Parikrama Performs at XLRI

The True Mar Gods!

Paradox: an apparently true statement that leads to a contradiction or a situation which defies intuition.

Selling a predefined product/ service is a thing of the past. Marketers have been doing that; and they will continue doing so. But what do you do when you have to sell a paradox? How will you use a brand ambassador that is the complete opposite of what the product stands for? That was what the first stage of Concept2Creative, the event by the Marketing Association of XLRI (MAXI) at Ensemble 2008, asked the participants to do. Based on the creativity, marketing acumen and presentation of ideas, 6 teams were shortlisted. 1 more team was selected as a wild card entry through an online quiz at KitneBaje.com , one of the sponsors of the event. These teams then came to XLRI and fought it out for the grand prize and the title of The Mar Gods.

The final battle had two stages, which saw teams really put their creativity and marketing knowledge to test.

A manager has various tasks assigned to him in sales. A business development team designs the POP materials which attract the customers and result in impulse sales. This is a crucial component of sales. An efficient Business Development manager must know how to design an effective POP.

Teams were supplied with a brand name and product description. They were required to design POP material of any format telling possible customers about the product features and its benefits. These were put up in a MAXI stall on campus which was frequented by students who voted on their choice of Point-Of-Purchase materials.

Any role in business requires partnership with important stakeholders. Different fields of business call for different approaches for the same. A stockist is a key partner in distribution and among the main criteria for partnering are: Return on investment and 'bonding' between the organizations.
Each team had to pitch a product give to them to a major stockist through creative efforts, including skits, presentation and acts, all the while trying to convince the stockist why he should keep their product. Our major sponsor BIG FM was evaluating this round, with the Jharkhand station head as the prime judge.

With a prize money of Rs. 40,000/- and a participation of teams across India, C2C provided a fun-filled time among the serious PPTs going on in other events, all the while challenging the participants to forge ahead and become the true Mar-Gods! Team Want2Win from IIM Lucknow emerged the winner, with Team Swash from XLRI as the runners-up.

(- Sheeladitya Mohanty, Team MAXI)

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El Dorado Winners

The Dramatics & Cultural Association of XLRI (DRACULA) organized the quiz El Dorado in connection with Ensemble 2008 on the night of 25th January, 2008. True to Dracula tradition, the quiz was conducted at twelve in the night.

The quiz was conducted by the master quizmaster Pradeep Ramarathnam, an eminent member of the Bombay Quiz Club. It saw eager participation from business school students across the country, who had all come down specially for the event. Over a hundred students participated in teams of two. After the preliminary round, the number was whittled down to six teams – two home teams, two teams from IIM Calcutta, and one each from FMS and IMT Ghaziabad.

The quiz was on the infinite bounds format, although there was a buzzer round at the end. This proved pivotal, as one of the teams that had been lagging behind till then leapfrogged to near the front of the pack. The questions were general questions, though a healthy number were business-related.

It was a keenly contested event, but the final winners were the home team duo of Shrikant Narasimhan and Raghu Reddy. The duo is fast earning a reputation on the quizzing circuit, as are the runner-ups, the team of Arnav Sinha and Vijay Menon from IIM Calcutta. It was not just the two winners who walked away with prizes at the end of the night, however. There were a lot of audience prizes as well, from the sponsor GSK. These ranged from Parker Pens to health drinks.

War of Wits Indeed

One of the major events of Ensemble 2008 was “War of the Wits” - a Human Resources based competition which was a joint organization effort by Sapphire (Student’s Association for Personnel Management, Human Relations and Industrial Relations) and Fireax (Forum for Industrial Relations at XLRI). The event turned out to be a stimulating assortment of challenging situations bound together by the constraints of time, money and most importantly human resources. Participating teams were tested over six rounds on their knowledge of HR, planning, decision making, and negotiation skills in a dynamic environment. With XLRI enjoying its reputation as the premier B school for HR in the Asia Pacific Region, the event was designed to be the best HR event of the region.

Major interest was shown from students across all B schools across the country. However, only 5 teams made it to the final round, from MDI Gurgaon, XIM Bhubaneshwar, V G Somaiya, Kharagpur, and two teams from XLRI itself. Different events were judged by eminent professors from the field of law, organizational behavior, and human resources. The event was kicked off by Swati Jena, Secretary, Sapphire and AVIK Ghosh, Secretary, Fireax and began with the collective bargaining situation and the HR/IR quiz. The collective bargaining round was based on real life cases relating to compensation, individual disputes, and recruitment of workers in which each team had to negotiate, once as the management and once as the union. Following the collective bargaining and quiz round, teams were also tested through a diversity case study and a debate which focused on major issues in the field of human resources.

