B schools in India are on a brand building spree and they ensure that the students passing out from their campus have a handsome salary in their hand. Placement is one of the major areas which drive the brand of an institute. IIM, IIT and AIIMS have one thing in common – top class placement. We toil day and night to take home a good sum of money. So, I feel the right mantra for all the institutes is – “Get your placements right and the students will be flooding your doors.”

It feels really bad, when I see my fellow Chartered Accountants going haywire in a rush to secure a job for themselves on qualifying one of the toughest exams in India. After putting in their heart for five long years, this is not what a scholar deserves. Lately I saw a public announcement in Economic Times (Mumbai Issue) on the very last page which covered around a quarter of the page. It was a welcome call to the industry pronouncing – “ICAI welcomes you all to the campus placement.” This is something I had never seen in the past and is commendable effort.

Placement is completely in domain of ICAI and the students are not allowed to pull in more and more companies in the placement program. On the contrary, in B schools the placements cell comprises both the faculties and students. Students pull in more and more companies into their campus to ensure that they get the best of pie. Getting at least 50% of the students placed through the campus program is not a big deal for ICAI but the fact is that only 15- 20% students are placed through campus placements if we talk about New Delhi. I had the privilege to be part of a hostel which is the production house of chartered accountants in eastern India and has churned out thousands of CA till date. I am witnessing the activities of ICAI since 1999 and if my memory serves me right, first placement of EIRC was conducted by our institute in the year 2001 after more than 50 years of operation. The sluggish campaign conducted by ICAI and the lack of interest shown by it is responsible for lesser number of companies turning up for campus. Secondly, ICAI charges a good deal of money from companies participating in campus due to which small companies are not able to make their way and the ultimate losers are freshly qualified chartered accountants. In my view, freshly qualified chartered accountants should also be allowed to take part in placement cell and the current model should be revised.

Another big issue which needs attention is branding of ‘chartered accountants’. If you ask any student who has just passed out plus two examinations, he/she is competent enough to take you through the process of getting into IIT or IIM but very few are aware of the same for Chartered Accountancy course. I see only one reason for it – ‘lack of brand awareness’. 60 years is certainly a long period for any brand to establish its value. We can not take the plea that we are a new entrant and need time to build our brand. Secondly, in the field of accounts, we are the highest regulatory body with unanimous power. So, the argument that other market leaders are posing a tough competition to us does not go well. Undisputed leadership in the field of accountancy for almost 60 years but still the brand ‘chartered accountant’ is not so popular. One thing to which almost all of my fellow chartered accountants will agree is that all these years we have not paid enough attention to brand development. At the time when I was pursuing CA, truly speaking, we were treated at the reception of ICAI like intruders barging into unwarranted territory, and I used to get furious at this step mother treatment by my own institute. I really praise the steps taken by institute in recent past for revamping the lobby which now looks pretty attractive. While earlier there used to be no response if you happen to make a call to ICAI, now the scenario is much better and callers are even greeted (‘welcome ICAI’) before the queries are answered. Recently, the logo of ICAI was also redesigned which I guess is a step in the direction of building brand. Now we are feeling the brunt of a weak branding and institute has started paying heed to it but still a lot of effort is required in this area.

I get goose bumps when I see the strong Alma matter of institutes like IIM and IIT. In comparison to them we are nowhere. I feel it is we members who are responsible for such a weak bonding. How many times in a year do we take a trip to our regional office? You can count it on fingers. Once in a blue moon, to attend the seminar or not even once because we feel that seminars are not worth attending. This is a bitter fact and we can not run away from it. If IIM grads are boasting of their institute, why can’t we? There is paucity of sense of belongingness among members and both the Institute and members are equally responsible for it. As per records, we are ~ 125K in numbers but still not together. If we come together, we can make a difference by strengthening the image of ICAI.

We are on the verge of completing 60 years of operation and the brand awareness is unveiled when very often people ask us embarrassing questions like – “CA kiya hai, kaun se institute se kiya hai.” Almost everyone is aware of IIT and IIM but the fact that we are an autonomous body with one headquarter does not gel with people. Not a single regulation can be passed in accounting arena without the approval of ICAI and still when somebody asks this question I feel betrayed by my institute.

We can not deny the fact that popularity of our institute is in question and the registrations are shrinking. This is wake up call for ICAI and its members to give a serious thought to it or people will keep asking questions like ‘CA kaha se kiya hai’.

(The author is a Chartered Accountant working with TATA group and the views expressed are personal.)

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