The knowledge and learning B-schoolers acquire from competitions can not only spark innovation but also give tremendous value to their CV. The prize money is good enough to cover a part of your MBA studies and it’s another kick to get PPIs/PPOs before you finish your degree. Apart from that, participants get full bragging rights and become the next big thing walking on the campus. Hence, B-School competitions are invaluable! Which is why we’ve compiled a list of competitions to help you navigate through the pressure of preparation and presentation.
The “high” of competition is an addictive thing. It brings out different shades of our personality that we never knew existed. And honestly, it is exciting and intriguing. More than that, the competition also shapes us and makes us better at what we do. We humans have been competing for food, shelter, water, mates and other resources since the dawn of humanity.
No matter what, we will find ways to compete. The sentiment is not very different during B-school competitions, just a tad intense. Check out this exhaustive list of b-school competitions that we think you should not miss out on!
Upcoming competitions
Hult Prize
Application open: 4th October, 2019
Registration Deadline: 17th December, 2019
Theme: Empowering the Earth: Bold Businesses for a Better Planet
What is the competition about?
Hult Prize is an annual and year-long competition. It crowd-sources ideas from MBA and other college students around the world. The competition challenges students to solve burning social issues like - food security, water access, energy, and education.
Benefits
The Hult Prize is like a ‘Nobel Prize’ for university students. It is the world’s largest launchpad of for-good, for-profit startups emerging from universities in more than 100 countries.
Rewards/prizes
Each year they provide 1 million USD as seed capital to the winning impact group. The winning team receives the prize money that is seeded into a newly created company run by the student team who came up with the idea.
Which campuses are eligible to apply?
IIM Ahmedabad, Shri Ram College of Commerce, IIM Calcutta, IIM Indore, ISB Hyderabad, IMT Ghaziabad, Jadavpur University, IIT Kharagpur, IIT Delhi, IIT BHU, BITS Pilani.
RBI Policy Challenge
Application Deadline: 13 December, 2019
What is the competition about?
The RBI Policy Challenge is a nationwide competition organised by the Reserve Bank of India. The purpose of the competition is to spread knowledge about topics related to financial, monetary and banking among the student community. The competition tests participants’ essay writing, problem-solving and presentation skills.
Benefits
- Enhance knowledge of monetary and economic issues
- Get to know how policymaking happens
- Learn the ground realities behind the glamour of the job
Rewards/prizes
The winner of the competition will get a trophy, a cash prize of INR 1,00,000 and an opportunity to intern with the RBI for 3 months in a department of their choice.
Which campuses are eligible to apply?
Graduate or post-graduate students from institutes of excellence in the country can apply.
Marico - Over The Wall, Season 7
Registration: Now open
What is the competition about?
This competition involves management students trying to solve real business challenges and coming up with implementable ideas and solutions.
Benefits
- Students get to interact and learn from the leadership team at Marico
- Work closely on Marico’s live projects
- Become a part of Marico’s growth story
Rewards/prizes.
Winners win a cash prize of Rs 5,00,000 and PPIs (Pre Placement Interviews).
Which campuses are eligible to apply?
IIM Ahmedabad, IIM Bangalore, IIM Indore, IIM Lucknow, IMT, MDI Gurgaon, NITIE, NMINS, SIBM Pune, SJMSOM (IIT Bombay), SPJIMR, XLRI
Other Top B-School Competitions
HUL L.I.M.E.
About the competition
L.I.M.E. (Lessons in Marketing Excellence) is one of the nation’s largest and highly competitive inter b-school challenges. This is an annual affair where management students from top Indian b-schools take part in a marketing case-study competition.
Benefits
- Students get a platform to work on real-life & live business challenges.
- India’s brightest MBAs get to learn and share their unique experience with company experts.
Rewards/Prizes
The winning team gets a cash prize worth of INR 10,00,000 and a ticket to the global Unilever case study competition: Unilever Future Leaders’ League.
Which campuses are eligible to apply?