The final round was a simulated exercise in which teams had to recruit “worker” according to a pre decided budget for production of a certain “product”. Students of XLRI volunteered for the final round and made up categories of unskilled, skilled and contract workers. The round was based on real life and teams also experienced strikes and slow downs which caused loss in “production.”

The event was conducted in partnership with ITC, who also were the exclusive sponsor. The final results were based on the scores of each team in each round. At the end of almost six grilling hours, one of the teams from XLRI were adjudged the final winner, and were followed closely behind by the team from V G Somaiya. However, each of the events had individual prizes as well and therefore, each team earned a certain amount. The total prize money was around 80000 INR.

The event was a grand success which also enjoyed a high degree of audience participation. It contributed a long way in making Ensemble 2008 a grand success.

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Samarpan Results

Crescent, the Entrepreneurship Development Cell of XLRI, organized Samarpan, a business plan contest, as part of Ensemble 2008, the annual management fest of XLRI. The event was organized in association with Accenture, one of the top consulting and outsourcing organizations in the world. The competition focused on social upliftment as each plan was designed in order to improve living conditions of people living below the poverty line in rural India.

Major interest was shown in the event as various teams sent in plans during the preliminary stage of the event. However, only 5 teams were shortlisted, from V G Somaiya Management Institute at Indian Institute of Technology, Kharagpur, Institute of Rural Management, Ahmedabad, and a startling three teams from XLRI, Jamshedpur itself. The plans showcased the innovative thinking and analytical skills of the students as well as their interest in undertaking a project which would not only have major social impact, but also made sound business and economical sense. The plans also targeted a diverse range of people and promoted various vocational sources of income such as sewing cooperatives for women, community radios for education and centres to improve farming techniques using latest technology like Global Positioning Systems, Global Information Systems, while also providing agricultural insurance and farming equipments. Adequate research was done by the team in the field as well as on the drawing boards before they decided on their final plans.

Judged by eminent academicians from the field of economics, strategic management and marketing, the team from Institute of Rural Management, Ahmedabad were judged the winners after almost three hours of presentations and questioning by all the teams. The winners walked away with a cool 45, 000 INR as prize money and also the opportunity to present their plan before venture capitalists, which would be facilitated by Crescent. Their plan centred around a novel strategy of targeting fishermen along India’s coastline, by training and facilitating them to use seaweed nets. This would provide these fishermen with a secondary source of income, while it would also be eco friendly and economical.

Exemplar Results

MAXI, the Marketing Association of XLRI, organized Exemplar, a marketing contest in partnership with Tata Teleservices as a part of Ensemble 2008. The event was all about launching a product in the market, devising a perfect marketing strategy, facing the worst possible situations and implementing the solutions. Held on the 26th of January, it requires participants to be ready with all their marketing skills and fundamentals, in a battle of wits and knowledge.

After a tough preliminary selection round, the final teams shortlisted were from IIM Bangalore, IIFT Delhi, IIM Lucknow, FMS Delhi and two teams from XLRI. The competition was based on a marketing plan for Tata Teleservices Value Added Services (VAS). Participants had to come up with a viable marketing strategy for the VAS offered by Tata Teleservices, and also suggest other services which could be offered. The competition was judged by Professor Sanjeev Varshney, a professor of the marketing area at XLRI.

The event was a grand success which garnered major interest from the student community. The participating teams came up with a variety of solutions that were novel and innovative in different ways. After a long grueling session of presentations and questioning by the judges, the team from IIFT Delhi was finally adjudged the winners. They won prize money of about 30000 INR. They were also closely followed by the team from XLRI, who won an amount of 20000 INR. The ideas and plans presented by the participating teams would be used by Tata Teleservices for the launch and positioning of their new VAS. It was in this regard that the event was organized and that the company took so much interest in Ensemble 2008.

Schedule of Events

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Prometheus - the Fin God

Prometheus, the search for the Finance God, was conducted by FINAX (The Finance Association of XLRI) and was exclusively sponsored by TATA STEEL as part of Ensemble 2008. The event involved three stages and was kicked off by an online quiz held across various b-schools. Over two hundred students participated in the first round, but only five teams shortlisted for the final battle to be the Fin God.

The teams were invited to XLRI and were evaluated across 3 rounds. One involved a case analysis on Mergers &Acquisitions; Another was the design of a derivative instrument and the third tested their technical analysis and portfolio management skills. The judges consisted of eminent personalities from various areas and included Mr. N K Mishra (Member of M&A department of TATA STEEL), Mr. Ajay Garg (Fund Manager of Birla Sunlife Insurance), and Prof H.K.Pradhan and Prof. Gaurav Vallabh, senior Professors from the Finance Department of XLRI. The First prize was jointly shared by the two teams from XLRI and IIM Lucknow.

