Unequal pay for equal work: Will women ever get paid at par? My suggestions.

1976 is the year in which Indian Government decided finally that women and men will be paid the same amount of money for the same amount of work. This happened in USA in the 1963 and in UK in 1970. A recent study in UK has shown that women in 2010 were paid 17% less than men at similar level. In US the difference is 13 %. Women in UK have complained that they are perceived to be flippant about ambition and drive and are seen to be just waiting to get married and have kids. It is estimated that at mid management level in the financial sector, the wage difference in London would be around 40 to 60%. That is like working half the year for your employer for free if you are a woman, and anyway, it is a well known fact, that, to get the same amount of respect in the workplace, women need to work twice as hard.

Talk of unfair.

Lets see where India stands. The Equal Remuneration Act seeks to address the issue of payment of unequal wages to men and women. It makes it compulsory for employers to pay women wages equal to those paid to men for performance of the same work.  Section 4(1) states:

"No employer shall pay to any worker, employed by him in an establishment or employment, remuneration, whether payable in cash or in kind, at rates less favourable than those at which remuneration is paid by him to the workers of the opposite sex in such establishment or employment for performing the same work or work of a similar nature."

India has the distinction of being the lowest ranked in gender parity among the BRIC nations. This was revealed in the Gender Gap Report of 2010.


"According to the Annual Survey of Industries of 2004-05 the gender pay gap for regular workers in the formal or organized sector was 57%, which is much higher than among casual workers in the formal sector which was over 35-37%. And in agriculture, where an estimated 60% of all operations are handled exclusively by women, the hourly wage rates vary from 50 to 75% of male rates. In case you thought the gender gap is restricted to the lower levels of workers, a survey done by the World Economic Forum (WEF) last year showed that there is a yawning gender gap in the corporate sector too. The average annual income of a woman is $1,185, less than a third of a man's $3,698 in corporate India. The survey, based on responses of 60 of the 100 best employers in India, showed that women employees held only 10% of the senior management positions in two-thirds of the surveyed companies. The government is no better as an employer. Two of its much touted welfare schemes, Integrated Child Development Services ( ICDS) and National Rural Health Mission (NRHM) — rely on the underpaid work of lakhs of women who are paid "an honorarium" well below the minimum wage." (Times of India article)

Initiatives like www.paycheck.in, by IIM Ahmedabad, has a "salary survey" gives people like me a chance to check my salary vis a vis, industry, region etc. When I tried it, it was not working, but I hope it will work soon and I can check my status. Maybe initiatives like this will be a way to track salaries across industries and levels, as well as cities.

As an ambitious hard working woman who handles home, child and work, while the husband goes to office, comes back and is tortured by the hard choice of lounging on the sofa or bed, I feel terribly short changed. Did women really bite off more than they could chew when they decided they could handle it all, alone! While men had the added benefit of a second income and could go about buying the expensive camera or phone? And what about the men in your own workplace. Could you imagine taking maternity leave for 3 months or a sabbatical and then getting back to work and getting a fair deal out of it? All my girl-friends who have quit their job to have babies are afraid they will be out of the rat race when it comes to the next promotion or salary increase. So some of them are too afraid to quit and continue to work, leaving a 3 month old with a hired nanny, which means guilt, heart break and tears. Men dont have to deal with that. Its not even an option.

Here are some of the companies which have been voted to the top 50 for four consecutive years as "best for women"

• Accenture
• Barclays
• J P Morgan
• KPMG
• Microsoft
• PepsiCo
• PWC
• RBS

So, what if you are not working in a company which takes care of you anyway. According to me here are some pointers a woman can take if she is serious about not being treated unfairly.

