SIBM Pune, October 12, 2015: Last Monday saw the campus evaluation round of Mahindra's 'War Room' contest at Symbiosis Institute of Business Management, Pune. Six teams, comprising of four students each, presented detailed strategic solutions to live business challenges. Each ‘caselet’ dealt with a different sector among Mahindra’s many industry verticals, and the presentations were made to and judged by senior executives from the Mahindra Group, in front of the rest of the batch of SIBM Pune.
Given that it was SIBM Pune who had won the competition last year, the energy was fittingly high among both the students and the visiting judges. The teams gave twenty-minute presentations, followed by ten minutes of thorough and incisive Q&A by the judges. The winning team, Game-Set-Match (consisting of Aastha Chawla, Abhishek Nair, Ashima Kandari and Karan Kaul, all second-year marketing students), had worked on the challenge on Indian Blue Book, a one-of-its-kind online vehicle valuation platform which also acts as a connect between used car buyers and sellers. The team created a Facebook page, The Foolproof Indian, which offers useful insights on used-car transactions with the help of light-hearted videos, memes, customer testimonials and exciting contests. Some of these promotions included live performances at Pune malls by a local band, as well as a competition among driving-schools with a cash prize of Rs. 8000. The runner-up team was Subliminal Criminals (consisting of Satyavolu Sai Akhil from Marketing specialisation, Ashwini Waghmare from Operations, Jinny Lee Pereira from HR and Yash Chauhan from Finance), who worked on a strategy for Saboro, Mahindra’s branded fresh fruit business. They suggested introducing Modified Atmospheric Packaging, an innovative technology that ensures a longer shelf-life for fruits. A new distribution technique, in the form of a mobile retail outlet, was also pitched.The event had its fair share of fun, with the audience voting for winners of the best presenter (Talkien Shah of team ‘Schrodinger’s Cat’) and for the most creative team name (“Chaar Sundar Auratein”). Addressing the students, Dr. Prince Augustin, Executive Vice President, Group Human Capital and Leadership Development, Mahindra & Mahindra Ltd., emphasized the importance of the learning aspect of the competition over that of winning, adding that the competition is all about developing insight, long-term vision and an ability to strategize for a given business. The winning team will now be up against other B-schools from across India for the final round. We wish them the best of luck, and hope they bring the Mahindra War Room trophy back to SIBM Pune!