A team from Indian School of Business (ISB) won the Accenture B-School challenge 2022. IIM Lucknow and IIM Udaipur were the first and second runners-up respectively. The Faculty of Management Studies team was recognised with a special jury award. Students comprising the top three winning teams have landed a pre-placement interview opportunity with Accenture. Additionally, all three teams received prizes cumulatively worth ₹10 lakh.
More than 8,400 students from 16 B-schools in India participated in the sixth edition of the challenge on the theme — ‘Modernising industries: Reinvention starts here.’ The month-long competition aims to identify top talent for the digital economy and put a spotlight on the changing business landscape and the actions leaders need to undertake to thrive amid current disruptions.
Stages of competition
The challenge was divided into four stages. The first round featured a rapid-fire quiz to test their analytical skills, which was followed by a round of business simulation where students role-played CEOs and shared their perspectives on driving business profitability. Close to 160 teams were short-listed at the end of the second round.
In the third round, the students presented on solving for business challenges across different industries, such as banking, communications, media and technology, consumer goods, retail, energy, life sciences, industrial and mobility to the Accenture leadership team. Of these, eight teams were chosen to compete in the grand finale.
The eight finalist teams were then mentored by Accenture leaders. Accenture also organised a storytelling workshop for the finalists to hone their presentation skills and a masterclass to gain deeper insights on specific industry verticals.
Jury
The finalists were evaluated by a jury comprising industry leaders as well as senior leaders from Accenture. These included:
- Satish Sharma, President – APMEA, Apollo Tyres
- Vijayendra Singh, Chief Operating Officer, Apollo 24x7
- Randhir Singh Kalsi, Senior Executive Director, Maruti Suzuki
- Ranjit Gupta, Founder and CEO, Ocior Energy
- Piyush N Singh, Senior Managing Director and Lead - India Business, Accenture
- Sanjay Dawar, Managing Director, Global Strategy and Consulting, Accenture India
- Kala Venkatesh, Managing Director and Lead – Learning, Global Strategy & Consulting, Accenture
- Aditya Priyadarshan, Managing Director - Strategy & Consulting, Accenture India