• Find out what your market worth is. Job vacancies for similar positions online etc can help.
• What does your company pay: Many companies do not reveal their pay, but if yours do, go for it. Ask HR.
• Take a stand: OK, you are serious about your job and know you do it well. Talk to your line manager. Keep financials on your fingertips. If you are handing a Rs 2 crore project, talk about it and negotiate. Think like the boss. Why should he/she entertain your proposal? If you are bringing something unique to the table, you should be remunerated for it. Have a talk on your ambition and that you will not leave the job once you have a child. Talk about your seriousness and sincerity at the workplace.
• Emotion never takes you anywhere. Believe in yourself, your work and your proposal.
• Learn to negotiate: with numbers, not emotion. Never threaten to resign, you might be asked to do it. Be level headed and remember, your boss can only say "no". 
• Go well prepared into a meeting: Think of what arguments your boss may have against your raise. Prepare answers to them.
• Always do it face to face: An email will only complicate matters and create misunderstandings.

If you, as a woman, feel that you are being short changed in your organization, and your voice is not heard, you might want to get support from your female colleagues facing the same situation or even resort to the law, if push comes to shove.

Best HR Practices

As countries all over the world struggle to come out of the recession, the focus of attention has more than ever before shifted to the HR. The stress is not just to come out of the recession safely but to continue to excel in the fields of sales, customer service and technological innovation. The companies now have to retain talent and have to train, educate and mentor them to provide that extra punch in the days to come. In this scenario, how do some companies come on top of the “Best places to work for” list? Why do employees stick around in one company while in another, there is a high rate of attrition. The answers lie, as always, in the people and policies of the organization.

Here is what 20 years of experience of ‘Great Place to Work’ (www.greatplacetowork.in) say: High levels of trust between employees and managers are a common feature of all companies which feature high in their list consistently. They have thus come upon a “definition” of a great place to work: a place where people "trust the people they work for, have pride in what they do, and enjoy the people they work with". The worth of happiness in a company depends on three kinds of relationship as the company found out- between employees and management, between employees and their company or job, and interpersonal relationship in employees.

The first step towards a great HR policy is to create a recruitment and selection process in tandem with company policies and culture. The best companies in the world like Google, Microsoft, Infosys, lays a lot of stress on a strict entry tests, to take the best talent available. Best Employers like Titan Industries, Bharti and HDFC usually go for the top performers in business schools, or in the industry and then groom them to be top performers and give them an environment to take the company to the next level. GE has a separate program to identify top performers across universities, companies worldwide, and their own workforce, and then train them centrally to take on global issues.

To create good relationship between employees and management a workplace needs to have an open management system with open flow of information where knowledge is shared across the hierarchy. Google Inc has been consistently rated the best company to work for by their employers not only at their headquarters in California, but also here in India. The company owes its success to high level of trust among its employees, low politics and its culture of sharing resources, knowledge and wealth. The work environment in Google is not that of an office but of “dream-houses for these geeks to retire to when they want to create something innovative and state of the art.” Technology thrives on commitment, and Google recognizes commitment, by creating the environment where people can be creative, independent and totally “geeky”!

In fact, the best companies all share the open secrets of creating happy employees. The basis is to build a culture of trust and commitment, as Make My Trip, another success story, believes in. Not only do they align their HR policy to the overall business strategy of the company, they also increase employee commitment and capability by their performance management, potential assessment, competency enhancement, programmes as well as career planning. Building trust is very important, therefore there is complete transparency and fairness in rewards, promotions and hiring. Their performance incentives are part of Best HR practices across industries. Employees get ESOPs and can calculate their own bonuses, which are linked to performance. They also believe in creating a “family atmosphere” in the workplace to create friendly sociable workers. Offsites are common, birthdays and festivals are celebrated in-house. There is a feedback mechanism for all HR practices and communication is encouraged.

Infosys Technologies has been voted best employer for many a year in HR surveys. Though it is one of the biggest employers in India, the company retains its small-company feel and culture. Their selection process is bias free and tough equally for everyone. All employees go through regular training and chosen ones take on higher responsibility. The company was one of the first to offer ESOPs and they have performance linked compensation and reward structures, based on individual, team and company. They also make the workplace safe, by providing health facilities, play facilities, crèche services and on call doctors. Workplace safety and hygiene are the first step to building a happy workplace. Wipro too has laid great stress on this factor. Their Performance management, which includes evaluations and feed-back are regular. Many organizations lay a lot of stress on fair performance management systems with 360 degree appraisals and feedback mechanisms. This gives way to training programs to build competencies and also to highlighting best performers and good reward and recognition facilities. Adi Godrej, chairman of the Rs 7500 crore Godrej group leads the company in stating that employees are his company’s greatest asset, and not brands. He states that his employees have strong performance linked bonus system and are provided stock options at all levels of management.

