A handful of students of the Indian Institutes of Management (IIMs) skip the placement process every year to chase a dream — that of starting their own ventures. The IIM-Ahmedabad feels this spirit of entrepreneurship should be encouraged, and protected.
Starting this year, the institute has decided to provide a ‘safety valve’ to such students who dare to go it alone, rejecting the lucrative salaries top global companies routinely offer to its alumni. According to new rules framed by the institute’s placement committee this year, those who opt out of the placement process can now appear for campus interviews for the next two years in case their ventures fail.
It is not that any IIM-A student who opted out of the placement process in the past failed in his own venture, said Prof Piyush Sinha, chairman of the IIM-A placement committee. But the new rule was to encourage students to take the entrepreneurial risk. “The cushion of two more chances will also help the students to withstand the pressure from parents to get a ‘decent job’,” said Sinha.
About 10 of the 250 Post-Graduate Diploma in Management students are likely to stay out of this year’s placement process, which began on Thursday. Four of them have already announced plans to launch a lingerie line.
{{/usCountry}}About 10 of the 250 Post-Graduate Diploma in Management students are likely to stay out of this year’s placement process, which began on Thursday. Four of them have already announced plans to launch a lingerie line.
{{/usCountry}}Last year, six students spurned lucrative job offers to start their own ventures; in 2005, two had shunned the placement process.