of the company that you have applied to. A great resume doesn’t just tell them what you have done but also convinces the employer that you have what it takes to be successful in this new position or career. It inspires the prospective employer to pick up the phone and ask you to come in for an interview.

Should I continue working or should I go for a Masters degree in Business Administration? This dilemma has haunted graduates year after year. Some graduates often consider the job security they have and think that the opportunity cost along with the fees of going for a Masters in Business Administration is too high and don’t see enough returns on investment. However there are a few others who have taken the risk and have even emerged as Business moguls! So, if you are still contemplating on whether or not to quit your job for an MBA, here’s a list of five reasons why you should choose the latter:

In the final blog of the series, the fundamentals of a good talent strategy have been highlighted.  Companies looking for a successful talent management strategy need to:
Think long term
Most corporate programs are short-term. However, since the results of efficient talent management are not very visible in the short term, it has phenomenal long term benefits. For instance, if companies were to consider how a candidate could get critical market-experience and skills for a CFO position someday, they can bring him into the company at a much lower cost and the return on investment would be greater.

This blog is written in continuation to “Talent Management Strategies: The expectations gap”. Addressing the problems mentioned in the previous blog, here are five solutions for bridging the expectations gap:
Align and integrate Talent Management across the business
Apart from recruiting, retaining and developing a high-performing workforce, an efficient talent management strategy requires companies to ensure that their talent management processes is aligned with their culture, values and strategic goals, and that they integrate these programs across the entire organization.

Talent has a positive and quantifiable connection to a company’s financial performance. In today’s economy, unemployment has hit an all-time high in many markets and organisations finding it difficult to recruit employees as the talent they need is in short supply.  This disparity between what companies expect from their workforce and the skills that are available in the market place is known as the talent expectations gap. This gap stems from the fact that most global organisations operate under outdated talent management models developed in 1980s and 1990s which have become obsolete due to changing market realities.

Background checks have become more detailed with the advent of technology and companies today are using internet and social media to unravel the mysteries of the potential new recruit. In the age of information, the applicants also need to be well versed with news pertaining to the company and its policies as well. All this may seem too much to handle, but don’t sweat! The good news is that you can harness all the resources and technology to your advantage and keep a squeaky clean social media profile too! Here’s how:

Ashish Nanda, the Director of the Indian Institute of Management, Ahmedabad has taken a stand about the recent Institutes of Management Bill of 2015, which is being proposed by the central government. His claim is that the current form of the bill would lead to serious erosion to the autonomy of the prestigious Indian Institutes of Management. Before we understand this stance, let us go through a brief overview of the bill:

It has been a general trend among students to join an MBA program after two years of work experience, which is the minimum requirement. Certain people would jump into an MBA program as soon as they graduate if given that choice. However, an extensive understanding of the corporate realities, which can come only with extensive experience, helps you harness your MBA degree to its maximum potential. Here are 4 reasons as to why you should wait for a few years before applying for an MBA[…]

What is Entrepreneurship? It is the process of starting a business, a start-up company or any other organization. While a degree in Management is not a necessary prerequisite to becoming an entrepreneur, successful entrepreneurs display amazing management skill. MBA students definitely have an edge over the others when it comes to starting businesses and start-ups. The question arises that why should students from top management schools take the risk of entrepreneurship.[…]

We always hear about graduates from the top management schools running successful businesses and holding top positions in billion dollar companies all around the world. Indian business schools have an arsenal of such alumni. From Indra Nooyi, who was a graduate from IIM Calcutta, to Ajit Balakrishnan, founder and CEO of Rediff and to Ajay Singh Banga, President and CEO of Mastercard, Indian B-Schools have consistently provided the world with such corporate stalwarts. However, the corporate ladder is not the only ladder one can climb and neither is the corner office the ultimate final destination after an MBA. […]

Placements in Indian B-Schools are done in two stages - Lateral and Final Placement. While the lateral placement offers are made to students with prior work experience, the final placement is for the freshers. IIM Calcutta has dug deep in the 2015 placements, with over 500 jobs being offered to 438 participants. Various top notch companies made 143 lateral offers, 134 pre-placement offers and 224 final offers to the 2015 batch students in the fields of Finance, Consulting, Sales & Marketing and E-Commerce. Some notable companies that participated in the campus placement process are Goldman Sachs, BNP Paribas, Boston Consulting Group, Accenture, Kelloggs, ITC, Coca Cola, PepsiCo, Reliance Industries Ltd, Amazon and Flipkart among others.[…]

The 2015 Financial Times top full time global MBA programmes rankings has brought about some great news for Indian B-Schools. With the names of three of India's premier B-Schools making it to the top 100 list, Indian schools have become a force to reckon with at the global level.

The 2015 rankings has placed IIM, Ahmedabad on #26, which is a significant improvement from last year's ranking which placed it at #30. Financial Times has also taken into account the weighted salary that is the salary drawn by alumni of a business school 3 years after graduation. IIMA reported a weighted salary of USD 167,676 in 2015 and has shown an 88% increase from last year. IIM Bangalore, which made its debut in the top 100 at #68 last year, dropped down 14 ranks to #82 this year. Despite what seems to be a considerable drop, the weighted salary of IIMB has increased by 75% this year to USD 134,538.

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