LG believes in sharing wealth not just within the company but also without, through their CSR activities. To ensure a “culture fit” employees take psychometric tests, and eligible employees are then groomed and trained to not just attain productivity but also encourage innovative problem solving. They have “Pizza Meetings” where communication is encouraged in departments. HR is very active and regularly meet up with employees, and there are help desks to address professional issues. LG also has an internal Energy, Environment, Safety and Health Department, yoga, games and singing clubs, and regular training programmes like the “Joyful Working” program to alleviate stress and reduce stagnation. This has ensured LG to be one of the highest recruiters as well as high productivity in the last years. In fact open house discussions and feedback sessions are a part of many top organizations.

Hospitality and retail are two of the primary industries which need very high customer- employee interaction and the success of companies depend highly on customer satisfaction. In this setting, employee satisfaction is paramount. Marriott makes managers responsible for the satisfaction of subordinates. In training sessions the mentor is called a “buddy”, a precursor of friendly work environment in the organization. “Work- Life Balance” is stressed and there is an employee grievance redressal system in place. The results are all there to see. In 2003 90% of employees surveyed, expressed “great pride” in working for the hotel chain. Taj Group of hotels includes all employees, including contingency workers in their programs. Year 2008-2009 was celebrated as the “Year of the Associate” to engage employees and create a workforce with pride in their employer, enhance morale and take bonding with organization to an all time high.

“Happy Families are all alike, unhappy families are unhappy in their own way” begins Leo Tolstoy in Anna Karenina. Companies are much the same. The benchmarks are simple and are for all to use. A combination of these few HR best practices can make any organization a “happy” place to work for and create productive, committed and loyal employees.

This article has been published in the People and Management magazine from Spearhead Intersearch.

Intersearch Conference in Russia

Intersearch Worldwide had its annual Conference 2011 in St Petersburg in Russia. Intersearch Russia played gracious hosts.

The Annual Conference is a partners meet of course, and I was there as the winner of the Intersearch Training Program, 2011 held in Ghent. My presentation to the partners about how consultants see the future and how Intersearch should change, was well appreciated.

Otherwise it was a time of electing board chairperson/ members/ new members, and it was time of dining, wining and revelry. St Petersburg is an amazing city, a link between the Russia of old and the waiting future, somewhat like my presentation about Practice Groups.

From India, the partners who participated was, Srimanto from Bangalore and Indraneel from Kolkata.

Hospitality industry in India booming

At long last hospitality has "arrived" in the country.
The slump which affected tourism worldwide, did little to affect India as the country gets not just the curious tourist but a large number of business travelers. Also, while the world reeled in the aftermath of a recession, Indians shifted focus from international travel to domestic travel. Domestic tourism is huge in India, amounting to more than 650 million in 2009 itself. 
Large hotel chains are scrambling over each other to find their place in the sun in the metro cities. And not so large hotels are forming chains in the up and coming locations as well as in metros to provide a not-so-expensive option to guests who want service without having to empty their pockets.
On the one hand large chains cant get enough. Carlson will open 19 new hotels which will take the number of hotels this chain has in India to 50 by this year end, and they plan to reach 100 by 2015. Carlson has the brands Radisson®, Country Inns & Suites By Carlson(SM), Park Inn® and Park Plaza®.
In fact across various segments the hotel industry is expected to add 70000 to 80000 rooms in these two years, according to experts.
Several international chains including Sheraton, Holiday Inn, Intercontinental, Hyatt, Radisson, BestWestern, Days Inn, Hilton, Quality Inn, Ramada Inn, Meridien, Kempenski, Four Seasons Regent, Accor, and Marriott International are entering or expanding their hotel network in India.
It is not just large international hotel chains but all sectors cashing in on the trend. We have currently assisted a start up hotel company find their CFO and are still searching for their marketing and operations heads. This particular company is planning to build hotels in the 3-4 star category in locations of pilgrimage importance. The idea is to give the pilgrimage traveler a much better hygienic option than your regular hole in the wall, but at much more reasonable rates than the currently available 5 stars. Thus you also have the hundreds of "boutique hotels" available now in cities, which are actually 2-3 start hotels which are very reasonable and provide clean rooms with good enough amenities for the business traveler.
With India slated to have the largest 10 year growth potential in tourism worldwide, the demand will only grow and hospitality is bound to grow along with it.
(See below for article on jobs in hospitality industry)

