Dear Friends,

January springs hope in all of us. We wipe our slates clean and begin anew. It is a time for course correction through resolutions while being mindful of the bigger picture. This is also the time when the Financial Times announces its B-school rankings. This year we are ranked at 20. Last year we were at 13. Those of us who study these rankings in depth over the years have seen this happen often, but for a casual watcher these swings can be inexplicable. The rankings are relative measures, so the rank going up does not necessarily mean you are doing better, nor does a lower rank mean you did something poorly. In any case, you always do what you think is right for the school, irrespective of its impact on ranking. Faculty research is of great importance to us and in this area we have moved up, but I would want us to do much better in this measure, and be in the top 50. So, we use the data from the ranking to see what good practices we can learn from the other schools that have done well on each parameter (HKUST in research, for example) so that we continue to provide the best business education to our students. 

The School has also been busy with placements that began this month. As we send out another highly-qualified class of students who are eager to prove their mettle and test their learning in the outside world, I continue to oppose placement statistics as a measure of the worth of their education. I am pleased that many schools are refraining from announcing the “highest salary.” There is also a welcome move to standardise the components of the compensation package, this will provide more clarity to the potential students.  In the absence of credible data that can guide an applicant’s choice of B-schools, most rely on “salary post qualification” as a measure. As B-school leaders, we owe it to our future students, to come up with more meaningful and useful information. I welcome your comments and suggestions in this regard.

In this year, I hope we can keep improving on all parameters that define a good school.

I look forward to hearing from you. Do write to me at ajit_rangnekar@isb.edu.

With Regards,
Ajit Rangnekar