1 INDIAN INSTITUTE OF MANAGEMENT Ahmedabad Like with other great brands, there is something about the school

Every March, India's educated elite-given the literacy rate of 57 per cent, anyone who is educated belongs to an elite group-revel in the throes of vicarious pleasure. The occasion is placement or recruitment season at India's best B-schools, and reams of newsprint and a chunk of airtime is devoted to 20-something individuals who are in seemingly in possession of attributes for which companies, Indian and multinational, are willing to pay a lot. For the record, this magazine spent around seven pages on the phenomenon, the dominant part on a birds-eye view (number-heavy) round up of placement season in some of India's best B-schools; the more interesting part was a brief profile and a photograph of Ravi Singhvi, the 26-year-old from the Indian Institute of Management, Ahmedabad, who was picked up by HSBC for a salary of $152,000 (Rs 66.8 lakh) a year. Not too long after, a student at the Indian School of Business, Hyderabad attracted a bid of close to $200,000 (Rs 88 lakh) but by then, the media- and public-frenzy was dying down and all he could manage was five, as opposed to the conventional 15 minutes of fame.

The kind of money companies are willing to pay for MBAs has catapulted B-schools, once ignored centres of higher education, into the national mainstream. A survey of India's top 100 companies by market capitalisation (see Where CEOs Come From on page 102) may seem to indicate that there is inadequate numerical evidence of the corporate world being taken over by MBAs, but that depends on how the numbers are analysed. Of the 100, 50 companies are headed by professionals (people other than the founders or members of the founding family or promoter group). Of these 50 companies, 16 are headed by MBAs. That (32 per cent) is not an insignificant proportion, and with time, the number can only increase. Indeed, today the debate on whether one needs an MBA to succeed is almost over (it has been decided in favour). Today, the two most interested parties (recruiters and students) ask similar questions: which schools should we hire from? (in the case of the former) or which schools should we seek admission in?

It was to address questions such as this that this magazine launched, in 1997, India's first survey of B-schools. In its first avatar, the exercise was largely conducted by gathering information from schools and recruiters. However, validation proved to be a problem with this method. For instance, most schools and recruiters prefer not to give out salary details. Then, there's the issue of putting together a panel that can rate all papers published by all B-school professors in this country with the objective of establishing a B-school's intellectual credentials. To avoid such problems, this magazine moved to a market-oriented survey where B-schools were rated as brands by recruiters (the heads of hr at companies), wannabe MBAs, MBA students, functional heads and young managers (see The Best By Numbers on page 70). Since 2003, this is the process this magazine has been using to rate and rank B-schools.

7 INDIAN INSTITUTE OF FOREIGN TRADE Delhi In the top 10 in three categories: Recruiters, Wannabe MBAs, Young Executives	ITM, MUMBAI Wannabe MBAs rate this school very highly, in the top five in fact

The Best And The Rest

The most interesting finding of the BT-ACnielsen ORG-MARG study is that the gap between #1 and #30 in the ranking of 30 schools has narrowed after widening in 2004. In 2003 it was 5.84; in 2004, 6.47, and in 2005, it is 4.82. Can this be interpreted as sign that the overall quality of Indian B-schools is improving? Another finding would indicate that it can. The Winning Brands model that the survey uses to calculate brand equity scores says that any school with: a score over four is a monopoly brand, a score between three and four a winning brand, a score between two and three a distinct brand, and a score between one and two an undifferentiated brand. The model terms those schools that manage only a score below one mediocre brands, but it is this magazine's belief that these are more commodities than brands.

9 JAMNALAL BAJAJ INSTITUTE Mumbai It has moved from seventh spot in 2003 to ninth in 2005, but remains one of the best in the country

In 2003, India boasted a mere eight schools that fell into the first four categories (one monopoly brand, one winning brand, one distinct brand, and five undifferentiated brands). There was not much of a change in 2004: eight schools (again) fell into the first four categories (one monopoly brand, one distinct brand, and six undifferentiated brands). Interestingly, in both years, the same eight schools hogged the rankings. This year, there are 15 schools that make the grade (one monopoly brand, two distinct brands, and 12 undifferentiated brands). The eight schools from the previous years are there, but seven more have moved up the brand equity index.

The other interesting finding (first pointed out in the 2003 edition of the survey, this has since been reinforced) is that there are IIMs and there are IIMs. While the four older IIMs, Ahmedabad, Calcutta, Bangalore and Lucknow have more or less established themselves in the listing, the same cannot be said of the two new IIMs, IIM, Indore and IIM, Kozhikode (they come in at #17 and #19 in the survey).

The Path To Profitability

10 NARSEE MONJEE INSTITUTE OF MANAGEMENT STUDIES Mumbai Yet another Mumbai school in the top 10; a third of India's top 30 B-schools are from the city

There's an interesting aside to this survey, one that should be of interest to the hundreds of entrepreneurs who have founded B-schools hoping that the demand for MBAs sweeping across the country will translate into some coins in their coffer. That would seem to be happening. ICFAI Business School, Hyderabad, a school of recent vintage (it is less than 10 years old) makes an appearance in the rankings. Then, the number of B-schools in the top four categories (monopoly brands, winning brands, distinct brands and undifferentiated brands) according to recruiters has increased from eight last year to 15 this year. Recruiters, then, are beginning to look beyond the IIMs. One reason for that could be the emergence of attractive options to the IIMs. Another could be the fact that multinational firms are increasingly hiring people for their global operations from Indian B-schools. By some estimates, last year, some 186 students from the six IIMs landed foreign job offers. That's 186 students less for Indian firms to hire. Which is where Tier-II and Tier-III schools step in to fill the demand-supply imbalance. If there is one thing India Inc. has realised in the 2000s, it is that it cannot thrive without MBAs.