ISB's Dean Rao is GMAC Director

The Dean of the Indian School of Business (ISB), Professor M R Rao, has been elected to the Board of Directors of the Graduate Management Admission Council (GMAC) for a three year term, starting form July 1, 2007. The elections for this prestigious post were held on May 1, 2007. GMAC (www.gmac.com) is composed of representatives from leading business schools worldwide, and is dedicated to assessing and promoting the value of Graduate Management education. As an international not-for-profit education association, GMAC is also the provider of GMAT, the widely used assessment for Graduate Management Admissions. Amongst other key roles and responsibilities, the Board of Directors is expected to develop and implement strategic plans that leverage the Council’s core competencies and focus on service to GMAC constituents. The Board is also responsible for developing policies which ensure effective legal, ethical, and financial operations of the organisation. It must be mentioned that last year, the ISB became the first school from India to be invited to join GMAC as a Governing School – adding to the league of premier B-schools like Harvard Business School, London Business School, among others. Source

Prestigious Goldman is students' favourite

Goldman Sachs has trounced other investment banks as the place university students studying business-related subjects would prefer to work.

The latest survey by Universum, a Swedish graduate research company, puts Goldman in pole position among investment banks. Goldman, which came in sixth overall, was also business students’ favourite investment bank last year.

JPMorgan, which regularly topped the ranking among investment banks a few years ago, came in 11th this time. Morgan Stanley came 12th, followed by Deutsche Bank, Citigroup, Merrill Lynch, UBS, Credit Suisse, Lehman and Bank of America (which scraped in at 47th).

Students go for kudos

Heledd Clarke, UK country manager for Universum, said Goldman’s appeal is down to prestige: “Goldman Sachs has a strong reputation on campus, and is seen as somewhere that students would like to have on their CVs.”

Accountancy firm PriceWaterhouseCoopers ranked as business students’ overall preferred destination. HSBC ranked second. But Clarke said HSBC’s success was probably more attributable to its strong retail bank than its desirability as an investment banking employer.

Universum surveyed over 7,500 final and penultimate year university students studying degrees in business, engineering, science, IT and the humanities.

Source

The top employers for MBA students

10 May 2005
By Ronald Alsop

When they envision their dream jobs, most MBA students don't get all starry-eyed and idealistic.

Instead, they take a very pragmatic view and set their sights on the companies that happen to be paying the most and hiring the most. That attitude is apparent in the results of a new survey that asked MBAs to name their "ideal" employers. In the annual study, students awarded higher popularity scores this year to nearly all of the management-consulting and financial-services companies, many of which have flocked back to campus with more jobs and fatter paychecks.

While they have traditionally been magnets for M.B.A.s, banks and consultants became scarce on campus during the bleak job market of the past few years, and some dropped in the ranking produced by Universum Communications, a research and consulting firm that surveyed more than 4,700 M.B.A.s at 50 U.S. schools.

This year, companies such as Bain, Boston Consulting Group, Booz Allen Hamilton, Bank of America and Morgan Stanley gained in popularity, knocking some corporate icons—BMW, Coca-Cola and International Business Machines—out of the top 10. Because the survey was conducted from December through March, Morgan Stanley's jump to ninth place doesn't reflect any potential effects from the battle this spring to oust Chief Executive Philip Purcell. But other companies that have faced controversies in the past year proved less appealing to M.B.A.s. Walt Disney slipped to 23rd place from 16th last year, Merck dropped to 89th from 55th, and American International Group fell 18 spots to No.100.

Some M.B.A.s are drawn to multinationals such as Johnson & Johnson, General Electric and Procter & Gamble, the highest-ranked companies outside consulting and financial services. Image also matters to some students, who aspire to work for companies with a reputation for style and innovation. Apple Computer, for example, rose to 15th place from 31st last year, leaping ahead of Microsoft and Dell. Although BMW fell seven spots to No.13, the German auto maker still outranks other car companies.

