ISB in Top20 BSchool! WOW!

Society Business and Career
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Most people in business probably think the IIMs are the only great b-schools in India. The recently started International School of Business has now been rated amongst the top 20 business schools in the WORLD. Kudos!
ISB among top 20 B-schools in the world: FT

he Indian School of Business (ISB) has become the first business school from the country to figure in the top 100 business schools ranked by the Financial Times. The Hyderabad-based school has been ranked 20 on the list, a development that prompted ISB dean Rammohan Rao to declare at a press conference here that it was a �vision come true for the school�. �We now have international recognition which will help us in ramping up the number of foreign students, increase the strength of faculty and set up more research centres,� Rao said. In Hyderabad, deputy dean Ajit Rangnekar pointed out that international students accounted for 5 per cent of the total strength of 425 in the class of 2008, as compared with 25-50 per cent in top business schools elsewhere in the world. Surprisingly, none of India�s premier business schools, including the Indian Institutes of Management (IIMs), has ever made it to the annual FT list of top 100 business schools. ISB is the only Indian institution to make it to the list and also the youngest (it started six years back). A possible explanation can lie in Rao�s claim that the IIMs and the ISB are not comparable on account of an ISB student having at least five years of working experience, higher than their IIM counterparts. At the top of the FT list is the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania, followed closely by the London Business School. The others include the Stanford University GSB, Harvard Business School, Insead, MIT Sloan, University of Chicago GSB, IESE Business School, Hong Kong UST Business School and HEC Paris among others. The FT rankings assess business schools on parameters like success of alumni in terms of placements and pay, its record in generating ideas, placements, presence of international students and faculty, research work among others. Savita Mahajan, associate dean, ISB, claimed that earlier the US-based business schools used to dominate the FT top 20 list. In the latest FT ranking, as many as 11 schools, including ISB, are not from the US, but from the United Kingdom, Spain, France, India, China and others. ISB is now planning to ramp up the number of permanent faculty to 40-50, up from the present 25 (it has 106 visiting faculty). The institute, which started with 125 students in 2002, plans to increase the intake to 450 next year, and to 560 in 2009. The ISB, unlike other business schools in the country, accepts only Graduate Management Admission Test (GMAT) scores for admissions.

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Re: ISB in Top20 BSchool! WOW!

Congrats and Best wishes.

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Re: ISB in Top20 BSchool! WOW!

As long as govt continues to encourage reservations in IIM's, it is not possible for IIM's to get into top 100 even they have potential to get into. ISB sets a good example what an Indian institution can achieve if govt dosn't meddle in its affairs.
Finally kudos to naidu for getting ISB to Hyderabad.

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Re: ISB in Top20 BSchool! WOW!

^ exactly. Reservations and quotas for certain things just doesn't make sense.

Imagine if there's a quota on how many heart transplants and brain surgeries must be done by what classification!

But natural justice and Dharma always have a way of winning. If someone is as good as to deserve getting into IIM-A ( :) )they will find a way to shine in life, without IIM-A.

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Re: ISB in Top20 BSchool! WOW!

Dude, don’t trust these rankings too much…..Such rankings are usually developed by taking into account a certain factor and that particular factor helps certain schools more than others. Vey few rankings are as holistic as US News or B-week rankings.

ISB is not a top 20 B-school by any means and I am not saying this because of any prejudice…..Placing ISB above schools such as Kellogg, Ross (Michigan), Fuqua (Duke) and Darden (Virginia) is a plain joke and the business world knows this really well….All these schools are far more diverse and influential (by virtue of their alumni and resources) than ISB…..and I am saying all this despite the fact that my school is ranked No 3 in this ranking……

High salaries reported by ISB or IIMs are mere exceptions and graduates from IIM and ISB are hired as analysts (not associates) by management consulting firms and investment banks. Plus graduates from IIM and ISB will never be placed in USA. They are hired for local jobs or for Asian locations. There is a reason why IIM and ISB folks have to do another MBA from either INSEAD or a top USA school….The problem with ISB and IIM is that their programs are extremely one-dimensional (95% of the class is comprised of young Indians from IIT with very high GMAT scores and almost all of them belong to the IT profession – NO diversity whatsoever and hence very little learning from each other in class discussions especially in case studies).

