The placement process for the graduating batch of the Post Graduate Programme in Management (PGP) of IIM Ahmedabad has come to a close. All PGP students sitting for placements at IIM Ahmedabad have been finally placed. Despite a recessionary year, a larger batch, a new, untested placement process, all students of the batch were placed in the firms of their choice. A total of 110 firms participated in the laterals and final placement process, excluding firms that only extended Pre Placement Offers (PPOs).

CLUSTER-BASED PLACEMENT PROCESS
True to its reputation of being a change leader, IIM Ahmedabad, took a path-breaking step by introducing a Cohort-based placement process this time around. It was discussed at length by the Placement Committee, the faculty, the students and had the mandate of recruiters even before it was put into place.

“As envisaged, the process reaped rich results with a far relaxed process that reduced stress on students and ensured better match making for both students and recruiters. The feedback received from all concerned parties has been positive to say the least. We will continue to reengineer the placement process to align with the needs of both the student and the recruiter community,” said an official from the Placements Cell of IIM Ahmedabad.

In addition to the regular offer system, IIM Ahmedabad also continued with its tradition of allowing its students to play a “dream” on any firm of their choice even when they held offer(s) in hand.

CLUSTER 1
Since Cohort based process was a drastic change from the way placements have been conducted across Indian B-schools, Cluster 1 was an acid test for the MBA school. “We were cautiously optimistic but left no stone unturned in the preparation for the first cluster (13-14 February, 2010). The results were very positive with more than 40 offers extended by Global Strategy Consulting firms, Global Niche Consulting firms, Global Investment Banks and Global Private Equity firms, the four cohorts that constituted this cluster,” said the official from the Placements Cell.

Mckinsey & Co (8 acceptances including pre-placement offers), The Boston Consulting Group (8 acceptances including pre-placement offers), Monitor Group (5 acceptances), Bain and Company, Booz and Company, AT Kearney and Oliver Wyman went back satisfied with the quality of students recruited from IIMA.

OVERVIEW ACROSS CLUSTERS
A number of firms participated in the process in several cohorts namely global and Indian Investment Banks, niche and strategy consulting, corporate leadership program, global FMCG operations, public sector enterprises and IT services. Yes Bank (13 offers including laterals) and ICICI Bank (13 offers) were the top recruiters on campus this year. This was closely followed by Deloitte that made 10 offers (including laterals) for its consulting arm serving the US offices.

One of the top global consulting firms, the Boston Consulting Group and leading steel maker, Ispat Industries made 8 offers each for consulting and general management roles respectively. The elite Tata Administrative Services and niche consulting firm, Feedback Ventures re-affirmed their commitment to IIMA with 6 offers each. Public sector enterprises like Union Bank of India (2 offers), Power Grid Corporation of India Limited (4 offers) and National Thermal Power Corporation (1 offer) also participated in the process.

INTERNATIONAL OFFERS
Similar to last year, this year also saw international offers being made to students of this institute. Goldman Sachs offered multiple roles in London while banks like Morgan Stanley, Citigroup and Deutsche Bank offered roles across Asia Pacific. In a marked development that probably is an indicator of conditions improving dramatically for IT firms, Cybage and Syntel Inc. made offers for their US operations. P&G, with 4 acceptances, continued with its trend of extending a majority of its offers for Singapore operations.

SECTORAL OVERVIEW
Banking and consulting firms were the flavors of the season this time around with most top recruiters coming from these firms. While about 20 firms offering roles in the consulting space recruited 29% of the batch, the Banking and Financial services sector saw 27% of the batch joining the workforce. However, there was no dearth of opportunities for students interested in other sectors. 15% of the batch took up roles with marketing majors such as P&G, HUL, Nestle, Airtel, J&J, Nokia, Philips, Titan, Cadbury etc. Similarly, 13% of the batch took up roles with firms operating in the Systems domain with some of the star recruiters being Google, Inc. which offered Sales, Marketing, Account Management and Business Development roles, Microsoft, Amazon, Cognizant, Wipro, Mindtree and Rediff. Last but definitely not the least, General Management roles were offered by TAS, the Aditya Birla Group, Mahindra, Essar, Lodha Group and Philips amongst others.

LATERALS PLACEMENT PROCESS
A big push this time came from the laterals placement process. With 53% of the batch eligible, the thrust on lateral placements ensured that students could leverage their experience to the hilt. Firms like Deloitte Consulting, A&M, Yes Bank, TSMG, Cognizant, Aditya Birla Group, Amazon and Philips were some of the major recruiters during the process. More than 40 firms participated in the laterals process and extended more than 100 offers, an increase of 4 times over last year.

ALUMNI RECRUITMENT
This year, three students who had opted out of placements to try their hand at their own ventures (2 were from the batch of 2009 and 1 was from the batch of 2008) come back and use the IIMA placement service to get very good offers. This is a prime example of an institution backing its alumni in whatever venture they choose to carry out.

Stay tuned to MBAUniverse.com for more news on MBA Placements 2010!