Dollar dreams

Come every year and much is made of the whopping salary amounts that are offered to IIM graduates during the months of March and November as part of their summer placements and final placements respectively.
Just weeks ago, a record stipend of Rs 10 lakh being offered to a student of IIM, Joka for his summer training made front page headlines on most newspapers, while every news channel beamed with reports of the same.And all this, despite that this was not what one would call 'breaking news'.
A trip back to the month of March this year and one would recall the hype surrounding payment packets offered to Gaurav Agarwal and Venkatesh Shankaraman, both students of IIM, Bangalore. While Venkatesh was offered Rs 30 lakh per month — the highest domestic offer, Gaurav received the highest ever offer abroad with 193,000 USD.
Come every year and much is made of the whopping salary amounts that are offered to IIM graduates during the months of March and November as part of their summer placements and final placements respectively.
While the packages on offer may sound like a dream come true for most and the media continues to hype the salaries in a bid to prove a point about the booming economy of India, the picture for those concerned is not as rosy as we make it out to be. 'Coz what comes as a minus with the high salary figures being publicised are extortion threats and attracting the undue attention of unscrupulous elements in society.
Fortunately, the management institutes seem to have woken up to the problem as well. Fat salaries that come calling may no longer be a cause for envy any more as the Indian Institute of Management, Bangalore has decided not to release the salary's stipend figures during placements from this year on.
The institute's decision comes as a follow up to the apprehensions of the two high flying IIM-B grads who drafted a mail to the director of the Institute that read as: "Salary details, especially when they are above normal compensation levels, tend to catch the attention of unscrupulous elements in society and could cause immense physical and psychological distress for those involved. It has also caused a lot of personal problems for us."
Says Saurav Mukherjee, chairperson (placements) at IIM, Bangalore,"It is a collective decision. Everyone right from the director to the dean and the students themselves have agreed to the move which is being viewed as a favourable one. Every person knows how much an IIM graduate is worth. So, there is really no need to publicise the figures. IIMs have failed to maintain the confidentiality clause that prevents them from publicly disclosing salary figures offered by the companies that come to campus. This will, for sure, benefit students largely."
Placement officer at IIM Bangalore, GK Nagraj has yet another point to add apart from the increasing risk factors involved. "By just publicising salary figures, we are also setting the wrong kind of example. The value-based education that is imparted here is also being largely overlooked. Everyone seems to have gotten heavily trapped into the money game. The step that we have taken now shall surely benefit one and all."
Director of IIM Lucknow, Dr Devi Singh, also feels that such a move is more than welcome. "We had been rooting for this for quite a while now. And it is indeed good to see that finally, institutes all across are waking up to it. The immense interest surrounding salary figures being offered to IIM graduates is indeed a cause for concern. There is no dearth of unwanted elements in society who are looking for an opportunity to make money. The salary one draws is very much a personal thing. Why should the world be privy to the amount that one is getting paid? Just because you are from a reputed institute like IIM and some of the best companies come knocking on your door, doesn't mean the world can know how much you are getting paid. It doesn't make sense to not be able to enjoy the perks of the fruits of your labour that you have put in all these years. So, it is very important that all institutes take a similar take on this and stop disclosing salary and stipend figures, particularly if it’s above par," he says.
But what is it that prompts salary figures from being public? Explaining the reason for this is placement officer at IIM Ahmedabad, Praveen, "One is the high competition factor among the IIMs in terms of the companies that they are
able to attract on campus for placement purpose. But it is not only IIMs who are responsible for disclosing high salaries. Very often, it gets leaked through the companies that come to campus as well and are at loggerheads to prove their mettle. In the process, students get to suffer from unnecessary pressure. They are flooded with queries from all sources and have the world breathing down their necks, media glares and all that. This kind of tension that big bucks bring with them is very unfortunate. It is okay to give out figures on an average so that placements can be evaluated but highlighting salaries of certain very high paid students should be a strict no-no," says Praveen.
Prashant Swaminathan, student and member of the placement committee at IIM Joka says institutes should also stick to their stand and not go in reverse gear as and when the situation arises. "We always make sure that individual salary figures are never given out. Only the average figures are given out. This goes a long way in setting an example to other students and the ones aspiring to get into the IIMs," he says.
For once we hope the IIMs stick to the proposed clause keeping in mind the plight of the students. Extortion threats in lieu of big bucks could be a hefty price to pay.
May turn sour. If you’re lucky enough to be one of the 90-odd aspirants for an IIM seat, chances are you needn’t worry about job freezes. But what if you get an extortion threat?
Placements and salaries offered have become an interest point for the media and by extension, it becomes an avenue of competition among B-schools. It’s not only a means to improve brand equity (which it undoubtedly does), the tantalisingly revealed details are also a road to one-upmanship.