Xavier School of Management hosted the fifth edition of XLerate, the annual management fest hosted by its PGDM-GM batch, from February 23 to 25. The three-day long extravaganza, that had events in sports, leadership and cultural fest, concluded at XLRI Campus, Jamshedpur.
Day One
Events like such as ‘What’s in the box’ — a marketing event where students conceptualised a product or service using a set of ingredients and created an advertisement for the same — saw students use the right side of their brain. This was followed by ‘The Outpost’, a debate competition where teams put forth their views for and against interesting topics like ‘Have print advertisements lost their relevance in the digital age?’
In a leadership talk, Prakash Singh, Chief Capability Development Officer, Tata Steel, talked about the importance of purpose in leadership systems. Using various anecdotes, he stressed on the importance of having a goal in an organisation.
In sports, XLRI PGDM-GM students played cricket against Kerala Samajan.
The first day ended with ‘Bandish Fusion’ and ‘Warsi Brothers’ enthralling the audience with their magical performances.
Day Two
Day two started off on a sporting front, with XLRI PGDM-GM and Kerala Samajan battling it out on the cricket field. In Badminton, XLRI played against National Institute of Securities Market.
The XLRI-ASCP (Association of Supply Chain Professionals) chapter was inaugurated by Amitava Bakshi, Chief Procurement Officer of Tata Steel. Jagjit Singh, Chief of Customer Services and Logistics division, Anshuman Neil Basu, Executive Director, SCM Programs and Prof TAS Vijayaraghavan, Coordinator Centre for Logistics and SCM, XLRI, were the guests for the event.
Bakshi enlightened the audience about the future of supply chain and how digitisation is changing the traditional supply chain. Basu opined that digital disruption is a must and that ASCP would bring in those transformations in the domain. Singh talked about how GST has been successfully implemented across supply chain function of Tata Steel and how the organisation has benefited from the same.
A designer corner was also organised by students, where 30 odd participants from various colleges showcased their creativity by designing dresses using reusable materials. Students from IIFT Ranchi, OIIFT Jamshedpur and XLRI worked on themes such as seasons and elements of earth, and walked the ramp.
However, the most significant event of the day was ‘Leadership Talk’ session by director Imtiaz Ali. He interacted with the students and answered their questions.
XLRI’s own band ‘The Bodhi Tree’ performed for the audience in the evening, and the day ended with a show by ‘Kankana Live’ from Kolkata.
Day 3
The third day of XLerate 2018 was kicked off with Start-up Sunday, conducted in association with Headstart Jharkhand. As part of this, 30 aspiring entrepreneurs interacted with the founders of three start-ups in an informal workshop session.
This was followed by a ‘Pitch Fest’, where teams of entrepreneurs presented their business ideas. Steven Pierre Fernandes and Vinay Mall of the GM programme at XLRI, grabbed the panel’s attention and were given the best pitch award.
As many as 50 students participated in the preliminary round of the general quiz and the top eight teams made it to the final. Students from NIT Jamshedpur as well as corporate teams from Tata Steel and Ashok Leyland took part in the event, giving the XLRI teams a tough fight. The final rounds of various sports events, such as Futsal, Cricket, Volleyball and Badminton, were conducted.
The last day’s event ended with a spectacular performance by ‘Banned Frequency’, an upcoming rock band from Kolkata.
A number of institutes — IIM Indore, IIM Ranchi, IIM Raipur, NIT Jamshedpur, Rajendra Vidyalaya, National Institute of Securities Market, Orissa Institute of Interior and Fashion Technology, Xavier Institute of social service Ranchi, Institute of Public Enterprise Hyderabad, SP Jain Mumbai, IIFT Ranchi — participated in the fest. Along with colleges, corporates such as Tata Steel, Tata Motors and Xoriant Corporations participated in Rangmanch, Futsal and Quiz.