Corporate India goes 'spy' hiring

SPY GAMES: This student was hired by an MNC bank to spy on its rivals.

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A 25-year-old MBA student from one of the leading business schools in India recently succeeded in breaking though the security barriers of 10 banks in India.

Recruited on campus by an MNC bank for a company project, his assignment involved getting classified information from the bank's competitors.

But he was instructed to approach rival companies not as an employee but posing as a student working on an academic project.

“It’s easy when you pose as a student because then corporates normally help you out,” he says.

Mumbai: Welcome to the world of corporate espionage, perhaps the darkest and the dirtiest secret of a booming corporate sector in India.

Several Indian companies are stalking B-school campuses and hiring students with the sole aim of gaining trade secrets of their rivals.

Students gain access to various strategies followed by the rival organisations to service their customers and use these projects to pump up their CVs.

The practice reveals the underbelly of corporate India and has jolted business schools in sitting up and taking notice.

“I think industrial bodies like ASSOCHAM and CII should come forward and put a stop to such things,” says Director IIM-Bangalore Prakash G Apte.

Leading corporates have reacted with shock to this investigation and say they will have to go back to the drawing board to rework security checks.

This practice is becoming rampant and it’s alarming, says partner Ernst and Young Ashvin Parekh.

So here’s a word of caution for corporate India: the next time you open your company's cards to a student, beware.