The survey revealed the following trends.
Highlights of the survey
India's most desirable General Management recruiter is the Tata Administrative Services (TAS), the leadership program which has been run by the TATA group for decades in India. For all three segments of respondents - Current MBA Students, MBA Alumni, and MBA Aspirants, TAS is the most desirable leadership program to work with and has been ever since the inception of the InsideIIM Recruitment Survey series.
Also in the Top-3 is the Aditya Birla Group Leadership Programs, one of India's largest and most desirable conglomerates to work with. It is also worth mentioning that ABG is the only Indian company to feature in the InsideIIM Recruitment Survey report on the Top-10 Dream Companies of India. ABGLP clearly has a strong brand presence in the minds of the MBA community and has been, along with TAS, one of the most desirable leadership programmes to work with for over half a decade.
A new entrant to the list of most desirable General Management recruiters is the Godrej Group, a debutant in this series. General Electric, a regular feature in not just the Top-10 but the Top-5, has been edged out of the Top-3 by South Korean giant Samsung in the overall rankings of this report. GE still remains one of the Top-5 most desirable companies to work with.
Current MBA Students
To answer the question at the beginning of this report - TAS, ABG, and GE continue to dominate these rankings and have created a strong brand for themselves on B-school campuses. Once again, these conglomerates have proven to be the first-choice for MBA students looking to join their well-structured Leadership Programmes and work for some of the world's top organisations.
Making its debut to the Top-5 for the first time ever is Samsung, yet another conglomerate with a global market share greater than even Apple in the mobile industry. Samsung has become one of the most exciting and innovative companies over the years, challenging the status quo and pushing boundaries.
Another conglomerate making its debut in not just the Top-5, but even the Top-10 is the Godrej Group, one of India's most popular brands, and also a good pay-master, as one XIMB student found out in 2018. The Godrej Group has also scaled up it's hiring in 2018, giving out a total of 37 PPOs and hiring from even the so-called tier-2 business schools. Since 2012, the conglomerate has also been building its brand on B-school campuses through Godrej LOUD, its campus competition.
Mahindra continues to be one of the most sought after companies on campus. The Mahindra GMC program is among India's finest programs for MBA graduates.
Reliance Industries Limited (RIL), which made a comeback to the Top-10 in 2017 at 8th place, has moved up marginally to the 7th position. This could be attributed to the growing presence of Jio, becoming India's 2nd largest Telecom company in terms of market share in a space of just a few years, putting RCom out of business and giving other service providers a run for their money.
Oil and Energy giant Royal Dutch Shell, the world's 5th largest company in terms of revenue, made its debut to the Top-5 in 2015 continues to enjoy preference among the top general management recruiters' list in India.
Philips, which made its debut to the Top-5 and Top-10 in 2015, slipped down to the 10th position in 2017 and has stayed there in 2018. Perhaps the carrot of a joining bonus that Philips offers to fresh campus recruits is not appealing enough.
It is interesting to note that for the first time in 5 years, 50% of the companies featuring in the Top-10 are Indian.
| Rank | Most Desirable General Management Recruiters For MBA Students InsideIIM Recruitment Survey - 2018 |
| 1 | TATA Administrative Service (TAS) |
| 2 | Aditya Birla Group |
| 3 | General Electric (GE) |
| 4 | Samsung |
| 5 | Godrej |
| 6 | Mahindra |
| 7 | Reliance Industries Limited |
| 8 | Honda |
| 9 | Shell |
| 10 | Philips |
MBA Alumni
For MBA students, brand perception at a B-school can be influenced through campus engagement activities and case competitions. However, MBA alumni have a real perspective of what goes on behind the scenes via communication with seniors and batchmates.
For post-MBA professionals, once again, the Tata Administrative Services is the most desirable organisation to work with. With the exception of 2015, when the Mahindra Group dethroned TAS from the 1st position, the TATA subsidiary has been consistently no.1 as the most desirable General Management recruiter. TAS is open only for people below the age of 27. And many people from other TATA group companies are eligible to be part of TAS which still makes it aspirational. The Aditya Birla Group is the 2nd most desirable company to work with for MBA alumni, indicating that the quality of work, growth prospects and the steep learning curve exists even beyond the LEAP and LEAD programmes.