Some consulting firms and technology companies damaged their relationships with M.B.A. students back in 2001 and 2002, when business soured and they rescinded job offers. Companies that didn't renege believe they are benefiting now. "There was no bait-and-switch in our hiring, and I'd like to think that is strengthening our reputation on campus," says Kermit King, head of North American recruiting at Boston Consulting Group, which advanced to fifth place in the ranking. "We're also doing a better job of having one-on-one interactions with students, which means getting more BCG people to campus."

Some companies have succeeded in maintaining their popularity, most notably McKinsey. The consulting firm, well known as a training ground for chief executives, has ranked No.1 for 10 straight years. The firm declined to comment on the ranking but expects to hire some 600 M.B.A.s this year, 2% to 3% more than in 2004. A spokesman notes, however, that M.B.A.s represent a shrinking share of new hires as McKinsey increasingly recruits for specialized talent at medical and law schools.

Citigroup credits its repeat No.2 ranking to its global job opportunities, diverse product lines and steady recruiting. "We maintained a stable presence on campus and hired M.B.A.s even when times weren't as good," says Debbie Bertan, Citigroup's director of college relations.

Women and men expressed somewhat different employer preferences. Female M.B.A.s include more consumer-product marketers and retailers such as L'Oréal and Gap at the top of their wish lists. Male M.B.A.s are focused on consulting and financial services, but they find some technology companies alluring.

Ryan Popple, a survey respondent and first-year student at Harvard Business School, diverged from most of his fellow M.B.A.s, naming ExxonMobil (No.50) and BP (No.65) as most ideal. Why energy companies? "I tried to find an industry that combined my interests in international business, government and environmental issues," says Mr. Popple, who plans to spend his summer as an intern in the treasurer's department at ExxonMobil.

Universum also asked M.B.A.s which factors most influence their decision to accept or reject a job offer. Compensation package was the top pick, followed closely by "challenging role." Next in importance: corporate culture, a clear path for advancement, and work-life balance. "To me, work-life balance is not all that important so long as compensation is high to make up for it," says Sean Hazlett, another first-year Harvard M.B.A., who participated in the survey and aspires to be a vice president at a prominent investment bank. "I spent the last five years in the Army and my family is fully aware of how it can cope with a terrible work-life balance and low paycheck to match. My children will thank me when I pay for their college education."

For their first post-M.B.A. job, the survey found that men on average expect a salary of $89,933 and signing bonus of $18,028, while women look to earn $81,962, with a $15,415 signing bonus. By five years after graduation, salary goals soar, with men hoping for $184,352, and women, $155,909. Although still lower than men's, women's salary expectations after five years increased the most, up 10% from last year. "Work-life balance is still more important for women than men," says Claudia Tattanelli, chief executive of Universum. "But women are raising the bar and demanding more in compensation, too."

Source

Duke Works to Stem Fuqua Fallout

In the wake of a cheating scandal, e-mails and phone calls to worried alums and concerned applicants by Alison Damast

When news of the cheating scandal at Duke's Fuqua School of Business broke last week, school administrators quickly devised plans to simultaneously reassure and inform incoming students and alumni. Gordon Soenksen, Fuqua's associate dean, sent out an e-mail to alumni with a copy of a statement from Dean Douglas Breeden about the business school's honor code.

Liz Riley Hargrove, the school's director of admissions, quickly followed suit, sending out a note May 1 to admitted students who had made deposits for next year. "We felt like they were the newest members of the community and because they weren't there on a daily basis like the rest of us were, they needed to be informed about that as well." She adds, "I imagine there are some students questioning whether Duke is the right place for them."

Indeed, for the past week, Duke's has grappled with the aftermath of the B-school's Judicial Board ruling on the fate of the 34 students implicated in the cheating incident, nine of whom will be expelled (see BusinessWeek.com, 4/30/07, "Duke MBAs Fail Ethics Test"). The students were convicted of collaborating with each other in mid-March on an open-book take-home exam and also on class assignments.

