All case study competitions are created equal, or so goes the saying. But some do stand out in their content and manner of being conducted. PRoelio is just such a challenge. A brainchild of SIBM’s PR Team, this competition places the limelight on the growing relevance of public relation skills in an MBA course. Whether by a PR agency for its clients, or as a company’s in-house extended function of marketing, or even as a firefighting measure after a crisis, public relations has now become part of the modern manager’s skill-set.
PRoelio (meaning battle or contest) is a national-level B-school event. This year, the event opened with a shortlisting round based on the popular TV series, Dexter. Based on some fairly creative submissions, four teams (of three members each) were called for the final round, held on the 18
th of January at the SIU Auditorium.
The final round (and main attraction) of the event consisted of a case describing a PR disaster situation for the fictional Stark Industries (of the
Avengers movie fame). The Judges included Mr. Rohit Chandavarkar, an eminent journalist and Resident Editor of Sakal Times, Mr. Roy Abraham, Chief Manager, Sakal Times and Prof P.K. Shreekumar, a visiting faculty in SIMC and veteran Event Management expert.
Each team, acting as a PR agency, presented its strategy to rescue the situation before the judges and audience. Says Dheeraj, an audience member, “They surprised us with some really interesting loopholes they’d fished out in the case. But the best part was the mock press conferences that followed.” At the end of their presentation, the team was grilled on the points they’d made by the judges and the audience itself. As the questions were flying thick and fierce, the winning factors became diplomacy, a thorough understanding of the problem and the ability to think on one’s feet. As Priya K, coordinator of iSMaRT, explains, “We wanted the participants to really feel what it’s like to face the press in a tricky situation and see how creatively they could defend their clients”. SIBM Pune’s Team PRunks, consisting of Manavi Mehendiratta, Akshay Jadeja and Siddharth Verma, won the competition with their comprehensive solution and their smooth presentation and defence. Team Colorfoolz from SIMS Pune too put up an impressive performance and attained second position. “Most importantly, we really enjoyed the unique format of the event; we discovered our impromptu defence skills in the process!”, said Ragini Jain of Team Mega Minds from IIT Madras.
Mr. Rohit Chandavarkar, the chief guest, had an interesting pointer, “In a live, high-pressure press conference, there’s no scope for error, so implicit understanding and coordination in the team is vital. You can not afford to be discussing amongst yourselves while the press awaits a response.”
As the team looks forward to the next entertaining PR battle in 2017, they would like to thank the sponsors this year for their indispensible support: Khaitan Electricals, Unicorn Pvt. Ltd., The Chaai, Pune, Sakal Times (Media Partner).