This year, the Godrej Group has entered the fray and has announced its presence as one of the Top-3 most desirable companies to join for General Management roles. What has Godrej done in 2018 that has caught the attention of prospective employees? One noticeable initiative of The Godrej Group has been experimentation with new ways to market their work culture. For instance, in January 2018, they released this rap video featuring Godrej employees which received 4.3 million views. Its CSR activities and inclusive work environment have also brought its name to the headlines.
Contrary to the perspective of B-school students, Oil and Energy giant Shell remains one of the most desirable companies to work with, in 2018. It shares the 4th place with Japanese MNC Honda, and General Electric, which has slipped down from the 2nd position when compared to data of 2016 and 2015.
The survey finds that the viewpoints of MBA students and alumni differ further, as MBA Alumni rank Philips as a more desirable recruiter at 5th place, while students wouldn't go that far and rank the Dutch conglomerate 10th. Clearly, Philips needs to up its campus engagement game and generate significant interest in B-school students, because it clearly has a lot more to offer than what it is currently revealing.
| Rank | Most Desirable General Management Recruiters For MBA Alumni InsideIIM Recruitment Survey - 2018 |
| 1 | TATA Administrative Service (TAS) |
| 2 | Aditya Birla Group |
| 3 | Godrej |
| 4 | Shell; Honda; General Electric (GE) |
| 5 | Philips; Samsung; Mahindra |
| 6 | Cisco |
| 7 | Hyundai; Nissan |
| 8 | Siemens |
| 9 | Cipla |
| 10 | Dell |
MBA Aspirants
Generally, for MBA aspirants, these rankings are influenced heavily by brand perception. Via platforms such as InsideIIM, they become aware of corporate competitions, top campus recruiters, summer internship experiences etc. which helps in creating an image of a company. Interaction with MBA students and interaction via corporate platforms like LinkedIn help create a brand recall in MBA aspirants when it comes to employment opportunities and desirability. All of this is, of course, driven by the personal biases an aspirant may have towards companies mentioned in the InsideIIM Recruitment Survey.
For MBA Aspirants, the TATA Group is one of the most desirable organisations to work with, and they have chosen TAS and TATA Steel as two of the most desirable companies to work with. With the launch of Jio and its rapid success, Reliance Industries Limited has also become one of the most desirable companies to work with and is ranked 3rd in 2018, after a brief exit from the Top-10 in 2017.
General Electric has dropped to the 4th place from 2nd place in 2017. However, GE along with Mahindra and TAS is the only company which has never dropped out of the Top-5 most desirable General Management Recruiters.
For MBA aspirants, Samsung has exited the Top-10 in 2018, the first time the South Korean mobile giant has slipped out in 5 years.
| Rank | Most Desirable General Management Recruiters For MBA Aspirants - InsideIIM Recruitment Survey 2018 |
| 1 | TATA Administrative Service (TAS) |
| 2 | Samsung; Aditya Birla Group; Tata Steel |
| 3 | Reliance Industries Limited |
| 4 | General Electric (GE) |
| 5 | Mahindra |
| 6 | Nissan |
| 7 | Godrej; Hinduja Group |
| 8 | Dell |
| 9 | Robert Bosch; Honda |
| 10 | Shell |
Overall Rankings
| Rank | Top-15 Most Desirable General Management Recruiters - InsideIIM Recruitment Survey 2018 | Average Desirability Score (Out of 10) |
| 1 | TATA Administrative Service (TAS) | 8.69 |
| 2 | Aditya Birla Group | 8.33 |
| 3 | Samsung | 8.07 |
| 4 | General Electric (GE) | 8.03 |
| 5 | Godrej | 7.97 |
| 6 | Mahindra | 7.90 |
| 7 | Reliance Industries Limited | 7.74 |
| 8 | Honda | 7.70 |
| 9 | Shell | 7.64 |
| 10 | Tata Steel | 7.62 |
| 11 | Nissan | 7.59 |
| 12 | Philips | 7.57 |
| 13 | Hyundai | 7.54 |
| 14 | Dell | 7.50 |
| 15 | Cisco | 7.21 |
The overall rankings are an average of the desirability scores across all three segments of respondents to give an overview of which companies make up the MBA community’s list of the Top-10 most desirable General Management recruiters.
Please feel free to let us know your views, queries and suggestions around this report in the comments below.
You may also be interested in reading - The Most Desirable Consulting Recruiters - 2018 and How The Campus Recruitment Process At B-schools Can Be Made Better.
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