New Details Emerge

It is the largest episode of cheating in the school's history, and school administrators have wrestled with how to communicate with incoming students, alums, and the larger public about the situation while protecting the privacy of the students involved in the case, says Mike Hemmerich, Fuqua's associate dean for marketing and communications. "We just want to keep people updated on the process because it is an extraordinary event for our school," he says. "But we obviously have to balance that with the need and legal requirement for the confidentiality of the process and the students involved."

Still, a handful of new details emerged this week about the incident. School officials confirmed earlier this week that some of Fuqua's international students were involved in the episode. "Reflecting the global diversity of Duke's Fuqua School of Business, the students involved come from multiple countries on four different continents," wrote Dean Breeden in an e-mail update sent to students and faculty May 2.

Breeden also said that he will be a member of the Appeals Committee. He will appoint a tenured faculty member and student to sit on the committee with him. "I am confident that the appeals process will show the same meticulous consideration for each and every appeal," Breeden wrote.

Black Eye for Reputation

School officials could not confirm whether any appeals had been filed yet, but they are expecting some to be filed. "It's typical in these cases that there are appeals," Hemmerich says.

Meanwhile, the admissions office has been reaching out to incoming students in the past few days. Hargrove, Fuqua's admissions director, has spent time on the phone talking with students who had specific questions about the facts surrounding the case and how it has affected the Duke community. "Our hope is that they understand that this was a process that is important for us to uphold and it is something we take seriously. It was the right course of action for the students who will remain and for the university."

The outreach by Duke is important. Since the incident occurred, questions have arisen in the larger business school and academic community about the challenges of enforcing an honor code in a population of students who are driven, competitive, and in some instances willing to cut corners to get ahead. The discussion has not always been flattering to Duke, B-schools in general, and business ethics.

Teamwork Is Key

"Students do believe that people who are really successful in our society couldn't have possibly gotten where they are honestly," says John Knapp, director of the Southern Institute for Professional & Business Ethics at Georgia State University's Robinson College of Business. "That kind of thinking could lead one to rationalize and say, 'This is just what you have to do. Everybody is doing it.'"

Another issue clouding the discussion is the nature of the B-school experience. At Duke, for example, students complete the majority of their assignments in teams (see BusinessWeek.com, 5/14/07, "Cheating—Or Postmodern Learning?").

"This team environment does give people much closer contact with their classmates. So many times they will think—sometimes acting on an impulse—to consult a classmate on a practical issue. That's where the questions could arise," says Arthur Kraft, chairman of AACSB International, the primary accrediting association for business schools in the U.S., and dean of Chapman University's George L. Argyros School of Business & Economics. "As a result, some may see these people on teams almost as an extension of themselves."

Not a Deal-Breaker

Still, Duke's Hemmerich says, students are expected to know where to draw the line between collaboration and solo work: "We do have a very collaborative, team-oriented environment, but the rules are very clear when it is time to work on an individual basis."

So far, it seems that the incident isn't a deal-breaker for some admitted Duke MBAs. Matt Schaar, 26, an engineer for an aerospace company in Seattle who has been accepted to Fuqua's Cross-Continent MBA program, says he was impressed by the school's quick reaction to the incident. He is still considering whether to attend Fuqua next year, but says the cheating case will not influence his decision.

"I don't hold the fact that 10% of the entering class decided to cheat against the school itself," Schaar says. "Their only job is to evaluate the people who will fit in best. I don't think it's possible that you can determine whether a person will cheat or not by a 21-page application and interview. You just can't glean that."

Saleem Hussain, 26, a consultant in the Boston area who received his bachelor's degree from Duke four years ago and was recently admitted to Fuqua says he has spent the past few days closely following the reaction to the scandal in online chat rooms and forums. "It has only encouraged me to support Duke more and to continue going there to show that I do actually go there for the academics and the teaching and everything that Duke actually stands for," he says.

Source: Businessweek