Navigating the slowdown by B Schools & Engg Colleges

I was recently invited to be a panelist by Business Standard and one of the questions that was asked was about the Slowdown and hence hiring pressures.

Indeed there is some slowdown much contrary to what happened during COVID when business actually boomed and surprised the IT & BPO industry. Cloud happened - online commerce grew - we adapted to Work From Home and productivity rose.

I think from 2023 onwards global tensions arose. Ukraine, India elections, China, Israel all contributed to dampening the sentiments. Discretionary spending is down and the focus has been on keeping the lights on.

At the same time, of late, things have started to look up ever so slightly if you go by the results that are getting announced. Hiring indications are back at the campuses. And yet it is not the same as before. Besides during the bull run, B schools and Engg colleges have proliferated in the country. The supply has gone up a great deal. And even a moderate dip in demand seems to have a catastrophic outcome.

In the meantime over the past 6 quarters, IT firms have used the opportunity to rationalize further. The advent of AI has helped a great deal too. Companies have taken a hard look at the middle management that got bloated during the boom. Right sizing, role redundancies and weeding out poor performers has resulted in increased availability of talent. Professionals are willing to work for much less - "Hey I just want a job"

The next milestone is the US elections. And till then investments will remain muted and the US market will not be a major driver of global business growth. Even after the elections, much will depend on the outcome and the nature of the government that will be formed.

Luckily the Manufacturing industry is looking up, so are Defense and Infrastructure in India. Hospitality & Tourism are also going big. There is huge push towards digitization by the Indian government. Pharma and Healthcare are also likely to be hiring.

So this is the good news.

The bad news is that students who have to come to expect the goodies provided by the IT industry will have to adapt

1. The flexibility in work hours and work from home will likely be much less.
2. Salary raises and bonuses will be realistic. (Remember that it's the services industry that makes upwards of 15% EBITDA)
3. There will no large college like campuses and the food courts and the tennis court.
4. Location choices maybe limited.
5. Overseas assignments will be few and far in between, if at all.

So what should Tier 2-3-4 colleges do to adapt.

Of course, be realistic and prepare the students. Bring in courses, assignments, internships and visiting professors from these industries.

Woo them, travel to these firms and invite their HR and Business Leaders on your panel discussions. Ask them if they will teach some courses. Ideate with them jointly on academia industry collaboration.

One area where colleges may wish to put undue efforts is in building ATTITUDE.

ATTITUDE trumps APTITUDE any day and yet not much systematic efforts have been made to build ATTITUDE.

Let me go on a limb here and recommend the FLY (Find the Leader in You) program run by CMI (www.competitivenessmindset.org ) a Not For Profit organization incorporated in Princeton, NJ, USA.

Using state of the art well researched methodology, CMI trains youth in 5 traits viz

• Conscientiousness
• Perseverance
• Problem Solving
• Innovativeness
• Taking Initiative

This is something that Tier 2-3-4 colleges may wish to consider!!!!

#PadiHaiwithKG

www.krishnagopal.com