The judges were very impressed with the logical justifications of their ideas and their ability to give convincing presentations. The learning value of the event was highly appreciated. The judges also had a short interaction with the students, wherein they explained some of the practical aspects of M&A. All the participating teams and judges walked out richer both in terms of experience as well as knowledge.

The First Edition of Discessio Imperators

Discessio Imperators- the flagship event of Ensemble 2008 was kicked off in style with seven teams from across the country participating in the multi-round finals. The event partner for the event was HSBC. The first round checked the ability of the teams to think on their feet and deliver solutions to real life problems within a short time. They were given five real life cases to solve in 15 minutes and they were to come up with a concise analysis. The case analysis was judged by eminent faculty members from XLRI- Prof. L. Gurunathan and Prof. Sumit Sarkar. This round saw teams presenting amazing analysis for the cases from diverse perspectives.

The caselets were just the start of a trail by fire for the finalists. They were next glutted with financial data for a fictitious company and they were asked to come up with the stock valuation for that company within two hours. Midway through the process all the interim valuations were displayed to each team so that they could refine their final value. The round gave the participants a grueling snapshot of an analyst’s life in an investment bank or private equity firm- jobs many of the participants aspire for. The final valuations of the participants were judged by the XLRI faculty members- Prof. Munish Thakur and Prof. Gaurav Vallabh. The participants shared their valuation methodology with the judges and received valuable feedback.

Only the top four teams- Invictus (XLRI) ,Vanishing Nerds ( IIM-C) ,Gladiators ( XIMB) and Team Xtreme (IIM-L) made it to the third and final round based on the cumulative scores of the first two rounds. The final round was a case study with a multi-functional perspective. It presented a case of a fictitious organisation with several issues spread across various functions. This was designed to test the all round management skills of the finalists. The case analysis was presented to a panel of judges comprising of – Prof. Rajesh Upadhyay and Prof. Sumit Sarkar.

After three grueling rounds and twenty four hours of extreme stress the team from XLRI- Invictus emerged as the winner followed by Vanishing Nerds (IIM-C) and TeamXtreme (IIM-L) sharing the runners up position on the podium. The success of the event could be gauged by the smiles on the faces of the event coordinators, participants and judges as they left the venue after the completion. The flagship event had truly lived up to the high expectations that all had of it.

(-Tarun Bahuguna, PM& IR 2006-08)

Accenture Consult Conundrum

HR events in XLRI have always created a buzz across the country everytime they are launched. Accenture Consult Conundrum was another such event which was the talk across B-schools from the day it was launched. The first round of the event, which consisted of a case study, received overwhelming response from B-Schools all over the country. Accenture, the event partner, conducted the evaluation for the first stage and selected six teams as the finalists.

The second round of the event tested the finalists right from the moment it started. Participants were given a case of a fictitious organization which listed certain issues the organisation was facing. Consultants from Accenture flew down to the campus to act as the client organisation team given in the case. The twist came when the consultants declared that they would be role playing characters sent by the client organisation and the teams would have to interview them for further information on the case and would finally have to sell their proposal to the team. In a show of exemplary acting skills the Accenture team played the role of the client team perfectly and assessed the client engagement skills of the participants. The team from Accenture consisted of – Mr. Himanshu Tambe, Mr. Jayesh Pandey, Ms. Geeta Rajgopal, Ms. Sheetal Mehra and Mr. Thiagrajan.


The finalists were then asked to prepare a presentation within a short span of 90 minutes. Then came the grueling presentation round and the finalists presented their proposal to the Accenture team still role playing as client team. Each team was grilled on minute details and was posed questions that consultants face regularly in their client interactions. After this round, each team was provided with a detailed feedback on each aspect of their presentation. The Acccenture team also provided tips to handle client interactions, and humour was one thing that wasn’t short in the feedback sessions. The team also handled general questions on handling consulting assignments.

As is with every competition there are winners for the day. In Consult Conundrum the winners were - Three Musketeers (XLRI) and NePlusUltra (XLRI) who walked away with handsome prize money of Rs. 50000 and Rs. 30000 respectively. To add to the joy of the winners, Accenture announced that the winning teams would be automatically shortlisted for the recruitment process.

(- Tarun Bahuguna, 2006-08)

Pratyancha Results Out!

"Pratyancha", the social diffusion strategy competition was conducted jointly by National Innovation Foundation (NIF) and SIGMA as part of XLRI's annual flagship event "Ensemble" today, 26th January 2008. Six finalist teams presented their diffusion plans for innovations from NIF like amphibious bicycle, natural water cooler, automatic design making machine, hand operated water pump, improved varieties of wheat, rice etc to a panel of distinguished judges which included Mr. Rajiv Pandey - Director, Social Upliftment Trust, Mr. Anshu Gupta - Founder, The Goonj, Ms Shubra Diwedi - Chief Executive, SEEDS, Dr. Santanu Gupta - Professor of Economics, XLRI and Mr. Amitabh Ghosh - Regional Head, Kalamandhir. The learning value derived from this unique competition was particularly appreciated by the participants and the judges. The event was won jointly by teams from XLRI and VGSOM - IIT Kharagpur.

