Alumni Report - Consumer Goods - 2019

In the first Cluster of B-schools, a striking observation is the high percentage of alumni from XLRI and NITIE in the top-15 Consumer Goods companies, indicating that specializations may improve your chances of getting into the likes of Unilever, Nestle, ITC and P&G, which also appear to be the most attractive employers for graduates of top B-schools. Other important observations include the prominence of alumni from IIM Calcutta across these top companies, as well as the fact that 50% of the total IIM A alumni in this report are working at the Top-3 companies in this report.

In the second Cluster of B-schools, IIM Lucknow, SPJIMR and NMIMS are the stand-out B-schools in terms of concentration of alumni. Once again, alumni at Unilever, ITC, Nestle and P&G make-up nearly 50% of the total alumni of the B-schools in this Cluster. Unilever comes out as the undisputed most desirable Consumer Goods company amongst the alumni of nearly all the B-schools in this report.

Also to be noted is the decent representation of alumni from MICA and SIBM Pune, which are new entrants to this report. This goes on to show that unlike our observations across other industries like Consulting, Consumer Goods companies don't seem to have any 'IIM' filters and hire across all the top campuses in India.

Find out more about how we created this report.

Analysis For B-Schools Established Before 1966

The table above comprises the raw data for Indian business schools established prior to 1966. Please note the following:

1. While relevant filters regarding roles and domains were applied in the research process, the existence of anomalies is possible. Therefore, there may be a positive or negative variance from the actual figures.
2. All possible businesses of the companies have been considered. For instance, numbers under ‘Accenture’ consist of relevant employees at Accenture Strategy, Accenture Technology etc.
3. In this report, a higher number does not equal more influence of alumni of specific business schools. The seniority of alumni, quality and diversity of roles play a bigger part. Unfortunately, this cannot be captured with exact accuracy given the paucity of time and subjectivity involved.

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Company-Wise Slicing: Alumni Of Top Business Schools As A Percentage Of  The Total Number Of Alumni Of Each Company

Cells for companies where %age of total alumni of a B-school ≥ 20% have been highlighted in Blue.

Observations

• XLRI and NITIE are, yet again, the prominent B-schools in this cluster, with maximum percentage of alumni across all the top-15 Consumer Goods companies. This has been the trend ever since the inception of the Alumni Report series, and the fact that the alumni of institutes offering specialisations are in higher concentration across these companies could be significant.
• Amongst the top-3 companies, NITIE Mumbai, XLRI and IIM Calcutta have the maximum representation of alumni, and the percentage of alumni from IIM A is also significant.
• Unilever, P&G, ITC and Nestle - 4 of the behemoths of the FMCG industry - make up more than 50% of the total alumni numbers across the top-15 companies in the industry. In 2018, Unilever, P&G and ITC alone made up 37% of the numbers, and this year that has risen to 41%. On the other end of the spectrum, Kellogg, Britannia, Marico and L'Oreal have minimum representation of alumni from the B-schools in this cluster.
• All B-schools in this report have a decent representation across the 15 companies, with IIM Calcutta, NITIE Mumbai and XLRI taking the cake.
• IIFT, TISS and JBIMS do not cross the 20% mark yet again in any of the 15 companies in this report, though of course, this could be because these B-schools have the smallest batch sizes across all B-schools in this cluster, thereby giving a natural advantage to their counter-parts.

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School-Wise Slicing: Alumni of Top Business Schools As A Percentage Of Overall No. Of Alumni Of Respective B-Schools

Cells for B-schools where %age of alumni at a particular company ≥ 15% have been highlighted in Blue.

Observations

• 50% of IIM Ahmedabad's alumni in the listed companies appear to be in the Top-3 companies in this report, and the same is nearly true for alumni of IIM Calcutta as well. In fact, over 30% of alumni of each B-school in this Cluster are at the Top-3 companies, with the exception of TISS Mumbai. Clearly, these companies are right at the top for a reason, and make for highly attractive employers.
• Once again, Unilever, P&G and ITC are the companies in this report where alumni of most B-schools can be found. Though not in the Top-3, clearly, ITC is a highly attractive employer, and if you're from IIFT, TISS or XLRI, your chances of landing up in there are quite high.

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Analysis For B-Schools Established After 1966

The table above comprises the raw data for Indian business schools established post-1966. Please note the following:

1. While relevant filters regarding roles and domains were applied in the research process, the existence of anomalies is possible. Therefore, there may be a positive or negative variance from the actual figures.
2. All possible businesses of the companies have been considered. For instance, numbers under ‘Accenture’ consist of relevant employees at Accenture Strategy, Accenture Technology etc.
3. In this report, a higher number does not equal more influence of alumni of specific business schools. The seniority of alumni, quality and diversity of roles play a bigger part. Unfortunately, this cannot be captured with exact accuracy given the paucity of time and subjectivity involved.

