Consulting is, hands down,
the most sought-after domain for MBA students at India's leading business schools. For these students, it is a dream to work with the holy trinity of Consulting firms - McKinsey, BCG and Bain, also known as the MBB firms. So, how many IIM graduates really end up working with the MBB firms? What percentage of IIM alumni are Consultants at the Big Four? Do graduates of MICA and SIBM Pune work with MBB and other top Consulting firms? Where is the highest IIM ABCLIK and ISB alumni concentration? If you're an IIM grad., where are you likely to end up? To find out, we bring to you the latest iteration of the InsideIIM Alumni Report!
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What Is The Alumni Report? What Data Is It Based On?
The Alumni Report series, which first began in 2012, is an analysis of the concentration of alumni of top b-schools at India's most desirable companies to work with, as per MBA students and graduates. This series aims to answer the all-important question - where are MBA graduates from top b-schools working now? For current MBA students, this report aims to provide an estimate of which top companies have the highest concentration of their respective institutes' alumni.
The Alumni Reports are based on secondary research involving the collection of publicly available data on LinkedIn. Given that this method of data collection has its limitations, the data provided is best interpreted as an estimate. It is advised that the reader interpret the tables below cautiously.
What Are The Contents of This Report?
This report has been split into two clusters based on the years in which the top b-schools considered for this report were established. The rationale behind such as a selection criterion is to ensure that the alumni base is strong and comparable for the b-schools under comparison. For a more detailed explanation, please refer to the section titled 'Methodology' in this report.
The report has been further split into two sub-clusters for each of the two primary clusters. These two sub-clusters are:
- Company-wise Slicing, i.e., the percentage of alumni of all b-schools at a particular company (view row-wise).
- B-School wise Slicing, i.e., the percentage of alumni of a particular b-school at all companies (view column-wise).
InsideIIM Alumni Report - Analysis For Business Schools Established Pre-1966
The table above contains the raw data for Indian b-schools established before 1966. Please note the following:
- Relevant filters have been applied in the research process. However, the existence of anomalies is also quite possible. So, there can be a positive or negative variance from the actual figures.
- All possible businesses of the companies have been considered. For instance, numbers under ‘Deloitte’ consist of relevant employees at Deloitte India, Deloitte Consulting, Deloitte (Offices of the US), etc.
- In this report, a higher number does not equal more influence on 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 subjectivity involved.
What is immediately clear from the heatmap above is that, amongst India's top-ranked and oldest institutes, alumni of IIM Ahmedabad and IIM Calcutta make up the bulk of MBA alumni at India's most sought-after Consulting firms to work with. At the MBB firms, three out of every four Consultants are alumni of IIM Ahmedabad and IIM Calcutta. Alumni of these institutes also make up the majority at the Big Four.
The concentration of XLRI alumni is also significant, with XLers making up over twenty percent of employees at Accenture, EY, KPMG, and IBM. The alumni presence of FMS graduates is notable at Strategy&.
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The heatmap above suggests that if you graduate from any of the listed business schools in this cluster and step into a Consulting role, your chances of ending up at IBM and Accenture are very high, given the high alumni concentration at these MNCs. Alumni concentration is also relatively high at Capgemini and Deloitte. Firms where concentration of alumni is lowest is at the Tata Strategic Management Group, Strategy&, and Oliver Wyman.
InsideIIM Alumni Report 2021 - Analysis For Business Schools Established Post-1966
The table above comprises the raw data for Indian business schools established post-1966. Please note the following:
- Relevant filters have been applied in the research process. However, the existence of anomalies is also quite possible. So, there can be a positive or negative variance from the actual figures.
- All possible businesses of the companies have been considered. For instance, numbers under ‘Deloitte’ consist of relevant employees at Deloitte India, Deloitte Consulting, Deloitte (Offices of the US), etc.
- In this report, a higher number does not equal more influence on 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.
- 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 the research will minimise such anomalies.
- The data for IIM Kozhikode are to be treated with caution, given previous technical glitches resulting in incorrect mapping IIM K alumni on LinkedIn.
IIM Bangalore and the Indian School of Business - both known for their Consulting placements - dominate the heatmap of alumni concentration at India's most desirable Consulting firms to work with. The combined strength of both IIM B and ISB alumni at the MBB firms is approximately fifty percent. As per the table above, IIM Bangalore alumni make up over half of all alumni at three of the fifteen firms listed in this report.
MICA and SIBM Pune alumni have the least representation at the listed Consulting firms. This is not a surprising trend given that Consulting is not amongst even the top three most sought-after domains for students at these institutes.
As per the overall numbers, alumni concentration in this cluster is highest at Accenture, Deloitte and EY. These firms recruit in large numbers at business schools, including at MICA and SIBM Pune. At the IIMs, the top five companies where alumni concentration is highest are Accenture, Deloitte, IBM, EY, and PwC. One in five IIM Bangalore or ISB alumni works at one of either McKinsey, BCG or Bain.
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How We Made This Report - Methodology & Limitations
The following methodology was followed while compiling data and creating this Alumni Report.
B-School & Company Selection
The various ‘top business schools’ in this report have been selected based on year of establishment. The various companies in this report are the Top-15 companies from our report on the
Most Desirable Consulting Firms of 2020/2021.
Cluster-wise Segmentation
In order to ensure that the alumni base of the various business schools is 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:
Limitations Of The Report
As mentioned at the beginning, certain limitations of the research process prevent us from arriving at conclusions with pinpoint 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 Consulting firms. 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 program, 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 programs, and those who have pursued a PGDM program.
How can we improve this report? Please let us know in the comments below. We look forward to your valuable feedback.
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.