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TOPICS business (general)entrepreneurship managementhuman resources
K. Bharat Kumar
If the Indian IT industry needs 1 crore employees by 2020, up from a mere 23 lakh now, and the current „employability rate' of 25 per cent of all students is grossly inadequate, where would they go? That's the gap that CoCubes is seeking to fill, according to Harpreet Grover, co-founder and CEO. Photo: Harpreet Grover & Vibhore Goyal
This is his case: A company wants to recruit about 100 people, but it wants to have access to the best students across 500 colleges, and not necessarily among the best colleges. He says, “The top 200 colleges in India may be good. But after that there are only good students.” So how do companies, with precious little resources, seek out and recruit those good students, from across the country? Grover says, “CoCubes connects colleges and companies.” Hence the name, too. “We have information on about 1,100 colleges and their students. If a company wants to know about a college, we have it up in less than two days.” So, does CoCubes conduct tests and assess students? That it doesn't, says Grover. “We gather authentic information on colleges, the students it has, the courses they pursue.” All of this goes into CoCubes' information system that it shares with client companies that seek to recruit. So where exactly does CoCubes add value? Says Vibhore Goyal, also co-founder and Chief Technology Officer, “A software major based in Delhi may get all it wants in the top 200 colleges. But surely it won't refuse the chance to evaluate five students from a college in the North-East if it has access to some basic information about the students, their performance and the like.” Goyal says that his company helps colleges in Tier II cities differentiate themselves, get online and be visible to recruiting companies, thus increasing placements. The company also saves student time, by allowing internal communication through mailing, calendar and SMS utilities. Says Goyal, “This is the era of SMS. Not every student has access to a PC but all of them have phones.” Companies can connect with students pre-, or post-interview. In addition, students of colleges registered with CoCubes can showcase themselves using their global homepage link and online video profile. CoCubes' Web site allows client companies to run a search to list students with, say, more than 70 per cent marks in Std 10, more than 80 per cent in Std 12 and in the final year of their BE. This can go across disciplines and degrees, such as BBA, MBA and the like. (A random such search by this writer at the site threw up 185 students across Maharashtra, Punjab, UP and states from the South.) In this approach, says Grover, “The cost of hiring goes down, companies are able to hire with business predictability and they have access to more number of trained (or employable) hires.” CoCubes caters as much to small companies as it does to the biggies. Says Goyal, “A small company in Kolkata that needs 20 new recruits may not be able to seek out a college in Udaipur where five students meet the company's eligibility criteria.” Logging onto the site helps them access such students and if impressed with them, recruit as well. There are other benefits too that CoCubes offers companies. Last academic year, an IT major wanted to check candidates' location preference. The system's integration with an SMS server helped the company reach 8,600 students within five minutes! Says Grover, “Earlier, it would have taken one employee two months to complete this poll!” The pricing model for CoCubes is that client companies pay up, but would pay lesser with every passing year. It is in the interests of the colleges to place their students regularly. CoCubes prices its offerings to colleges at between Rs 500 and Rs 1,000 per student per year. The company is also able to highlight to its clients — be they in IT, retail or banking — demographic behaviour. “A company made 50 offers to students at a top college, 30 joined and only 10 remained after six months. In the same period, it made 10 offers at another college and all 10 remained!” Or better still, among 100 offers, the client is very keen on having the top 20 join its rolls. So it would do anything to keep them engaged so that they do accept the offer. Entrepreneur's itch eWorld asked Goyal why he and Grover chose the education space. Goyal says, “As soon as I finished my IIT, I saw that several of my friends were struggling to get a job. Once they landed a job, they were able to see healthy salaries in excess of Rs 8 lakh a year within three years or so — which means, they are good but companies did not have access to them.” Goyal feels that every Indian graduate should have equal access to opportunities. So, did the duo consider any venture other than education? Yes, says Goyal, “We looked at the catering industry — online ordering of food and the like. But several people are already into it. The education industry had this gap that we could easily fill.” bharatk@thehindu.co.in (This article was published in the Business Line print edition dated August 23, 2010). Full Article available on http://goo.gl/cIX99