A team from IIM Ranchi won the Kolkata semi-final of the BLoC Boardroom Challenge, held at the International Management Institute on Monday. The runners-up were from IIM Shillong. The other teams in the fray were from XLRI, IIM Calcutta and IMI Kolkata. The teams had to come up with a sound business strategy for a detergent maker to increase its revenue growth and profitability.
Though the IIM Ranchi team’s strategy was drawn up by four students — Jasmeet Singh Bindra, Raghvendra Pratap Yadav, Shubham Garg and Mohanish Golatkar — it was presented by Garg and Golatkar, who impressed the jury with their lucid grasp of the business problem and the solution based on a pragmatic projection of revenues.
The runners-up from IIM Shillong — Garima Singh Nahar, Apoorva Bansal and Ritika Jha — also displayed an admirable understanding of the numbers in a strategy marked by detailed calculations.
The runners-up
Aditya Birla Sun Life Mutual Funds is the title sponsor of the event, which is powered by Swiss watch brand Frederique Constant. Vizag Steel Plant and One Crest are the associate sponsors.
After the first three team presentations, Mr Mohammed Aamir Sulaiman, AVP, Investor Education and Distribution Development at Aditya Birla Sunlife Asset Management Company, made a presentation titled Your First Pay Cheque, that highlighted the importance of saving from early in one’s career. The talk evoked interest and a few queries from students on assessing risk during investing and how to choose the right investment options.
The jury comprised Sunil Bhandari, Executive Director Corporate, part of Group Finance for the RP-Sanjiv Goenka Group; Vishwadeep Kuila, Founder of brand consultancy Brand Vectors, who also wrote the semi-finals case; and Rituparna Basu, Associate Professor, Marketing, Retail and Entrepreneurship at IMI-K.
In his analysis of the teams’ performance, Kuila said that, often, the solution to a business problem can emerge from straightforward calculations and a common-sense approach. He said that the learning process during one’s MBA sharpens the mind and it is that sharpness that can be applied in one’s working life to find the right solution to a problem.
“One cannot be boxed in by trying to force-fit a solution that stems from a templated format one has learnt as it will not work, especially in a rapidly changing global business environment. Using the way one learns, rather than what one has learnt, to solve problems will stand you in good stead as you grow in stature in your career,” he said.
Taking this thought forward, Bhandari recounted incidents from his corporate life, especially interactions with the late RP Goenka during proposed takeovers by the RPG group. He said the decision by top management to take over a firm would often have already been made even while the calculations were still being worked out on the drawing board. When he once asked Goenka what made him take such decisions, the latter said: “Guts!” Bhandari explained that this did not mean just the courage to take a tough call but also the instinctive ability, honed by years of experience, that enabled a person in that position to be able to see the big picture and decide when to do, or not to do, something.
“It’s essential to keep this gut feeling alive”, Bhandari told the students. “This is what will ultimately help you make the right call. The mind has all the facts and numbers. But it is the heart that helps decide.”
Dr Arindam Banik, Director, IMI-K, presented mementoes to the winners and the runners-up.