I hope that you won’t consider my post insulting as my intent is to provide an objective viewpoint. I went through the tedious process of applying to top 6 B-schools quite recently and therefore decided to chip in my 2 cents! That is all.

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Re: ISB in Top20 BSchool! WOW!

I’m not a believer in rankings either – partly because I’ve been involved as a reviewer with associations which devise some of the metrics to be used in these rankings and I agree with PD in that there’s always going to be bias towards a set of parameters. From my experience, FT rankings are biased towards placement rates and ROI. Perhaps based on these parameters, ISB can be ranked high, but for a holistic view, you need to look at parameters like quality of faculty contingent, research caliber, endorsements and accreditations, student exit surveys, alumni networks etc.

Having said that, as someone who currently works at a business school, I am going to be the first to concede that Indian business schools have made a noticeably positive stride and this is reflected in the many placements of their graduates internationally. According to statistics that I have seen from various B-school associations, recruitment wise, there’s no doubt that Indian B-schools are at the top… and I would counter PD’s point about graduates not getting placements in the U.S. – I personally know a few grads myself and last year, there were the best ROI was reported to be from graduates who were placed abroad at various consulting firms as analysts as well as associates. Also, there is at least one academic group comprising faculty and administration from U.S. and Canadian schools who are looking to collaborate with Indian B-schools for teaching and research and this group is from tier-1 as well as tier-2 schools from North America.

The reason for Indian grads doing better today are many – and perhaps more so today due to the global aspects of BPO, but there should be no shame in admitting to India’s success in various areas… if only to actually learn and adopt some of the practices in Pakistan… inshaAllah.

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Re: ISB in Top20 BSchool! WOW!

Phoenixdesi:

'The top 20 in that list (meaning the same criteria used for ISB and the following) include Wharton, Sloan, LSB, etc. I will think it is pretty good company.

Secondly, your point about homogenity of students is utterly wrong in case of ISB. The average work experience of ISB entrants is 5 years. Here is the direct quote.

"At the top of the FT list is the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania, followed closely by the London Business School. The others include the Stanford University GSB, Harvard Business School, Insead, MIT Sloan, University of Chicago GSB, IESE Business School, Hong Kong UST Business School and HEC Paris among others. The FT rankings assess business schools on parameters like success of alumni in terms of placements and pay, its record in generating ideas, placements, presence of international students and faculty, research work among others."

"ISB is the only Indian institution to make it to the list and also the youngest (it started six years back). A possible explanation can lie in Rao�s claim that the IIMs and the ISB are not comparable on account of an ISB student having at least five years of working experience, higher than their IIM counterparts."

Finally, you cannot be further from the truth if you think most of IIM students are IT. Just visit their website and you will know

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Re: ISB in Top20 BSchool! WOW!

Is it included in the UK HSMP list as well?

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Re: ISB in Top20 BSchool! WOW!

There are a number of courses offered by the IIM's. The most popular is the PGP which consists of mostly young graduates or students with 2 to 3 years experience.

However, there are other courses like PGSEM, EGMP, GMITE which has a very less proportion of <2 years exp. students.

I am pursuing my EGMP from IIM-B and some of my classmates come from the most diverse background. The back ground vary greatly from Pharma, Auto, BPO, IT, manufacturing, even hospitals.

I also find that atleast 10-15% of the students in PGSEM / PGP and Fellow programs are from countries like USA, UK, France, Canada, Russia, Switzerland, etc.

The quality of the professors is the best. Many of my professors have spent years teaching / studying in MIT, Harvard, Kellogs, IOWA State and other universities.

The only reason why ISB, Hyderabad is better in ranking is because they admit students purely on merit, whereas IIM's reserve 50% of the seats for SC/ST/OBC.