IIM Ahmedabad, IIM Bangalore, IIM Calcutta, IIM Lucknow, IIM Kozhikode, IIM Indore, Indian School of Business, XLRI Jamshedpur, SPJIMR Mumbai, FMS Delhi, JBIMS Mumbai, NITIE Mumbai, IIFT Delhi, MDI Gurgaon, SIBM Pune, NMIMS Mumbai, MICA Ahmedabad, IMT Ghaziabad
Amazon ACE Challenge
About the competition
The Amazon Customer Excellence (ACE) Challenge is an inter-college/university case study competition. This is open to top business schools in Asia. ACE is a highly innovative challenge that expects students to ideate, strategize and give solutions to diverse and complex work challenges.
Benefits
Students participating will get an opportunity to participate and solve real business cases that could have an impact on the customer challenges that companies such as Amazon try to solve daily.
Rewards/Prizes
Apart from a highly stimulating experience, the winning team receives a cash prize of INR 2,00,000.
Which campuses are eligible to apply?
B-schools across the country to participate
Mahindra War Room
About the competition
Mahindra ‘War Room’ (MWR) is a highly challenging yet rewarding competition done in a case-study format. The tasks in the competition are based on real scenarios from various Mahindra & Mahindra businesses.
Benefits
- Help students form and transform perceptions
- Students get to creatively respond to live and realistic business issues
Rewards/Prizes
- The winning team receives a prize money of INR 5,00,000
- Club Mahindra Holiday Experience
- PPI from Mahindra & Mahindra
- An all-expense-paid trip to Formula E-International Race
Which campuses are eligible to apply?
The MWR contest is open to students pursuing a two-year PGP/MBA program, in the following business schools -
- Indian B-Schools: FMS Delhi, IIFT Delhi, IIM Ahmedabad, IIM Bangalore, IIM Calcutta, IIM Indore, IIM Kozhikode, IIM Lucknow, IIM Ranchi, IIM Shillong, IIM Trichy, IMT Ghaziabad ISB Hyderabad, JBIMS, MDI Gurgaon, MICA, NMIMS Mumbai, SPJIMR Mumbai, SIBM Pune, Symbiosis Centre for Management & HRD Pune, XIM Bhubaneswar, XLRI Jamshedpur
- International B-Schools: Fudan School of Management, China; Yonsei University, Korea; Asian Institute of Management, Manila; Nanyang Business School, Singapore
Google Case Study Competition
About the competition
This is a highly stimulating competition that requires b-school students across India to compete in teams and solve real-life case-study challenges. This incorporates - hardware sales, smart home cases, digital marketing, product growth and user experience.
Benefits
- Students gain experience in the field of their interest
- Lets students analyze and evaluate outcomes
- Encourages students to embrace creative techniques and develop their skills and aptitude.
Rewards/Prizes
The winner receives a cash prize of INR 2,50,000. Apart from that, the winners will get PPI offers for internships with hiring.
Which campuses are eligible to apply?
Faculty of Management Studies Delhi, IIFT Delhi, IMT Ghaziabad, MDI Gurgaon, IIM Bangalore, IIM Calcutta, ISB Hyderabad, XLRI Jamshedpur, IIM Lucknow, IIM Indore, MICA, NMIMS Mumbai, SPJIMR Mumbai, SJMSOM Mumbai, NITIE Mumbai
Hero Campus Challenge
About the competition:
The Hero Campus Challenge is a campus focused, business-solutions centric competition, which is conducted across the top management and engineering schools of the country.
Benefits
- Provides a platform where students can put their theoretical knowledge into practice.
- Students get to be part of the Hero world by working on the real-time challenges of the company.
Rewards/Prizes
The winner wins INR 2,00,000 along with PPIs.
Which campuses are eligible to apply?
- B.Tech/B.E and M.E./M.Tech students from final/pre-final year students from all IITs, NITs and other engineering colleges are eligible to participate.
