'US Protectionist Stance Is Unlikely To Stay For Another Cycle'

Professor Debashis Chatterjee has taken charge of International Management Institute, New Delhi as Director-General on 16 January.

A pioneer in the field of Asian models in leadership, Professor Chatterjee is former Director of the Indian Institute of Management, (IIM), Kozhikode (2009-2014) and a tenured Professor and Dean at IIM Lucknow. He is credited with transforming IIM Kozhikode from an obscure regional school to an institution of national impact and global recognition.

He taught leadership at Harvard University and at the Indian Institutes of Management (IIM), Calcutta, Lucknow, and Kozhikode for over two decades.

He has been awarded the prestigious Fulbright Fellowship twice for Pre-Doctoral and Post-Doctoral work at the Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University. His published work includes seventeen books such as Leading Consciously (Foreword by Peter M. Senge) and Timeless Leadership (Wiley) that have been translated into several international languages.

In an email interview with BW Businessworld, Chatterjee spoke about the values of IMI, importance of work experience and new America's visa rules

What are the core values of IMI? What makes it any different from the numerous other B-schools in the country?
As an integrated business school, we are investing significantly in our knowledge and industry engagement. We actively have student exchange programme with some of the leading European business schools across different geographies for joint research, executive training, faculty and student exchange programme as compared to other B-schools.

Collectively, the faculty along with the students work as one single unit with a singular vision of building a management ecosystem that will go on to contribute to the development of Corporate Management structure which is ready for future challenges and opportunities.

The differentiation for us comes right from the beginning - Admissions, where we like to see potential candidates from the perspective of how well they can be moulded to fit the management style and framework of corporates today. This helps us bring relevance to our admission process.

How much is the average CAT score cut-off for your institute?
For 2017-19 admission, we have the raised bar by increasing the cut off by three percentiles across all PGDM programmes. We have also introduced the sectional cut off for deciding the shortlisted candidates. The minimum criteria for PGDM have been increased from last years' 87 CAT Percentile to 90CAT Percentile; PGDM(HRM) has been increased from last years' 82 CAT Percentile to 85 CAT Percentile and PGDM(B&FS) has been increased from last years' 81 CAT Percentile to 83 CAT Percentile.

The sectional cut offs in all the programmes are as follows:



How important is the work experience to get into IMI (for students)?
Work experience is considered as a part of admission process. The relevance of work experience is given a slight weightage. However, work experience is not mandatory criteria for selection into IMI as IMI promotes diversity in many aspects. Around two third of students have the same experience or the other ranging from one year to 3 years.

What is the percentage of international students in IMI at the moment? (Please share the current number of international students as well)
We have two kinds of international students studying at IMI. One from Indian Technical & Economic Cooperation Programme (ITEC) which is sponsored by Ministry of External Affairs & the other from student exchange programme studying in PGDM 2 years programme.

IMI runs many ITECprogramme ranging from 1 to 6 months in which 30 students come from approximately 25 nationalities at any point of time. The Executive programme for the duration of 15 months has a strength of 35 students out of which 15 seats are reserved for international students from ITEC affiliated countries. We also have 8 to 10 exchange students from various European countries studying in student exchange programme.

We aspire to become a global management school and actively have student exchange programme with some of the leading global European business schools. In the academic year 2016-17, 15 foreign students utilised the student exchange partnership with IMI-New Delhi to study in our Delhi campus. In the next academic year, we expect the number of students to rise significantly.

As an integrated business school, we also continue to excel in executive business education and conducts various programmes in a combination of online and offline mode to meet the requirements of the industry. We have also trained 173 international participants from 63 countries under the ITEC programme - a scheme of the Ministry of external affairs, Government of India last year.

What will be the impact of the new visa rules on placements?
IT recruitment slump due to USA's protectionist stance at an estimated 20-40 per cent across major B-Schools in India. Such hardline political stances often end up impacting students.

o However, this is unlikely to stay for another cycle, as the world prepares to cushion this blow.
o Placement season even now in major B-Schools continues to happen unhampered, with IMI New Delhi wrapping up placements sooner than ever.

Q How has been the placement scenario of the institute? Are students' satisfied, average salaries over the years, PPOs, etc.? Please elaborate on the kind of companies and salaries that are offered at your institute.

For the class of 2017, IMI New Delhi completed its placement season within the first 3 days of the placement week. A total of 247 offers were made by 90+ recruiters which included 66 PPO/PPIs. We also had new recruiters coming down to our campus this year which included IOCL, Fairtrade, Reckitt Benckiser, Aircel, ADP, Manpower Group, Millward Brown, . We have also seen an increase in the average package by 4.5 per cent. Students bagged highest offers from PSU, Indian Oil Corporation Ltd. The growing list of prominent recruiters and the continued faith of our regular recruiters is a testimony to the ever-increasing confidence of the industry in the talent pool of IMI, New Delhi.

This year, the highest package has gone up to Rs 15.60 lakh per annum by Fairtrade LLC, followed by 15.04 by McKinsey while the lowest has been 6.75 LPA by Kantar Group. The average salary is at an impressive Rs 12.54 lakh per annum.

What kind of efforts is institute carrying out to improve alumni networks?
To strengthen our bond with our alumni across the country and foster the growth of our industry linkages, we organise Alumni Chapter Meets and National Chapter Meets, every year, in four different cities- Bangalore, Mumbai, Hyderabad and Kolkata and three countries namely, London, Dubai and Singapore.

This year, for the first time ever, we had also organised the Mini Alumni Chapter Meets along with our admission in 12 cities. By organising such meets we also gain a better understanding of on-job challenges faced by young generation and other social and cultural aspects to provide exposure to our student base.

What kind of extracurricular activities are students involved in at the institute? How important do you think these activities are in an overall personality development?
Extracurricular activities hold an important place in our curriculum. Besides the classroom education at IMI-New Delhi, internships or in Industrial visits, our students are involved in every facet of holistic education. These activities range from organising special events focusing on current affairs to carefully planned symposia and lectures that enrich the participants' professional, academic and extracurricular interests. To achieve this, students have various academic/professional clubs in different functional areas at our campus.

Through various extracurricular activities organised by them and taking part in activities organised by other institutions across the country, they have participated and have secured first positions and position of honour in various competitions. These competitions are Tatva by IIM - Rohtak, M & A Frenzy by IIM Ahmedabad, Ingenious by Infosys, KRUNCHH by IIT Madras, Reliance ultimate Pitch, Prometheus by XLRI, IPL auction at IIT Bombay, Hackfest 2016 by Accenture, HUL Premier 30 League Tree by Hindustan Unilever Ltd.

Through such participations, they not only showcase their talent but bring laurels to the institute. Such activities, which are beyond pen and paper and happen outside classrooms, help students groom in the art of living and working together. These are the practical experiences that students learn from their own mistakes. This is critical in igniting their entrepreneurial spirit.