Intersearch Academy Program 2011 in Ghent, Belgium

The InterSearch Academy Program for consultants was held in Gent in Belgium this year. The InterSearch Academy was founded in order to share knowledge capital in the InterSearch community of over 90 offices worldwide. This year the participating countries were Brazil, Belgium, Finland, Malaysia, Germany, Japan, India, Ukraine and Hungary. The three trainers were the very experienced and senior members of InterSearch, David Wouters of InterSearch Japan (front row, blue tie), Andras of Hungary (Right behind David) and Michael Gross of Germany (back row, second from right).

The three day program was held at the Gent Marriot hotel and consisted of training program modules, case studies, a Strategic Management presentation competition in groups and a sight seeing dinner tour of the beautiful city of Gent.

The Program was a huge success with lots of active discussions in groups and fierce competition in the Strategy presentation. The company is now planning to make Programs like this a more regular feature in the Academy and include more number of countries, of the 40 countries InterSearch is present in currently.

The main learning for everyone from this program was that different people from different countries and extremely different cultures can come together and form a successful partnership, share ideas. Every country, or region has different problems and provides custom made solutions. Europe is very different in work culture and attitude towards executive search from Asia, yet, partner companies in both places are not just surviving but flourishing with their own set of unique solutions within the wider framework of InterSearch World Wide.

The main need which came out as part of the program is to build more connecting fibres across partner countries, and make InterSearch more saleable in all countries. To build a strategy which provides the most balanced solution to communication lags and using all our global resources to the fullest by everyone concerned. This is the next step in InterSearch Worldwide.

Recruitment rises in sectors seeing growth in India

Retail and business process outsourcing (BPO), information technology enabled services (ITES) sectors saw highest growth in Monster Employment Index India during February 2011. It exceeds last year’s levels by robust 45 per cent and 43 per cent respectively. The index registered an annual growth rate of 21 per cent in February 2011 across all sectors, Monster.com said in a statement.

IT and technology jobs have been seeing an upward trend for some time but what comes as a pleasant surprise is the increase in the rate of retail sector. It is not just in the online segment. Retail and hospitality has in fact been doing quite well in off line recruitment as well. It comes in tune with the definite growth in both sectors in India. It is being predicted retail sales will grow from US$ 353 billion in 2010 to US$ 543.2 billion by 2014 from 2010. The BMI India retail report predicts a golden future for the retail sector in India. There are a few emerging trends in retail. First among them is the growth of organized retail in tier 2 and 3 cities as well as urban areas. The age of local grocery shop is almost over. The other trend is large format retail stores where you get tomatoes to TVs. Rural online sales in retail is rising too. This comes as a surprise but mobile phones and computers have a large buyer base in rural India shopping online. The rise in rural retail sales are forcing many old fashioned brands to form their own e-commerce sites.


