IIM Indore, the youngest of the IIMs, has raised the bar for B-school placements with its swashbuckling Final Placements for the batch of 2006. Eight international placements from diverse sectors like banking, operations consultancy and media, and 4 additional international postings across the globe were among the many aces served in the quick-fire match which lasted barely 24 hours. Apart from the statistical significance of the higher-than-ever average salaries, participants were able to choose from multiple offers based on their preferences and objectives.

The number of offers boomed to 295 with an average of 5.5 offers per company. The average CTC salary offered was Rs.8.50 lakhs with a high of a Rs.32 lakh international salary.

IIM Indore broke into the ivy league of international placements this year by playing host to two big names in International Business.

The most significant offer was made by Macquarie Bank to one of the participants. Named as the Best Investment Bank for the year 2005, by Australian Banking & Finance Magazine and CFO Magazine and also voted as the Best Equity House 2005 by Asiamoney, Macquarie Bank chose IIM Indore as its first IIM campus for recruitment from India. This underscores the strength of IIM Indore in financial services and banking apart from other functional areas. The AUD 63,775 salary offered was a milestone in itself for IIM Indore.

The second ace was OLAM International Ltd. which extended two International offers on campus in operations consulting. The offered salary of $70,000 crossed the benchmark average foreign salaries in some of the other IIMs. The media bandwagon was led by Astro Malaysia, which recruited 5 participants, who would be working on key areas like Joint Ventures, Strategic Alliances and Mergers & Acquisitions.

The icing on the cake came in the form of Irevna. The 4 offers on hand included postings in their London and New York offices. This reiterates the confidence of business houses that view IIM Indore as an institute strong in diverse fields offering a holistic learning experience.

The Scoreboard

The overall average CTC increased from 8.16 lakhs per annum in 2005 to 8.50 lakhs per annum this year. The average salary offered for lateral candidates also saw a 10% increase from last year to 9.0 lakhs per annum. The average accepted domestic CTC was 8.20 lakhs per annum, which for a batch with 55 per cent participants without work-experience, is a phenomenal figure in today’s world of competitive salaries across sectors.

The highest domestic salary offered was 12.5 lakhs per annum, while the highest international salary was equivalent to 32 lakhs per annum offered by OLAM International Ltd. Many companies had to revise their compensation packages upwards to match the talent pool available and to align themselves with expectations of the participants.

Only 55 of the 80 companies planned could be accommodated as the entire batch was not only placed, but the participants were already holding their dream jobs as well – a fact reflected in the number of offers held by a participant. The number of companies, who were intent to participate in the placement process, rose by 40% to 80.

The meteoric rise in the number of offers, which closed at 295, was a rise of nearly 50% from the previous year’s tally of 202 offers.The number of offers per participant rose from 1.8 to 2.61, an increase of 45%. Though there was always an opportunity to claim multiple offers by applying wantonly, the participants were focused while applying for the placements resulting in the best job-employee-organization fit. This was beneficial to both the participants and the companies.

Average number of offers per company during the finals and lateral placement processes was around 5.5; showing the recognition of the talent pool at the institute and the long standing industrial relationships between the institute and the corporate houses.

Banking & Finance

A big boost to the placement process was the presence of the international bank Macquarie who offered a challenging profile as Property Analyst. IIM Indore was the first campus visited by them. Astro Malaysia offered an international posting in their Strategy division in the area of Mergers & Acquisition and New Business Development. Industry bigwigs such as Deutsche Bank, Citibank, Standard Chartered, ICICI Bank, UTI Bank and SBI cemented their relationships with IIM Indore by offering roles in Risk Management, Treasury and Transaction Banking. There was a strong representation from Financial Services as well with Amex, ICICI Prudential amongst others offering challenging roles in the ever-dynamic sector. Reliance gave a prized offer in its Treasury division. The other companies who participated were HLL (Corp. Fin.) and L&T; (Treasury) with a total of 71 offers and an average salary of 9 lakhs per annum.

Marketing & Media

With the industry redefining its ways to reach the consumer, FMCG giants and B2B majors were more than ready to pick as many participants as possible from the highly skilled set of marketing brains at Indore. The numbers speak for themselves – 82 offers, average salary of 8.4 lakhs per annum, 12 companies – HLL, ITC, Marico, PepsiCo, Asian Paints, Dupont, Cadburys, J&J; to name a few. Media companies like NDTV, SET, Red FM shot straight up in the company rankings on campus. With a promise to return to the institute with even better offers, IIM Indore is all set to serve more aces in this space too.

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Consulting

32% of the batch bagged prized profiles in Consulting with an average of 5.5 offers per person. Tata Strategic Management Group (TSMG), IBM, Atos Origin, CapGemini and Bristlecone consulting offered key roles to the participants across diverse domains – IT, Operations and Finance. The average salary offered was 9.1 lakhs per annum.

IT/ ITES

With the IT Sector witnessing exponential growth, industry leaders CTS, DELL, IBM, Infosys, Wipro, TCS, HCL and HP led the list of recruiters with the highest number of offers per company figure of 6.2. Business Development, IT Strategy, Application Management, Domain Expertise and Quality Control were the various heads under which jobs were extended. The average salary offered was 8.2 lakhs per annum.

Equity Research & Investment Banking

Indore played host for the first time to Irevna and Morgan Stanley, who along with the regulars JP Morgan, Citibank, Kotak and SBI Capital Markets offered a total of 26 jobs, with an average salary of 9.1 lakhs per annum.

General Management & HR

Singapore based OLAM International offered two positions in operations and general management, which boasted of the highest international salary offered on campus. Companies like Reliance and HCL found participants with the right acumen for personnel management and offered HR profiles for them – though these profiles were not on offer initially.