News » Latest News » Business Schools » The Market » Business School News » Orientations » Artikel
IIPM: Für eine Handvoll Dollar
News Bärbel Schwertfeger - 07.07.2009
Das Indian Institute of Planning and Management (IIPM) rühmt sich die beste Business School Indiens zu sein und gibt seit Jahren an, mit etlichen renommierten Schulen in Europa und den USA zu kooperieren – oftmals fälschlicherweise. Doch obwohl die unseriösen Geschäftspraktiken bekannt sind, kooperiert so manche renommierte Business School mit der umstrittenen indischen Schule.
"IIPM – Best only in Claims" titelte vor kurzem das indische Karrieremagazin Careers360 und durchleuchtete detailliert die seltsamen Geschäftspraktiken des IIPM, darunter auch die falschen Angaben zu den Partnerschulen. (Quelle: Careers360)
Die großen indischen Zeitungen halten sich dagegen seit Jahren zurück mit Kritik an der Business School. Schließlich ist das IIPM mit seinen ganzseitigen Anzeigen einer ihrer größten Anzeigenkunden. Da lässt sich so manches renommierte Blatt schon mal zu Lobeshymen hinreißen, wie sie das IIPM stolz auf seiner Website präsentiert. Allerdings ist dabei nicht immer erkennbar, ob es sich bei den präsentierten Artikeln nicht um redaktionell aufgemachte Anzeigentexte handelt.
Geadelt wurde das IIPM auch von Della Bradshaw, der bei der Financial Times (FT) verantwortlichen Redakteurin für MBA-Themen und das MBA-Ranking. In ihrem 2006 erschienenen Artikel "The Maverick Management Guru" schreibt Bradshaw bemerkenswert unkritisch über den Gründer und "Honorary-Dean" Arindam Chaudhuri und seine - nach eigenen - Angaben größte Business School der Welt.
Dabei hätte es schon damals auf der Hand gelegen, die vermeintliche Erfolgsstory zu hinterfragen. So bekommen indische IIPM-Absolventen zum Beispiel ihren MBA-Titel von dem unbekannten und in Belgien nicht anerkannten International Management Institute (IMI) in Brüssel. (Quelle: www.timi.edu)
Noch heute nutzt das IIPM seinen Coup geschickt. "IIPM in Financial Times, UK. Feature of the Week. Must read" blinkt auf der Website. Es folgt der Link zu dem drei Jahre alten FT-Artikel.
Auch der Trick mit den Partnerschulen ist schon alt. Bereits 2007 distanzierte sich die Stanford Graduate School of Business deutlich von den Angaben des IIPM, wonach Stanford gemeinsam mit dem IIPM zertifizierte Executive Education Programme anbieten würde. "Die Angabe ist falsch", schrieb Gale Bitter, Associate Dean and Director. "Weder die Stanford Graduate School of Business noch die Abteilung Stanford Executive Education haben irgendwelche Verbindungen mit dem IIPM." Zum Statement.
Bereits im Dezember 2006 hatte sich der stellvertretende Direktor des Stanford Center for Professional Development, Paul Marca, in einem Brief an den Director of Global Strategy beim IIPM, Siddharth Nambiar, über die irreführende Werbung des IIPM beschwert und ab sofort jegliche Nutzung des Logos und des Namens von Stanford untersagt. Nach dem Statement von Gale Bitter beschwerte sich Nambiar bei der Stanford-Direktorin über die Beschädigung des guten Rufs des IIPM und berief sich darauf, dass einzelne Stanford-Professoren am IIPM unterrichtet hätten.
Stanford ist bei weitem kein Einzelfall. Vor einiger Zeit tauchte auch die Chicago Booth School of Business als Partner auf. Danach sollten IIPM-Studenten am Advanced Global Management Programm in Chicago teilnehmen. So hieß es: "Die als Nummer 1 der Welt gerankte Business School - Was das Programm vielleicht so einzigartig macht und es von ähnlichen Programmen in Indien unterscheidet, ist das obligatorische International Residency Programme beim Advanced Global Management, das die Studenten an der Graduate School of Business der University Chicago absolvieren."