The other sector is hospitality. Again, its not just the tier one urban areas which is seeing a spurt in growth in this sector. Apart from the usual 5 star hotel spurt, there is a huge rise in 3 and 4 star hotels in cities like Lucknow and Amritsar. Hotels companies are being formed, and growing. New formats are rising every day. From boutique hotels, "affordable boutique" hotels, "no frills" hotels like Ginger, to hotel chains which concentrate on a particular type of location, like pilgrimage cities, are on the rise. The plan is to give the consumer a good experience at non 5 star prices. And these are selling like hot cakes. Riding on the waves are "Guest House" formats in cities which offer cheap no frill rooms, with only AC and kitchen at very competitive prices. These are catching up with companies with travelling executives as also with lay people like me, who just booked 4 guests of mine at a guest house in Middleton Street, in a weeks notice, at a nominal price of Rs 1400 per room. Food is extra, but there is a kitchen and cook to cook what you wish. Its nominal anyway compared to restaurant prices. Compare it to Park Hotel nearby which charges almost Rs 10,000 per night. An AC room for two days, when I would be sightseeing most of the day, with a cook to cook me chicken butter masala and payesh, at 1/8th the price... I would take it any day!

Sapient wants to STEAL

 

This is Sapient's new take on recruiting for its division. This is part of their new campaign for recruitment is slated to be released in Gurgaon, Noida and Bangaluru. This ad campaign has been created by their US based creative directors, Allison and Bistrong and Matt Ziselman.

Sapient has 3 divisions in India- SapientNitro, Sapeint Global Markets and Sapient Government Services. They are looking to hire for the first two divisons, and are quite tongue in cheek as far as their mathods to recruit are concerned. Poaching is rampant in most industries, more so in IT, but for the first time probably a company owns up to poaching from competitors and are quite objective about it. "Its not a crime to want something better" says Sapient.

All the better for companies like us!
Read more: http://www.techeye.net/business/sapient-says-theres-nothing-wrong-with-poaching-in-india#ixzz18dGvxWjR

Job creation in Indian cities in 3rd Quarter 2010

According to surveys by some major recruitment agencies here is the tally as far as job creation goes among Indian cities.

New Delhi and the NCR region is the largest job market right now, and created more than 1,13,000 jobs this year. The Common Wealth Games are seen as the biggest reason for this spurt in jobs. Ma Foi says that from October to December 2010 more than 44000 jobs have been created.

Mumbai comes a close second with about 1,00,000 jobs. Chennai had a dull start to the year but in the fourth quarter things are expected to look up, with 30000 jobs. Kolkata, Bangalore and Hyderabad together created about 25000 jobs in this quarter and the job scene is significantly looking up in all these cities. Ahmedabad and Pune also shows a spurt in growth with more than 10000 jobs.

Though Naukri says that there was a lull due to the festive season of Diwali, when companies shelve their hiring plans, things are again in action now and companies are hiring at all levels and the three month average has been quite stable.

The best cities for freshers seem to be Delhi, Ahmedabad and Bangalore while for senior profiles the best cities are Chennai, Kolkata and Mumbai.

Hiring is most likely to jump by 20% in 2011 feels HR departments in many companies, especially consumer durables, real estate and telecom. Simultaneously pay packets are on the rise too. The buzz is that the expected rise is about 20% this year. Deloitte and Korn Ferry both feel that there will be recruitment hike in all sectors in India in 2011, with stress on pharma, healthcare, retail, infrastructure, life sciences, as well as manufacturing.


Source: Financial Express/ Hindustan Times

Recruitment likely to remain bullish in December

The July-September period saw a surge in hiring activities in India. 
Out of 9,117 companies surveyed by recruitment firm, Antal International, across 52 countries, 76 per cent of organizations in India made active hirings in the July-September. Attrition rate is also expected to decline during the remainder of 2010 from the September quarter. The result is that for HR heads worldwide the challenge is now shifting from headcount reduction to sourcing talent, as markets are improving. Last quarter 54% firms were hiring as compared to 57% this year.

Globally, Asia stands out as the healthiest jobs market for managers and professionals with 86 per cent hiring trend in Thailand, China (81 per cent), Philippines (80 per cent) and Singapore (79 per cent). Pakistan's relatively poor performance at just 62 per cent also remains impressive by global standards.

The Antal report is based on material sourced from over 9,100 businesses in commerce, industry and the financial services sector across 52 countries in September and October 2010.

"Precision Recruitment"- Path to recruitment future?

