The semi-finals of the Boardroom Challenge hosted by BusinessLine on Campus kicked off on Monday in Chennai and Bangalore. Presented by menswear brand Indian Terrain, the events were held at the campuses of Loyola Institute of Business Administration, Chennai, and Xavier Institute of Management and Entrepreneurship (XIME), Bangalore.

Created by Vishwadeep Kuila, Founder of Brand Vectors, the case required the students to come up with strategies on how brand Nokia can make a successful re-entry into the Indian market, using an investment of $500 million.

Before the student presentations began, T Muralidharan, of TMI group, spoke to the students on the emerging new job areas and the need for them to form a realistic picture of their career prospects. Whatever be the sector, whether analytics or healthcare, ITES or banking, the key role is sales, he said, adding that the person who excels in a sales role is most likely to become a successful CEO.

Chennai winners

In Chennai, the three-member panel consisted of Vishwadeep Kuila, executive coach and trainer Siva Kumar, and Fr Peter from XLRI. Nine teams from colleges across the city and nearby areas participated and presented their strategies in an interesting and succinct manner.

The three-member team from LIBA comprising Glisten D’Silva, Satish Guru and Akshay Krishnan were declared the winners, while Great Lakes Institute of Management was judged the runner-up. The five members of this team were Anik Dasgupta, Mohil Chaturvedi, Prerna Sharma, Prithvi Ramakrishnan and Vibhor Verma.

The LIBA team impressed with their attention to detail and meticulous calculations on projected expenditure, while the runners-up made a convincing case about the marketing and costing aspects.

Bengaluru teams

In Bengaluru, the jury comprised Ramanujam Sridhar, CEO, Integrated Brand-Comm Pvt Ltd and Prof Sam Placid, Director, External Programmes, Administration and Student Affairs at XIME.

The winning team was from Symbiosis Institute of Business Management (SIBM) while the XIME team came second. The SIBM team comprised Mohd Usama, Yukti Gulati, Lokesh Panjwani, Suramayam Tayal and Viren Rajpara, while the five who made up the XIME team were Dharani Chowdary, Abhishek Maniraj, Mithila, Samrudha Srinivasan and Karthika Das.

The winning teams from LIBA and SIBM will compete, along with four other teams, in the Boardroom Challenge finals to be held in Chennai on September 11.