IIMs among the best in the world ????

i am sorry my blog readers (... i dont know whether this particular class of people exist) that i chose this topic rather than the topic i mentioned in my previous blog.

skimming thru the news headlines of economic times i glanced the news clip which said "44 foreign companies arriving at IIM campus" and it suddenly struck a question in my mind "Are IIMs among the best business schools in the world?"

considering the way m/s times of india and co. are advertising this fact a lot of people may be inclined to believe that it is indeed true. but the truth remains hidden and only can be unlocked when u see some survey being conducted by some world renowned organisation. my opinion cannot be deemed authoritative in this field but then "the financial times survey" (or some half a dozen surveys conducted by various magazines) clearly highlights the fact that IIMs dont even feature in the top 100 b-schools in the world. then why the hulla? ( for some people who do not know the meaning of this word, it means noise).

well some people may argue that international students is a big factor in deciding these rankings, etc. etc. but then the fact still stares them at their face. the rankings are taken with various factors in mind, and international students also is considered as a factor. (london business school features in the top 3 schools and has 85% of its students from other countries ....the highest for any b-school).

i was particularly peeved at the way admissions are conducted to the IIMs. the CAT may be considered one of the toughest exams in the world, but one reason for this remains the pain that people have to go thru even before the exam begins. for e.g. go to the exam center, the rickshaw person may argue with the fare, u may meet with accident if u r travelling on a bike.. etc etc.. and now go to the exam center and they declare that the papers have leaked.

its such a pity that even after the cat exam leak, people still have an awe when they talk abt the IIMs. when the institutes cant even manage their own admission exams properly (mind u they conduct it themselves and is not outsourced like international b-schools), the claim that we produce the world's best managers becomes a little flawed. this fact also gains importance since a large portion of IIMs income comes from the CAT. i suppose they cannot continue ignoring this fact for long. also the business magazines can now add "entrance exam conduction" as a criteria for the b-school rankings from next year onwards.

i would like to establish the fact from this that we have yet evolved from the "exam era". right from our school days we have been used to performing the best on that day. and for some reason u fall ill or meet with some accident u go thru the trauma of sitting out for a year. some people may argue with this also that managers are supposed to perform under pressure, but then i can only be silent and that answers their question. when will we come out of this exam era?.

if any IIM faculty or directors are reading i plead with them to go away with CAT in its present form, and come out with some mechanism where in CAT will be conducted similar to GMAT. may be the frequency cannot be daily as is for GMAT but then we can implement it in a phased manner like conduct CAT every 3 months and make the score valid for 2 years. Then gradually it can be conducted every month and so on....or else it was said by hitler in mein kempf "if you can do it properly be there... else get out of there.)

...kullu