More than 8,500 students from 16 premier B-schools in India participated in the month-long Accenture B-school challenge. The grand finale featured eight teams, who were mentored by experts from Accenture. The first prize was awarded to Xavier School of Management, Jamshedpur. The first runner up team was Indian Institute of Management Bangalore (IIMB), and second runner up Indian Institute of Foreign Trade New Delhi. The top eight qualifying teams received a pre-placement interview opportunity with Accenture besides other exciting prizes.
The fifth edition of the annual challenge focused on the theme of ‘Signals of Change: Discovering new opportunities in a disruptive world.’ The participating teams presented case studies across diverse industries such as banking, telecom, consumer goods and retail, natural resources, energy, automotive and life sciences.
Stages of competition
The virtual challenge was divided into four stages — round 1 was a rapid-fire online quiz where over 2,800 teams (each team comprising three members) participated, followed by round 2 which identified 482 teams based on business simulation where students stepped into the role of a CEO to make their company profitable. In the next round, the shortlisted 160 teams presented virtually to the Accenture leadership team and eventually top eight teams were chosen for the final round. They underwent a storytelling workshop to prepare for the final presentations and an in-depth industry masterclass to gain deeper business insights.
The finalists were evaluated by a jury comprising of industry leaders from various Indian businesses as well as senior leaders from Accenture.
Jury
The jury that decided the top three teams included:
- Piyush N Singh, Senior Managing Director, Lead, India Market Unit & Lead; Growth and Strategic Client Relationships, Asia Pacific and Latam, Accenture
- Sanjay Dawar, Managing Director and Lead Capability Network – Global Strategy and Consulting, Accenture
- Dipti Vaishnav, Managing Director - Strategy & Consulting, Accenture, India
- Nagesh Basavanhalli, Chief Executive Officer, Greaves Cotton Limited
- Deepak Sharma, President and CDO, Kotak Mahindra Bank
- Karunakaran M, Chief Financial Officer, Shoppers Stop
- Anil Matai, Former Managing Director, Zydus Healthcare Limited
- Samrat Das, Chief Operating Officer, PNB MetLife
- Jayanta Banerjee, Managing Partner, ASK Pravi Capital Advisors