Of the total 138 students, 130 had sought placement through the institute. While four students did not participate in the placement process, three were sponsored or already employed and one sought placement outside. According to the placement report audited by Crisil, four graduates did not get any placement.

In the 122 accepted offers, IT/ITES sector topped the list with 59 followed by BFSI 19, Management Consulting 17, e-Commerce 7, Manufacturing 5 and FMCG 4, to name a few.

The program includes a 3-month International Immersion at one of the top-ranked Ivy League Global Business Schools. 

Function-wise, the number of offers accepted in Systems/IT/ITES was 56 followed by Consulting 28. While Operation/Supply Chain Management and Marketing/Sales recorded 13 each, General Management came next with 8, Analytics followed with 2. Finance and Strategy with 1 each completed the picture.

Location-wise, Mumbai topped the list with 44 offers accepted. Bangalore came next with 39 followed by NCR 18, Chennai and Pune with 10 each and Nagpur 1.

In sector-wise classification of salary (fixed yearly cash component) Automobile topped with a maximum, median and mean amount of Rs 1,837,000 followed by Legal at Rs 1,656,000 and Education at minimum Rs 1,55,000, maximum Rs 1,578,000, median Rs 1,564,000 and mean Rs 1,564,000.

The 1-year full-time Post-Graduate Program in Management (PGPM) offers profile specific customization for domain knowledge. The program includes a 3-month International Immersion at one of the top-ranked Ivy League Global Business Schools. SPJIMR (S.P. Jain Institute of Management and Research), a constituent of the Bharatiya Vidya Bhavan, boasts of a strong industry connect with the locational advantage of a Mumbai campus. It does not have campuses elsewhere

We met Dr Anjali Malik, Associate Professor, Marketing and Associate Program Head PGPM and Urvija Singh, Admissions Coordinator, SPJIMR at ONEConnect 2017, organised by OneYearMBA.co.in at Cyberhub, Gurgaon on September 27.

They said the program, that was initially among the lesser known ones, has picked up pace over the years. Professionals with 5 to 6 years of work experience seeking to enhance their skills for taking up roles and responsibilities in top management positions join the program.

About OneConnect 2017, they expressed happiness at the number of footfalls and the location of the event at Cyberhub in Cyber City, a corporate park in Gurgaon that houses some of the top IT & Fortune 500 companies. The target audience for business school is present at this venue, they said.

Asked about how well SPJIMR was prepared to meet the fast-changing needs of the marketplace, Dr Malik said the curriculum has been upgraded to include Design Thinking & Innovation course and another one in Management & Liberal Arts.

During the design thinking workshop, participants are given the challenge to design a feasible and viable business idea that addresses a gap or a need within the extended SPJIMR campus.

In the recent past, students have come up with solutions such as Parivesh, which aims at creating a greener and more self-sustained campus with waste segregation, reduction, recycling, and reusing paper and bio-waste. ‘Anveshan’ was presented as a way to explore business, people, culture and the world outside the B-school and prepare students for the real life.

The course in Management and Liberal Arts brings Indian and Western classics to the MBA classroom. It brings up rich discussions and newer perspectives for students of management on subjects like creativity, quality, aesthetics and dialogue.

SPJIMR offers 4 specialisations within the one-year MBA. These are Information Management, Operations & Supply Chain, Marketing and Finance.

The program also has a three-week International Immersion module. The constantly updated, tailored curriculum offers students an opportunity to pursue advanced courses in a chosen area of super specialisation. This is followed by an exciting opportunity to work on a live project.

The annual conclave, “Samavesh”, brings top business leaders on campus to interact with students, participate in panel discussions and provide for a rich exchange between business and academics.

Regarding placements, they said the School has a separate cell for the one-year program. The students also receive help in building a work profile. Workshops are held for personality development. Industry speakers include CEOs of top firms.

The recruiters find more value in the graduates as the numbers have been going up with 300 to 400 firms, including those from the top 500 Fortune companies, turning up at the placements.

Last year’s economic slowdown and difficulties in the wake of demonetisation had no effect on the recruitment. The role of the alumni in providing word of the mouth communication helped a great deal in this respect, they added.

About OneConnect 2017, they expressed happiness at the number of footfalls and the location of the event at Cyberhub in Cyber City, a corporate park in Gurgaon that houses some of the top IT & Fortune 500 companies. The target audience for business school is present at this venue, they said.

The event, now in its second year, is aimed at providing a unique opportunity for MBA aspirants with rich work experience, keen on joining a One Year Full-Time MBA program in India, to meet representatives of top business schools.

It gives aspirants an opportunity to clear their doubts regarding various aspects related to admissions such as eligibility norms, fee structure, application process, deadlines, scholarships and post MBA career growth.

The participants this year, apart from SPJIMR were IIM Lucknow, IMT Ghaziabad, Praxis Business School and TimesPro.

