Ahmedabad: The Final Placement process for the MBA Class of 2023 of the Post Graduate Programme (PGP) in Management at IIM Ahmedabad was successfully completed. Firms from multiple domains participated across the three clusters in Final placements, with all students placed across 23 cohorts.
Placement Process
The placement process was conducted in two stages. The first was the Laterals process, where firms interviewed students with prior work experience and offered them mid-level managerial positions. 36 firms participated from diverse sectors such as technology, banking, finance, consulting, analytics, etc. In the second stage (Finals) of the process, firms were grouped into cohorts based on their core business, and groups of cohorts were invited to campus across different clusters. As in previous years, students were provided the flexibility of making “dream” applications to firms of their choice in a subsequent cluster, even with an offer in hand. There were 106 dream applications this year. This gave students the flexibility and choice to build careers in sectors of their preference.
Prof. Ankur Sinha, Chairperson of the Placement Committee at IIM Ahmedabad, said, “This year, we completed the final placement process in hybrid mode. In contrast to the COVID years, we saw a large number of recruiters visiting the campus while only a few logged in from remote locations. The process achieved its stated objective of finding the right student-recruiter fit by providing students with options to upgrade and dream to the organisations of their choice. We saw an increase in the participation of firms and also the variety in job roles. Along with the participation of multinational firms, we saw an increase in attractive offers from domestic firms with the potential to offer better growth prospects. The placement this year indicates that the demand for high-quality talent continues to grow, and demonstrates the strength of the relationships we have built with our recruiters over the decades. At IIMA we strive to develop future leaders for enterprises and will continue to supply the industry with the country’s most exceptional talent pool of future managers. We are grateful to the recruiters who have participated in our placement process and have helped our students realize their career aspirations. We are confident that the talent that IIMA produces through its rigorous and contemporary coursework will provide an enriching experience and significant value to the organizations.”
Sectoral Overview
Firms from different sectors and geographies participated in the process at IIM Ahmedabad through Laterals, Finals, and PPOs which are listed below: Recruiters in the consulting domain included Arthur D. Little, Alvarez & Marsal, Bain & Co., Boston Consulting Group, Kearney, KPMG, McKinsey & Company, Monitor Deloitte, Oliver Wyman, Praxis Global Alliance, PwC and Strategy& Middle East, among others. Prominent recruiters in the Investment Banking & Markets and Private Equity, Venture Capital, and Asset Management space included A91 Partners, Arpwood Capital, ARGA Investment, Avendus, Bank of America, Citibank, Goldman Sachs, HSBC, JP Morgan Chase & Co, Kotak, Morgan Stanley, Premji Invest, o3 Capital, and Standard Chartered, among others. Consumer goods, consumer services, consumer tech, and consumer electronics cohorts’ firms that made offers were Airtel, Asian Paints, Coca-Cola, HUL, Kimberly-Clark, L’Oréal, Nestle, P&G, Samsung Electronics and Wipro Consumer Care, among others. The Conglomerate and Retail B2B & B2C cohorts saw participation like Amazon, Adani Group, Aditya Birla Group, Bajaj, CK Birla Group, Emaar, Reliance and Tata Administrative Services. The Banking, Financial Services & Insurance, and Cards & Financial Advisory recruiters included American Express, Angel One, IDFC First Bank, IIFL Securities and Mastercard. Some prominent recruiters in Enterprise Tech that gave offers were Adobe, Atlassian, Ikigai Labs and Oracle. Firms participating in the Laterals process included Amagi, American Express, Angel One, Arteria Technologies, BrowserStack, Capital One, EXL Service, FinIQ, Lodha Group, Media.net, Microsoft, Ola, Paytm, Piramal Alternatives, Praxis Global Alliance, PwC, Trident Limited and Zomato among others. There were several new recruiters this year, including Essar Group, cult.fit, Javis, BLS International, Wells Fargo & Co and WestBridge Capital, among others.
Top Recruiters
188 firms participated with around 280 roles in the placement process in 2023, including PPOs. In the Finals placements process, firms that made the most offers on campus included McKinsey & Company and Boston Consulting Group. McKinsey & Company made the most offers (including PPOs) at the end of the final placement process with 34 offers, followed by Boston Consulting Group with 33 offers. Among the Investment Banks, Goldman Sachs was the largest recruiter (including PPOs), making 8 offers, closely followed by o3 Capital with 3 offers. This year, the Conglomerate cohort witnessed a 135% increase in the number of net offers, the Private Equity, Venture Capital and Asset management cohort witnessed close to a 19% increase in the number of net offers, and the Cards and Financial Advisory cohort witnessed a 20% increase in the number of net offers vis-à-vis last year. In the General Management domain, Adani made the highest number of offers (including the pre-placement offers) – 10, closely followed by Essar Group, which rolled out 8 offers. In the IT Consulting cohort, Tata Consultancy Services was the most prominent recruiter, with 10 offers (including PPOs). In the Laterals process, PwC made the highest number of offers-13, closely followed by FinIQ-10 offers. Also, American Express and Angel One rolled out 6 offers each.
Candidate-Recruiter fit
Kalyan Perisetty, the Recruitment Secretary at IIM Ahmedabad, said, “The Laterals and Finals Placement process of IIM Ahmedabad concluded on 20th February 2023. Despite challenging circumstances caused by uncertainty in markets, the process was driven by the core philosophy of achieving the best ‘candidate-recruiter’ fit. The cluster-cohort process, in conjunction with dream opportunities, aims to facilitate the same. Students have the option to hold and upgrade Pre-Placement offers and Lateral Placement offers. Additionally, students may secure an offer and upgrade within and across clusters.
Like the preceding summer cycle, recruiters were given the opportunity to conduct interviews in online and offline modes, making this the first-ever hybrid Laterals and Finals Placement process. Overall, adequate preparation and contingency planning worked out well, and we successfully completed the process well on time and maximized the candidate-recruiter fit objective, with over 100 students exercising the dream option across clusters and several intracluster upgrades in offers.”
Regular recruiters were also impressed with the smooth and convenient process conducted at IIMA. Prabhav Kashyap, Partner and Head of MBA Recruitment, Bain and Company, said, “IIMA has always been a source of top professional talent for Bain, and continues to be this year as well. We’d like to thank Prof. Ankur Sinha and the entire Placement team for running a smooth, highly efficient and high-quality process as always. We’re super thrilled to continue to be one of the preferred recruiters at IIMA and are excited to welcome the new generation of ‘Bainies’ to our firm. We’d also like to extend our best wishes to the entire graduating batch for long and highly prosperous careers ahead.”
IPRS Report
Further details about the placement process will be released in an audited report, as per the Indian Placement Reporting Standards (IPRS), introduced by IIMA in an effort to bring about greater transparency in B-school placements across the country. The link to the report will be shared with all stakeholders once released.