YES Bank, India’s fourth largest private sector bank, crowned Team Red Devils from IIM Ahmedabad the winners of the 8th edition of the YES Bank Transformation Series, an idea crowdsourcing platform where B-school students present solutions to challenges posed by India Inc. Team ‘Club 23’ from XLRI, Jamshedpur was adjudged the first runner-up while Team ‘Moira’ from MICA, Ahmedabad was judged the second runner up.
The three winning teams were selected from the top 10 teams who made it to the finale, from over 8,000 participants. The top ten teams presented their strategies on the finale challenge, ‘Building the digital bank of the future via conversational banking’ provided by YES Bank to the Bank’s leadership on October 22.
With collaboration and co-creation at its core, the 8th edition of Transformation Series saw partnership with seven technology companies, seeking sustainable solutions to scale their product innovations from students across leading B-schools. IBM, Blackbuck, Dunzo, Bounce, Quikr, MakeMyTrip and Instamojo were the Round One partners, and shared cases across improving accessibility of EVs, roadmap for sustainable agriculture, smart logistics and unlocking the value of used goods, among others.
At the finale on October 22 at YES Bank Tower in Mumbai, the teams got an opportunity to present their ideas to the Bank’s leadership team comprising of Asit Oberoi, Senior Group President & Global Head, Transaction Banking; Ritesh Pai, Chief Digital Officer; Ajay Rajan, Group President & Global Head, Transaction Banking Sales & Product; Jasneet Bachal, Chief Marketing Officer and Binoj Vasu, Chief Learning Officer of the Bank.
The top three teams will walk away with cash prizes in addition to pre-placement interviews. In line with its ethos of nurturing innovation, the Bank will also invite the top three teams of the challenge to work alongside its technology and innovation teams to implement their ideas.
The top 10 teams making it to the finale were Indian Institute of Technology (IIT), Delhi; Faculty of Management Studies (FMS), Delhi; Indian Institute of Foreign Trade (IIFT, two teams); Indian Institute of Management (IIM) Ahmedabad; Narsee Monjee Institute of Management Studies (NMIMS), Mumbai; Xavier School of Management (XLRI), Jamshedpur; Indian Institute of Management (IIM), Indore; Indian Institute of Management (IIM), Lucknow and Mudra Institute of Communications (MICA), Ahmedabad.
Launched in 2010, as a case study challenge for B-School students, the initiative has been scaled exponentially to create a crowdsourcing platform, bringing together organisations such as Shell, Microsoft, IBM and Adobe, as well as multilaterals and Government bodies such as UNDP, Invest India and NITI Aayog.
Over the past two years, the initiative was also ranked among the top five prestigious B-School competitions of 2019 by Dare2Compete.com. Across eight editions, more than 75,000 students have participated in the challenge, making it one of the largest in India.
Ravneet Gill, MD & CEO, YES Bank with the winners of YES Bank Transformation Series 2019