Plato, the Greek philosopher and mathematician had said "No two persons are born alike but each differs from the other in individual endowments, one being suited for one thing and another for another, and all things will be provided in superior quality and quantity and with greatest ease, when each man works at a single occupation, in accordance with his natural gifts.”

There was a time when you studied to be a doctor or an engineer, or an IAS officer, otherwise you have already failed in life. Times are better today, with youngsters having multiple options, research in various fields gaining popularity and sanction, out of the way professions are becoming careers- fashion designing, photography, modelling, print/ web based jobs, even BPO... one can aspire to be anything. Yet thousands and thousands of people still go in for the education or job due to parental or peer pressure and end up unhappy in their careers, dont have a career at all or remain unproductive citizens and individuals most of their lives.

Here is a solution as thought out by Envision Talent Management and the Oxford Group of Institutions in Bangalore, the first of its kind in India.

They will use scientific tools to calibrate each student’s potential and then map it to opportunities available. This will ensure quality recruitment for companies, increasing people performance and lowering attrition.

It will align:

• Natural talents that each person is born with
• Acquired abilities that have accrued through formal and non-formal education
• Aspirational attributes that each person desires

The initiative is being launched on 15 November 2010 through a seminar on ‘Corporate Challenges in Employability Skills’ which will have companies and management consulting firms addressing the heads of institutions and students on attitudes, knowledge and skills required to succeed in the modern competitive environment.

Plenty of new jobs and boom sees attrition rates rise

Six sectors are expected to create 2.3 lakh jobs in India in the last three months of 2010, according to global consultancy Ernst and Young. The six sectors are healthcare, real estate, IT/ITeS, education & training, manufacturing and Banking, Financial Services and Insurance (BFSI). Among them, healthcare industry alone is projected to generate 60,000 jobs in fourth quarter of 2010. Real estate and IT/ITes sector, each are expected to create 50,000 jobs. Education & training industry is projected to generate 30,000 jobs. Manufacturing and BFSI sectors would each be churning out 20,000 jobs in the 2010 fourth quarter, E&Y said.

India's booming service sector market is facing attrition rates of 35 percent as workers switch jobs for fatter pay packets, a survey said Saturday. The figures were the latest sign of a pick-up in India's job market from last year's levels, when the economy was still feeling the effects of the global financial crisis.
Those switching jobs at senior level received average raises of 25-30 percent from new employers, the survey conducted by India's Associated Chambers of Commerce and Industry said. The pay hike was 10 to 15 percent for less experienced employees with two to four years' experience, said the survey, which polled 134 human resource heads. India's fast-growing financial services sector saw the biggest attrition rate in the first six months of the year, followed by the information technology sector with 24 percent turnover.

On the other hand, in Education, IIM Lucknow will admit fewer engineering graduates this year, and give more weightage to non engineering students like in medicine, arts, journalism, law, commerce, dentistry and pharmacy. Also SKIL Infrastructure, which recently forayed into the education sector in partnership with University of Strathclyde Business School, will open the Scottish varsity's campus in Noida. This would be the first campus of the university in India and on the cards are Mumbai and Chennai campuses soon. The Noida campus would be functional in September 2011 and more than 1,200 students are expected to join the school. The recruitment process for the academic staff would begin next month. SKIL Group CEO is J P Rai.

Movements in the week

Messe Frankfurt Trade Fairs India Pvt Ltd announced  the appointment of Mr Raj Manek as Managing Director of Messe Frankfurt Trade Fairs India Pvt Ltd. He succeeds Ms Shammi Nagpal who held the positions of Managing Director, Messe Frankfurt Trade Fairs India Pvt Ltd and Regional Director, Asia Pacific, Messe Frankfurt Asia Holding Ltd. Mr Manek is a seasoned exhibition industry executive, he has more than 17 years experience covering Asia and Europe including Russia and the Commonwealth of Independent States. He began his career with P&O Exhibitions which owned London’s Earls Court and Olympia exhibition venues. From 1995 to 1997, he was Finance Manager with Reed Exhibition Companies before joining the ITE Group Plc as Group Operation Finance Director from 1997 to 2001. Before joining Messe Frankfurt in 2009, Mr Manek was Chief Operating Officer for Expomedia Group Plc in India.

