IIMs top management rankings
IIMs continue to rule the roost as per survey by NHRDN and Shine.com
The prestigious Indian Institutes of Management have once again topped the 2017 management institutes rankings by National HRD Network (NHRDN) and Shine.com. Given that there is no dearth of rankings, the key aspect that stakeholders are using to determine to trust the veracity of rankings is credibility. Six years ago when the first NHRDN B-School ranking was conducted, it was based entirely on quantitative data without employing any qualitative component. The methodology involves a research partner (Cinque Education Pvt Ltd) and senior NHRDN corporate representatives spending an entire day at the participating B-School to verify the data they have shared. Following are the key attributes of NHRDN B-School rankings:
Holistic Parameters for Evaluating a BSchool
The process looks at the most comprehensive and holistic definition of what it means to be a B-School, and focusses on all the three elements of knowledge creation, knowledge application, and knowledge dissemination, rather than being myopic and skewed towards only one parameter.
Key Focus on Leadership and Governance
Success and future direction of any organization depends on the Leadership and Governance, and B-Schools are no exception. NHRDN Ranking evaluates Leadership and Governance related components in a robust manner.
Unique Triangulation Approach
Globally, research mechanisms are increasingly employing triangulation methods to ensure the validity of data collected. NHRDN ranking process also uses triangulation method to ensure data correctness.
Involvement of Industry Stalwarts
NHRDN B-School Ranking process further stands out as the only process, in which Industry stalwarts are involved at all the stages. The advisory board led by P Dwarakanath, director (Group Human Capital) – Max India consists of industry stalwarts like Rajeev Dubey, president (HR, After-Market & Corporate Services) and member, group execu tive board – Mahindra & Mahindra, Dr. Ritu Anand, senior vice president and deputy head, global HR, Tata Consultancy Services, A Sudhakar, executive director (HR) – Dabur India Limited, Rajeev Krishnan, managing director India – Korn Ferry, R Anand, senior vice president (HR), HCL Technolgies, Mr A D Burman, AVP, HR, Maruti Suzuki India Limited, among others. The Advisory Board also reviews the research instrument exhaustively every year and suggests changes to make the instrument more relevant.
Explaining about the process, Dwarakanath said, “The entire endeavour is to create a ranking process, which is foolproof, contemporary, and holistic in nature and caters to all the stakeholders”.
Involvement of academics
The ranking process also includes soliciting the views from academia every year towards making the research instrument more contemporary and also seeks their feedback to make the process further robust. The process gains tremendously from the inputs of these thought leaders including Dr Pritam Singh, Dr B A Metri, Dr Gautam Dr H Chaturvedi among others. According to Dr Pritam Singh, “The NHRDN Ranking process is a rigorous, data-based and objective exercise and has the potential to turn into an accreditation exercise in coming years”.
The NHRDN Ranking study for the year has revealed some interesting highlights about the B-Schools.
First, there is a growing trend among Indian B-Schools to opt for international accreditations, which points towards their commitment to quality standards and dreams of competing globally.
Second, the research output across B-Schools has shown an increase in terms of absolute numbers, but quality output is still restricted to certain top B-Schools, where there is a lot of scope of improvement.
Third, leadership and governance across Indian B-Schools remains a concern and has tremendous improvement opportunities.
Fourth, placements across B-Schools have shown improvement in the previous year, and the outlook remains positive.
Finally, some of the new IIMs are also making their mark, but older private B-Schools are still holding the fort. The complete ranking can be viewed at www.nationalhrd.org.