Auf Nachfrage reagierte Chicago sofort und schrieb dem IIPM am 23.Juni: "Wir bitten Sie, alle Erwähnungen, wonach die Chicago Graduate School of Business Teil dieses Advanced Global Management Programms ist, sofort von allen Websites des IIPM zu entfernen." "Wir bedauern dies zutiefst", antwortete Chanda Mehra, Senior Manager-Global Outreach Program am IIPM.
Das Dokument wurde geändert und nun hängt "Die als Nummer 1 der Welt gerankte Business School" quasi im leeren Raum. Übrig blieb nur der Satz: "Was das Programm vielleicht so einzigartig macht und es von ähnlichen Programmen in Indien unterscheidet, ist das obligatorische International Residency Programme beim Advanced Global Management, das die Studenten absolvieren." Wo die Teilnehmer das Programm nun besuchen, bleibt jedoch ein Rätsel.
Doch längst nicht jede renommierte Business School ist um ihren Ruf besorgt. Bemerkenswert ist das Verhalten der Haas School of Business an der University of California (UC) Berkeley. Im Februar antwortete die kalifornische Schule dem indischen Magazin Career360, dass Berkeley nichts mit dem IIPM zu tun habe und man bereits gehört habe, dass die Schule dafür bekannt sei, fälschlicherweise Verbindungen mit Topschulen anzugeben.
Dann korrigierte die Presseabteilung die Antwort und erklärte, dass es eine neue Kundenbeziehung zwischen dem IIPM und dem Center for Executive Education gebe. Das erste Programm finde im Juni statt. Und im Mai antwortete Berkeley, dass sich das IIPM als Kunde daher als Business School, die mit der Haas School of Business "kooperiert" ("participating") bezeichnen dürfe.
Offenbar suchten die Business Schools so verzweifelt nach Kooperationen mit indischen Business Schools, dass sie dafür sogar ihren guten Namen hergeben, kommentierte Careers360 das Verhalten. Um ein paar Dollar mehr zu verdienen, gäben sie ihre ethischen Grundsätze und ihre Professionalität auf.
Dabei erweckt das Dokument sogar den Eindruck, als vergebe Berkeley Credits für das Programm. Auf Anfrage von MBA Channel erklärte Berkeley am 2.Juli: "Die Haas School hat das IIPM gebeten, das Logo von Haas und der UC Berkeley von seiner Website und aus seinen Marketingunterlagen zu entfernen und die Formulierung bezüglich des Abschlusszertifikats und der Credits zu korrigieren. Das Center for Executive Education vergibt keine Credits, sondern nur ein Abschlusszertifikat für den von ihm unterrichteten Teil des Programms."
Als "Partner B-School" wird auch die Judge Business School an der University of Cambridge aufgeführt. Dort hat man offenbar keine Bedenken, samt Logo in Zusammenhang mit der fragwürdigen Schule gestellt zu werden. Die Schule biete IIPM-Teilnehmern ein fünftägiges Executive Education Programm in Cambridge an, schreibt die Pressestelle. IIPM habe Judge engagiert und die erste Gruppe beginnt im Juli 2009. Die Teilnehmer erhielten eine Teilnahmebestätigung und kein Universitäts-Zertifikat der Cambridge University oder der Judge Business School.
www.iipm.edu

Thanks for this article and helping innocent Indian students. I can see lot of Changes on IIPM’s website, like they have stopped using logo of universities like Cambridge and many more. This shows they were doing many false marketing. lol!! @ CR any institute can pay and get professors to take few sessions. I did my MBA from Monash university, Australia and we have our own full time faculties who have written books along with Kotler. Talking abt IMI degree, it is a crap university and stands no where globally and i was surprised when u said Harvard recognizes IMI degree coz Monash University will never ever accept such degree given by university which is not recognized in its own country.
I can just say u were lucky that u didn’t had to go through problem of doing the degree again as many other students of IIPM. I would suggest u not to give misleading information to other students about IIPM and help them.
