Recognition for IIMs in the US

I do not remember the date CBS aired their 60-minutes program on IITs, but I vividly remember the next day's scene at work. NR Narayana Murthy managed to boggle Americans' collective imagination about IITs, Indian schools already popular in Silicon Valley but not very much so elsewhere. His words about Stanford and MIT being safebets for students that can't make it to IITs amazed Americans truly and beyond belief. Such amazement from folks who haven't seen (or participated in) the fierce dog-eat-dog competitive world also known as JEE, is understandable.

Percentages talk, but to only a small section of people. Tell someone that Harvard accepts 10% of applicants, while IITs bestow only 2% of applicants with that honor. People listen, some nod, and some verbose folks might go as far as saying "life is tough". That may be about it. But put a spin on it the way Narayana Murthy did, tell them Harvard is a safe bet to a IIT student - they sit up and take notice. That's what happened in millions of households across America that night.

One such lady that sat up that night, walked up to us next day asking "Any of you from IITs?". Well, here she was, the toughest nut in the requirement giving group that was liberally peppered with folks vehemently opposed to us, an outside organization trying to displace their internal IT staff, the most reticent one so far, asking us a question, all smiles. 2 positively negative nods from others and a qualified nod from me is what she got. I briefed her about my admission to IIT-KGP and my eventual rejection and preference of another school. I spared her details about Integrated MSc and Applied Geology. I don't know if I created visions of a bunch of Harvards and MITs existing back in India, but she thawed. My interactions with her were much smoother after that.

Though I put 1 Nos spin on her that day, 2 regrets, one a long standing one and the other a new one bothered me. The former was about not going to IIT-KGP alright, but a new one about recognition for IIMs in the US sprang up. With so much talk going on about IITs, I wished IIMs had a similar recall value too.

Many other folks too must have regretted my 2nd regret; a small percentage of those regretters thankfully were go-getters. People like Ashima Jain, Alan Krishnan set-up IIMUSA with the purpose of showcasing achievements of IIM alumni. The support to this fledgling pan-IIM alumni organization was amazing; within matter of weeks similar organizations across the world came up.

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IIMUSA came a long way from being a brain-child of just a few committed individuals. Many successful gatherings - attended by bizworld bigwigs- happened since then, the last notable being the one in NY last week and the press coverage also picked up steadily..I'll tell you more about the NY meet soon.