Mumbai-based biotechnologist Dr Nimita Limaye has become the first Asian and first woman to be elected global head of the Society of Clinical Data Management based in the United States. At 43, she is also among the youngest to be chosen for the post. SCDM is a global body that plays a key role in providing thought leadership in health care and sets global standards and best practices for managing data pertaining to clinical trials, which are needed to prove the efficacy and safety of every new drug and significant biotechnology product. Over 100 pharmaceutical companies, including Fortune 100 companies such as Pfizer and Merck, are currently outsourcing clinical trials in India. Major players like Siro, where Dr Limaye is vice-president, Cognizant, Wipro, TCS, Mahindra Tech-Satyam, Quintiles, Accenture, IBM, and Intel are part of the Indian clinical data management scene.

Pepsico India gets new CEO

In key top-level changes announced by Pepsi-Co on Monday, its CEO for South East Asia, Manu Anand, will take over as chairman & CEO, PepsiCo's India region from the current incumbent, Sanjeev Chadha, with effect from Jan 1, 2011.

Chadha will take over as PepsiCo's chief for the Middle East & Africa, the company said in a release. He will also be a member of PepsiCo's global leadership team: the PepsiCo Executive Committee. Chadha's new area of responsibility —Middle East & Africa—is one of the largest and most profitable regions of PepsiCo, and is headquartered in Dubai.

Anand, on the other hand, moves into the new role from Thailand, where he was responsible for the foods and beverages business in Thailand, Vietnam, Cambodia, Laos, Malaysia, Singapore, Indonesia and the Pacific Islands. 

Source: Chadha to make way for Anand at PepsiCo India - The Times of India http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/business/india-business/Chadha-to-make-way-for-Anand-at-PepsiCo-India-/articleshow/6812555.cms#ixzz13Zu3S8i4

MBAs in demand again

MBAs are again in demand. The education and study-abroad company Quacquarelli Symonds published a survey in October which shows that the rise in recruitment in countries like China and India are outstripping recruitment in Europe and US. The demand for MBA-s increased 32% in the APac region, compared to 9% in USA and 3% in Europe. Many European and North American companies have still not come out of the ravages of recession and are not hriring.

The highest paying field is no more the Banking sector. In the post recession era Pharmaceutical is the highest paymaster. Graduates recruited into pharmaceutical companies earned an average of $92,274, according to the Quacquarelli Symonds report released Oct. 14, followed by those in financial services, with average pay of $90,926. (http://www.nytimes.com/2010/10/19/business/global/19iht-RIEDSALARIES.html?_r=1&src=busln)

More than 2000 companies, 200 B-schools  (80 in the United States, 67 in Europe, 36 in Asia and the rest in Latin America, Africa and the Middle East) were surveyed. The survey also shows the anomaly in the job market with respect to education. University graduates were still scrambling for jobs which MBA-s were receiving high starting salaries.

What then are the B-schools which get the highest salaries?
Ashridge Business School, London, is the winner. (Average salary of $169,050)
Vlerick Leuven Gent Management School, Belgium is next (Average salary of $140,000)
The Hong Kong University of Science and Technology and the Fuqua School of Business at Duke University in North Carolina were the only two schools outside Europe to make the top 10 in salaries.
According to another B School survey by the same firm, the M.B.A.s most valued by recruiters — even if they were not the highest paid — were from Harvard, Wharton, Insead, the London Business School, Insead’s Singapore campus and Melbourne Business School. 

MBA-s with solid pre qualification experience get paid more and B schools like Ashridge recruits those into their programs who have more work experience. Their program is more like an executive management program. There was a 24% increase in MBA job opportunitites in this year (2010). In 2009 there had been a decline of 5% in MBA hirings. MBAs usually get more consulting and financial services opportunities and the demand in these fields will keep rising according to an article in NY Times.