- First-year and final year students doing MBA (post-graduation) in 2-year or one-year programs are eligible to apply.
Flipkart Wired Campus Case Challenge
About the competition
Flipkart’s WiRED is a competition that gives b-schoolers an opportunity to gain hands-on experience in tackling challenges in the space of Indian e-commerce. Students have the choice to choose from three domain-specific challenges. One can also choose between 3 domain-specific challenges in the area of business, HR and supply chain. The challenges are designed to not only test your technical knowledge and logical reasoning but also how creatively you can solve a problem.
Benefits
- Get a better understanding of the Indian e-commerce ecosystem
- Hone your technical knowledge, logical reasoning and creativity to solve a problem
Rewards/Prizes
- National Winners: Prizes worth INR 2 lakhs
- Individual PPIs during campus round.
Which campuses are eligible to apply?
IIM Calcutta, FMS Delhi, IIM Kozhikode, IIM Lucknow, SPJIMR Mumbai, XLRI Jamshedpur, IIFT Delhi, IIM Bangalore, MDI Gurgaon, IIM Ahmedabad, MICA, IIM Indore, SCMHRD Pune, IIM Ranch, ISB Hyderabad & Mohali, IMT Ghaziabad, NITIE, Mumbai School of Business Management, NMIMS Mumbai, SJMSOM, IIT Bombay, SIBM Pune, TISS Mumbai
L’Oreal Brandstorm
About the competition
In the new edition of Brandstorm competition is launching L’Oréal is launching the ‘Intrapreneurship Award’. In this program, the winners will be part of the immersion program at Station F, the world’s biggest startup campus and a partner of L’Oréal. The aim is to develop the next generation of beauty entrepreneurs.
Benefits
- Build skills in entrepreneurship and innovation
- Learn where to take business-related risk and where not to
- Learn how to work in a diverse work culture (that of L’Oréal)
- Interact with talents around the world
Rewards/Prizes
- Winning team gets the chance to bring their idea to life by joining a three-month immersion programme.
- Ultimate reward: the creation of a prototype of their project by an L’Oréal entity.
Which campuses are eligible to apply?
The competition is open to all premier b-schools in India
TAS Invictas
About the competition
Invictas is a GM (general management) business simulation game introduced by TAS (Tata group’s flagship programme). The competition places participants in a set of simulations based on real-life contexts. While proceeding through the different stages of the game, the teams have to plan, strategise and decide based on several variables that may affect the business environment. The team that out-thinks its competitors wins.
Benefits
- Opportunity to solve real-life scenarios (in simulations) that ail business given the changing GDP and other economic parameters.
- The initial levels of the competition can be done virtually, at the comfort of your campus.
Rewards/Prizes
- Cash prize - INR 1,00,000
- TAS PPI
Which campuses are eligible to apply?
IIM Ahmedabad, IIM Bangalore, IIM Calcutta, IIM Kozhikode, IIM Lucknow, FMS Delhi, SPJIMR Mumbai, TISS Mumbai, XLRI Jamshedpur
ABGLP Stratos
About the program
Stratos is a business simulation competition under the Aditya Birla Group’s flagship. It will bring out the best of you by making you think on your feet and navigate real-life scenarios. Your team will be working on everything from ideation to execution. This competition will make sense to all the b-schoolers who are interested in domains of strategy, marketing, finance, operations.
Benefits
- Helps in thinking on your feet.
- Helps you navigate real-life business scenarios
Rewards/Prizes
- Win a cash prize of INR 5,00,000
- Pre-Placement Interviews (PPIs) for Internships, except ISB.
- ISB students who win the competition will get PPIs for placement.
Which campuses are eligible to apply?
FMS Delhi, IIFT, IIM Ahmedabad, IIM Bangalore, IIM Calcutta, IIM Lucknow, IIM Shillong, ISB, MDI Gurgaon, SPJIMR, SIMB, TISS Mumbai, XLRI Jamshedpur
Best of luck during competitions!