IIPM is the biggest fraud institute in India. Many articles and many investigations later, he fliurihes because of stars like Shah Rukh Khan endorsing the institute. I had more than 35 candidates for an interview and all of them were dumb, without any knowledge but know just how to dress up. it is more a self grooming school than a B School. Wish Careers360 continues this investigation to its logical conclusion.
Hi,
IIPM is a great institute with a respected (read self-publicized, self-promoted) Director/CEO/Owner/Founder/MD/CTO/President etc. Mr. Arindam Chaudhary. I am proud to do MBA from IIPM. it gave me a free laptop (how many institutes give you a free laptop on admission ???) and a world-class international placement of 1.75 LPA CTC in India. Fees is a all time low, around 10 lakhs per semester + mess, hostel and tuition fees.
The Truth About IIPM
Friday, September 16, 2005
The Truth
This has been written as a response after reading a blog-post by Gaurav Sabnis. What follows has been written by an IIPM ex-student as well as ex-employee. Please read it completely and also forward it to as many people as you can so more students and parents are not lotted out of lakhs of rupees and their careers are not ruined by Planman
Thanks for raising this issue. It is indeed a shame how a person with minimal academic qualifications (MA Economics Correspondence Chennai University) has successfully managed to fool so many people with such convincing effect that the self-styled management guru and inventor of the “I Theory”, as he has come to be known, is given more prominence in the media than Cambridge educated PhDs in Economics or Harvard trained MBAs. (Wonder who crowned him “Professor” anyway?) The print media plays a role in this game of deception as it earns huge revenues from IIPM’s advertisements. Thus what you come to know in the Tribune or Times of India is that laptops aredistributed free (which is a blatant lie, as the cost is included in the Rs 7 lac plus fee) and where the students went for the GOTA (a waste of time and money anyway as students learn nothing) and not where they got their jobs and at what compensation. No names of the job recipients are divulged. No text books are given free, unlike other institutes like FORE, TAPMI, Welingkars or IMT Ghaziabad. Students have to depend on handouts and class notes only. Most of them do nothave a clue as to where an idea is taken from. The institute puts an overemphasis on unnecessary or irrelevant course requirements which may or may not be required in the industry as a means of impressing would-be parents and students to cough out the dough needed for a ‘proper management education’ which stresses on ‘MBE course content’. Also the excessive stress on presentations in formal attire, which normally constitutes 40% of the course requirement makes the students plagiarise from B-magazines without gaining any proper perpective. None of what the Chaudhuris preach is original. All of them had been taught before by professors in the IITs, IIMs and IISc long before Arindam packaged it in “Count Your Chickens..”. In the process he made millions.Wonder why no one brought out the charge of plagiarism against them before?
The fuel cost for Arindam Chaudhuri’s Jaguar/ BMW runs into lakhs (even the fuel is imported) per week and the family expenses run into unmentionable amounts. One can shudder in horror. One can imagine the sheer wastage of wealth of the middle class who by way of educating their children spend millions to enrich the coffers of the Chaudhuri family, for little merit of theirs. That IMI, Belgium degrees are of no value in India does not come as a surprise either. People whohave had MBA degrees from IMI who had tried to get admission to universities in India and abroad were told that as IMI degree can be completed three years after 10+2, they would be regarded as BBAs or as undergraduate degree holders. I knew of one who, after coming to the US had to start all over again as a data entry operator (which is what she did in India) and had to re-enroll for another MBA programme at a third grade university (a four year college, incidentally, which offers an MBA course).
The talk of professors from Harvard, Columbia, INSEAD and Yale deserves to be addressed. IIPM paid huge fees to some of these professors to give a one-time guest lecture. What the public will know from the press is that these professors take classes at IIPM which is false. But it should also be mentioned that IIPM does its bit to gather the best of industry and academic brains (from IIT, IIM, IISc., IIFT, FMS, Delhi School of Economics etc.) to take classes on a regular basis.They are regarded as ‘external faculty’. Planman members do the rest.
If there are anything that can be really said good about IIPM, they can be summed up as:
1) development of communication skills
2) presentation skills
3) marketing skills
4) financial problem solving skills and perhaps most importantly
5) personality development and attitude development.
