It has been another successful year of laurels and podium finishes at corporate competitions for IIM Shillong. The year 2019-2020 has been particularly spectacular for the institute, with the participants bagging 2 National Winner titles at Future Generali Get Set Go & GSK E^3 Challenge, 8 National first and 2nd Runners Up titles, and 4 National Semi-Finalist titles.
Akash Gupta and B S S Pramod of Team Nocturnals shared their experience at winning Future Generali-Get Set Go, "The first round was an online quiz related to the Insurance sector. In the second round, we had to understand the brand perception and awareness of the top players in the industry and analyze the core competencies and differentiated strategy followed by the players. The final round was where we had to present our analysis to the top management of the company, followed by the Q&A session. The questions did give us a better understanding of what the top management thinks when it comes to implementing new ideas. The entire process was worth the effort, which gave us more profound insights on how to pitch in our ideas and thoughts, how to come up with strategies which are innovative yet practically feasible, and the overall experience was truly enriching."
Apoorva Bansal, Garima Singh Nahar, and Ritika Jha of Team Ride It, Winners of GSK E^3 Challenge shared, "Individual talent of researching information, cold-calling people and connecting with professors at our own levels gave us an edge to come to a common platform and openly discuss our ideas. Through the GSK E^3 Challenge, we learned that one has to think of all possibilities of failure and also try to predict the possible outcomes of every choice we make, be it in terms of partners, government or the customers. Once the idea is in place, we should go beyond and figure out the roadblocks we can face while implementation. It was an amazing experience working together in a team where we all had the liberty to question and express our thoughts during brainstorming sessions."
The National 2nd Runners Up at Mahindra Rise War Room Season 12, Aditya Malhotra, Janani RC, Rishi Ahuja, and Simran Miglani of Team 'The Upper Cut' talked about their drive to succeed - "It was only the journey so beautifully competitive built into numerous rounds that kept giving us the experience and motivation to deep dive into research and self-question our idea to fill the gaps at every step. The competition throws in a total of 4 rounds, with higher-level management evaluating at every successive round and The Grand Finale being graced and judged by the jury comprising Mahindra top management. We pulled off multiple all-nighters and reached out to people even overseas to develop a strong business proposal to a real-life problem at Mahindra Group. We realized that it is important for a team to comprise members possessing diverse skill sets and knowledge."
Yogesh Verma, National Runner Up of PepsiCo Dare to Do More (DTDM) Challenge, shared about his participation - "It is a 5-stage challenge wherein the main objective of the challenge was to change the pace of sustainability for the FMCG business. The challenge required us, students, to come up with an idea to help PepsiCo be "Faster, Stronger, Better" with a big idea that accelerated the company's efforts in sustainability. I worked on an idea related to Water Stewardship. I had the opportunity to present the plan in front of the PepsiCo senior leadership team, and I bagged the First national runner-up title. I believe understanding long term impact and feasibility of an idea is what helps it in becoming unique."