Disclaimer – The figures at NMIMS Mumbai may be heavily influenced by the alumni of NMIMS who may have pursued a non-MBA undergraduate degree from NMIMS, though the filters applied during research will minimise such anomalies. 

Additionally, it must be noted that IIM Kozhikode figures must be taken with a pinch of salt, considering that due to a technical glitch on LinkedIn, the absolute numbers are likely to be a misrepresentation of the actual figures of IIM-K alumni at these top-15 Consumer Goods companies. 

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Company-Wise Slicing: Alumni Of Top Business Schools As A Percentage Of  The Total Number Of Alumni Of Each Company

Cells for companies where %age of total alumni of a B-school ≥ 20% have been highlighted in Blue.

Observations

• Columns belonging to NMIMS Mumbai, SPJIMR and IIM Lucknow are the most prominent in this Cluster of B-schools, yet again. However, what's more interesting is that MICA and SIBM, B-schools with the smallest batch-sizes across all these B-schools, may not cross the 20% mark but are still well-represented when compared with other B-schools in this report. Unlike in the Alumni Report - Consulting, Consumer Goods companies do not cherry-pick talent from only the IIMs, but are also large recruiters at other top campuses.
• Once again, Unilever, P&G, ITC and Nestle make up nearly 50% of the total number of alumni across all B-schools in this Cluster. Coca-Cola, Colgate-Palmolive, Kellogg and Britannia have the least percentage of alumni from these B-schools, making up only 10% of the total.
• All B-schools in this report have a fair representation across all the top companies in this report, though IIM Indore is relatively underrepresented when compared to the other B-schools in this Cluster.

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School-Wise Slicing: Alumni of Top Business Schools As A Percentage Of Overall No. Of Alumni Of Respective B-Schools

Cells for B-schools where %age of alumni at a particular company ≥ 15% have been highlighted in Blue.

Observations

• The top row of the table above says it all - Unilever is, without a doubt, one of the most attractive recruiters and is clearly the most desirable Consumer Goods company amongst not just MBA alumni, but also amongst students and even MBA aspirants!
• Once again, a minimum of 30% of the alumni of most B-schools in this Cluster are at the top-3 Consumer Goods companies in this report. MICA, the Mecca for Marketing, has good representation across L'Oreal and Unilever, while SIBM Pune has a significant percentage of alumni at ITC Limited.

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Methodology

B-School & Company Selection

The various ‘top business schools’ in this report have been picked up from the InsideIIM MBA Rankings for 2019. The various companies in this report are the Top-15 companies from our report on the Most Desirable FMCG Companies of 2018/2019.

Cluster-wise Segmentation

In order to ensure that the alumni base of the various business schools are comparable and not vastly different, we segmented the 18 business schools in this report into 2 clusters: Pre-1966 and Post-1966. As there was no top B-school established between 1965 and 1973, the cut-off year chosen for dividing the schools is taken to be 1965.

The following business schools have been considered for this report:

MICA Ahmedabad and SIBM Pune are new entrants in this series and are two of India’s most desirable business schools with a rich history and a relatively large alumni base, having been established decades ago.

Limitations Of The Report

As mentioned at the beginning, certain limitations of the research process prevent us from arriving at conclusions with pin-point accuracy. Some of the major limitations are:

· Not everyone is on LinkedIn: B-school alumni may not necessarily have registered on LinkedIn, therefore not giving a comprehensive overview of the actual figures of alumni concentration at some of the world’s most well-known and reputed Consumer Goods companies.

It is also possible that those on LinkedIn may not necessarily update their profiles, thereby giving erroneous or incomplete employment data.

· Not everyone is a B-school student: Unfortunately, LinkedIn does not allow one to filter out MBA graduates from the crowd, and therefore, it is difficult to distinguish between MBA alumni and those who have pursued a certificate course, those who have pursued a short-term duration programme, or summer interns at the companies mentioned in this report. Additionally, for institutes such as NMIMS Mumbai that offer multiple courses, there are chances of errors in attempting to distinguish between NMIMS alumni who have pursued undergraduate programmes, and those who have pursued a PGDM programme.

How can we improve this report? Please let us know in the comments below. We look forward to your valuable feedback.

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You may also be interested in reading our Recruitment Survey reports to find out which are the most desirable recruiters on B-schools campuses, and in the minds of MBA aspirants as well as MBA graduates.