Too bad that segments of the family run Indian industry which is traditionally Lala-company dominated, cannot appreciate these finer aspects. But the Government of India and PSUs send its officers for part time training on deputation. Senior Planman faculty like Vistasp Mallegamwala have trained PSU staff. It is also quite surprising that the only properly trained faculty is the dean A. Sandeep who earned his PGDBM (3 year evening) at IIM Calcutta. The other faculty N Chamoli, Prasoon Majumdar are only MA holders in Economics. Ex-students, they could notclear their MBA degree.
IIPM passouts (“grads”) get jobs as DSAs, data entry operators, sales representatives (A. Sandeep started his career as a sales rep, while doing part time PGDBA at IIMC), financial and insurance agents, space selling agents , multi-level- marketing agents, account executives, and brokers. Most of the rest (provided they have or have developed excellent verbal communication skills in accent-free English, and who are fluent in making presentations with a smattering of knowledge of economics and marketing, which comes in handy) are absorbed by IIPM / Planman as they havenowhere else to go. On joining Planman, they are sworn to secrecy that prohibits them from foreclosing any details. Also they cannot clear their exams even if they want to leave as their contracts are time bound. They can clear their remaining exams only after they have served their terms and have offered their resignations. They cannot apply for jobs that require “post MBA work experience”. And they cannot criticize IIPM ever as that might led to their future careerprospects being jeopardised. Also IIPM alumni are rarely willing to admit that they made a wrong choice as the admission of personal liability points to lapse of judgement on the part of the student. The talk of EQ as being more decisive than the IQ in corporate decisions leads unwary students, into being unwitting followers of the Pied Piper that is the Chaudhuri family. Many alumni after failing to get jobs, and after wasting their parent’s lifetime provident fund /annuity and retirement savings, lose all their face and social standing. Many become nervous wrecks, drug addicts, swindlers, and drug peddlers.
It is also interesting to note how few IMI degrees (which are scraps of paper, useless anyway) are awarded every year. IIPM /Planman have controlling stake in IMI. So IMI cannot terminate its contract with IIPM even if it wanted to. One of the better kept industry secrets is that IIPM has the controlling stake in the Times of India as well. So the Times would never go so far as to criticize it. But Hindustan Times is not obligated to do so. That is why the criticisms of IIPM first appeared in HT.
PLZ READ THIS AND PASS IT TO ALL
I think it is high time that in the general interest of the student community and those interested in the state of education in India, that AICTE, UGC and AIU be given powers to investigate charges of fraud in non-affiliated institutes. Perhaps a CBI investigationagainst IIPM / Planman / Chaudhuri family might be a good way to start. Our student population deserve better than to be regarded as ‘markets’.
Institution like IIpm shuld be banned for ruining the careers of students….... i am an ex iipm passed out i tried to get into teaching profession but every where i go they say tat iipm Mba is not valid…..... neither i can do any further studies….. they have made life of students like us miserable…...... they say about placement. its is all bull shit hardly few companies will come and they boost tat they are best in placement… Mr.Arindam Chaudhuri’s SHOULD BE PUT BEHIND BARS FOR MAKING LIFE MISERABLE FOR PEOPLE LIKE US…...... as my parents have spent half of their savings in mba and i dont knw wat to do now
Undoubtedly the article is lopsided, otherwise why would you critisize every educational institute that had the guts to say that it is associated with IIPM; and is accredidition the most important or Education an institute provides.
For eg. there are probably more than 5000 mba and pgdbms accredited by AICTE and UGC and I can guarantee you the quality of education in 99% of them can’t even be compared with IIPM.
How CAN I claim this….. well Because I AM an ex-IIPMite…. And I was taught by the same proffessors that taught students in IIT Delhi, FMS, IIFT.
Yes, academic merit is probably not the paramount condition while getting admission there but, also cant justify the claims of being the biggest B-school on earth but yes it is the BEST MBA MONEY can buy in India.( the trick is what you do with that education)
I cant certify every claim that IIPM makes in newspapers but i can certify that I have attended exclusive lectures of Dr. Philip Kotler, Joel stern( EVA guru); Zig Zigler; Mark de Rond (Cambridge Univ.); Partha Mohanram(Columbia univ.) , I mean forget India how many management grads worldwide can claim that.