Operations & Supply Chain comes next at 42 followed by 27 in Marketing and 7 in Finance.

The class has 34 female and 104 male students. About 36% of the students have international work experience with 2 years on an average. On the whole, they have an average 7 years experience.

Almost 83% (114 students) have 5-8 years work experience and 17% (24 students) have 9-12 years of work experience.

It also provides a special focus on improving the social sensitivity of participants. One such project involves working with NGOs (Non-Government Organisations) in a rural setting for about 2 weeks.

The average GMAT score is 658. SPJIMR boasts of an alumni network of 1110.

SPJIMR is 18th in the National Institutional Ranking Framework (NIRF) rankings 2017. The PGPM program includes a 3-month International Immersion at one of the top Ranked Ivy League Global Business Schools.

The school also claims to have a strong industry connect with the locational advantage of its Mumbai campus. The single campus school is not to be confused with other B-schools with similar name elsewhere.

SPJIMR offers courses in four specialisations, namely, Information Management, Marketing, Operations and Finance.

It also provides a special focus on improving the social sensitivity of participants. One such project involves working with NGOs (Non-Government Organisations) in a rural setting for about 2 weeks.

The Institute says that it helps students appreciate the way nonprofits grapple with promoting big ideas as they build their networks and organisations with very little power and limited resources.

The school had set up the Centre for Development of Corporate Citizenship (DOCC) to bring management education closer to reality in the Indian context.

It provides exposure to students in the dynamics of life in rural India, where despite modern day tele-connectivity opening up new opportunities, many of the traditional challenges like poor infrastructure remain.

The participants have to work on a 10-day project being implemented in socially or economically disadvantaged sectors in urban/rural areas through a variety of activities that include field visits, consulting and research in the social sector.

The project reports are evaluated by an expert panel comprising faculty, representatives of NGOs and corporate leaders.

At SPJIMR, non-classroom learning involves value-based leadership development modules like Assessment & Development of Managerial and Administrative Potential (ADMAP), the Personal Growth Lab (PG Lab), the Development of Corporate Citizenship (DOCC) and the Science of Spirituality (SOS).

Along with theoretic classroom inputs, the program encourages participants to constantly be in touch with the industry and industry trends, through working on live projects, cases, guest speaker series and mentorship programs with the industry speakers.

The annual conclave ‘Samavesh’ brings top business leaders on campus to interact with students, participate in panel discussions and enable a rich exchange between business and academics.

Besides being ranked among the Top 5 Business Schools in India, SPJIMR holds profile specific customization and international immersion at top ranked Ivy League Global Business Schools as highlights of the program besides the location advantage of Mumbai that provides a strong industry connect.

Top recruiters such as Accenture, Airtel, Cognizant, Deloitte, Dell, Genpact, Dunia Finance, HCL, KPMG, MuSigma, Snapdeal, TCS, Universal Consulting, Wipro, ZS Associates recruited students in large numbers, while Amazon India made the highest offer.

The Average CTC increased from Rs 11.43 lakh last year to Rs. 12.02 lakh this year and all 371 students participating in the placement process secured placement offers. The average salary figure of Rs 12.02 lakh has been calculated on the basis of both domestic and international offers.

While the interim placement report released by Great Lakes talked of a Rs 51 lakh highest salary offer made by Amazon India (whether this was a domestic salary in Rupees or an international offer in dollars was not specified) this data seems to have been dropped in the final placement report. It’s not clear whether the highest salary data has been dropped at the behest of Amazon (many companies prefer to keep their salary data private) or for some other reason.  

Sales & Marketing was the top function of choice with 32% of the batch taking up profiles in the area followed by Technology Consulting (31%) and Business Consulting (15%).

Sales & Marketing roles were offered by IT/ITES, E-commerce, Telecom and BFSI firms like Airtel, Mogae Media, Cognizant Technology, Snapdeal, TCS, Photon Infotech, Interakt, TVS Logistics, HCL Talentcare, GAEA Technologies among others.

Techno-Functional/ Consulting roles were offered by firms like Amazon, ITC Infotech, Cognizant, Vitrusa, Wipro, Accenture, Photon Infotech, Infosys, TCS, L&T Infotech.

While IT/ITES and Consulting remained the top recruiting areas with almost all large companies participating in the process, emerging areas like Analytics and E-Commerce saw many new roles being offered by major recruiters like Blue Ocean, LatentView, Musigma, Amazon, Caratlane, Indiaproperty.com, Matrimony and Snapdeal.

Speaking about the placements this year, Mr. R. Shreenath, Director – Corporate & Career Services of Great Lakes Institute of Management, said, “We are very happy with the response we have received from the corporates with a larger and more diverse base of recruiters than ever before. This is testament to the confidence of our corporate partners in the quality of our graduates and we look forward to serving their talent needs in the years to come”.

LIST OF RECRUITERS*