As far as as accreditions go well a few months back seeing my ex-collegues from Ivy league i had the urge to pursue same abroad, so after a getting decent enuf GMAT score, out of curiousity called up (very early morning India time)Havards admission department….... and lo-behold….. since IMI Brussels is an international institute HAVARD RECOGNISES the IMI Degree given at the end of completion of IIPM program….. Dude who needed AICTE here….
Anyways on a personal front at IIPM I was CAMPUS Placed in the largest Korean MNC in electronics in India, they offered me the same package as they did to symbi grads and other b-school management trainees…
My second job (after a yr and half of the previous) was with Kuwait based MNC, The organisation is known as one of the most regular and the heaviest recruiters of IIMs, infact it fleeced with people from IIMs and havard. After rising to the position of being incharge of operations at regional level (India retail ops) (2 yrs later); Ive started my own business recently.
Infact it has the entreprenaurial course that any b-school offers (72 subjects in 2 yrs) in INDIA.
Yes, as I said it is the education that IIPM guarantees what you do with it…. is inur hands.
Regards
)
CR( as some one said… A fooled student
PS: IIPM is not a fly by night operator, its been existence since more than 30 yrs, more older than 99.99 % of Indian B-schools…. Now let me ask what is pedigree or authenticity of career 360 ...
IIPM is a clear case of exploiting the ignorance of students. They are one of the biggest education scams in India.
Sanjana, It is people like you who have to be blamed for the mess we are in. Agreed AICTE is bad. So do you mean that it has to be lawless, without eithics. Arindam Choudhary is a fraud and he continues to defraud bcoz of spoilt brats like you. The real sufferers are people from B and C towns, who dont have access to information. btw, why is IIPM and Bukingham silen to the latest revelation by Careers360
A very badly done article. I find your article very hollow at many points. You seem to have taken everything out of context presumably out of your coffee table journalistic habits. It’s surprising you’ve not written in your article that UGC and AICTE (the two Indian accreditation bodies) have been asked by the government to close down as the government has found them to be extremely corrupt. It’s also funny you don’t mention that the AICTE Chairman was arrested this month for corruption charges by the Central Bureau of Investigation
I think I’ll your article funny, rather than anything else. IIPM is a loud institution, of course, but at least it gets its job done. Funny you didn’t get any student’s response yourself
but referred to some site called Careers360 that seems to be set up to only do stories against IIPM
Funny, right?!
Hi,
sorry, but it is really a shame, that people are not used to read articles carefully any more. Otherwise also you would have realized, that there is lot more and different information than in the article from career360. And I was starting my reserach in 2007 - as you can see in the statement from Stanford.
Bärbel Schwertfeger
Though I find your article interesting, I find it almost completely based on career360! What is career360? Did you not get any responses from IIPM itself? Or did you try and just rewrite the Career360 article? I don’t want to criticise your efforts but I think it’s a very lopsided view of ivy league and top universities in the US and UK, of which I am a passout. Try and incorporate original views rather than google search
Cheers..
That was one of the best articles on a nationwide scam fooling thousands of innocent students… Keep going MBA-channel
Thanks,
Manjesh
I hope the alumni of the foreign universities take tyhis matter up with their respective universities to stop such misleading claims being handed out for a price. Othersise the value of their degree is as good as that of an IIPM graduate, which is the worst in India. Some one should take it up with University of Buckingham too. Please read the link below:
http://www.careers360.in/cover-story/iipm—yet-another-lie.html
The article highlights the false protocol the IIPM has followed over the years to attract students.Strangely this is the first authentic article I have come across which has criticized the IIPM.Media should expose the naked truth of the IIPM more often.They claim fake rankings(claim they are even higher in rankings than some of the IIMs), fake tie ups with international b schools and mislead young students in India.
Thanks for this article. I completely agree. They wanted to cooperate with us [Editor: Munich Business School] as well but after some checking and some inconsistend information from them, we decided to stay away.
Again, thanks, Elfi Stephenson