Idea Summit

Idea Summit is a permanent feature of Ensemble and one of the first events among many. This year’s summit was sponsored by Aditya Birla Group and saw eminent personalities from various backgrounds coming to the campus to voice their opinion on the theme ‘Advantage India: Bird of Gold Spreads its Wings’. The panelists were Mr. Y.C.Nanda (Chairman, Agricultural Finance Corporation Ltd), Mr. S.J.S. Swamidoss, (Ex RBI Director), Mr. Anshu Gupta (Founder of Goonj and an Ashoka Fellow) and Mrs. Radha Mani (Founder and Executive Director, LEAD). The discussion was moderated by Prof. Tata L. Raghu Ram (Faculty, XLRI).

The discussion started with each of the panelists expressing their views on the topic. Mr. Nanda said that all the financial targets and milestones cannot be achieved without involving the farming community. He said that this aspect of the economy has not been paid adequate attention and it is only recently that due to the interest of the corporate sector things are looking up. He said that the trickle down effect which so far has not been seen is now a realistic possibility since the change is happening so close to the target segment.

Mr. Anshu Gupta took the social aspect of the topic and said that out of the three basic needs, clothing is not paid as much attention as the other two. He spoke of NGO’s and Governments’ misplaced priorities and the fault in their unilateral thinking. He said that his work which is in the area of clothing for poor is a replicable model and has the potential for scaling up.

Mr. Swamidoss talked of inclusive growth, involving financial, global and social growth. He spoke of the high dropout rate and suggested the use of the PPP in the education sector. He also advocated transparency and said the government should be more open and should share more with the public.

Mrs. Radha Mani the director of an NGO said that despite India being a tourism destination it is in those destinations that the population suffers the most. She said primary health is ignored, malnutrition is rampant, untouchability is still practiced and education is commodified. She said that dalits are still exploited and reservation has failed to benefit them.

The audience consisted of members of the faculty, students from b-schools across India and members of the media. The audience participated by questioning the speakers and expressing their views on the issue. The session was well moderated by Prof. Raghu Ram. The session did not end with a formal conclusion. The audience was seen interacting with the panelists even after the session.

(- Shadman Ahmad, PM& IR 2006-08)

Informal Events

Ensemble 2008 is the management fest of one of the best b-schools in India, but that doesn't mean that it has no fun and games involved! Dracula, the Dramatics and Cultural Association of XLRI, made sure of that. During the two days of Ensemble, the committee organized a mixture of quizzes, word games, puzzles and Dumb Charades.

The first event was Pot Pourri. The preliminary round, which had general knowledge questions as well as interesting word games, saw about fifteen teams, mostly from XLRI, participating. Six teams were shortlisted. The finals had several rounds - mostly word games and Dumb Charades. Those who are more into quizzing wouldn't have been disappointed, though. Solving the word games also required a healthy dose of general knowledge. In fact, one of the leading teams had a member from the duo that would later win El Dorado, the quiz.

The last couple of rounds were Dumb Charades-based - with a lot of added complications, of course. At the end of the formal quiz, two teams (Geeks and The Good, the Bad and the Ugly) were tied at first position. A tie-breaker round was added, and Team Geeks eventually emerged the winner.

Apart from Pot-Pourri, Dracula also organized a separate Dumb Charades event, with five rounds. Around twenty teams participated, and six were shortlisted after the preliminary round. They fought it out through rounds such as Rapid Fire and Blind Fold (the creators of the round claim that it was inspired by a scene from the movie Saw IV). Ankur Gupta and Arun Jonas John, two members of Team Geeks (which won Pot-pourri) seemed to have been on a roll, as they were also part of the team that won the Dumb Charades event.

Ensemble - A History

The idea for Ensemble first came up as far back as 2001, but it germinated only in 2005. The first Ensemble was a small affair, conducted on the JLT lawns on a shoestring budget. It had neither corporate partnership nor participants from other b-schools, but then, it is often of humble beginnings that great things flower.

The second edition of Ensemble, conducted in 2006, was on a whole new level. The student body, encouraged by the first edition, co-operated enthusiastically in making it a success. Even though the fest had only been conducted once before, corporates were eager to partner it, thanks to XLRI's tremendous brand name. Students from other b-schools also participated. XLRI's renowned hospitality and culture were acknowledged by one and all.

Ensemble 2007, with the theme 'India Unbounded - Tiger Unleashed', saw more than 200 participants from the top b-schools in India such as the IIM's and FMS, battle for top honours in games conducted across all business verticals. There was a wide spectrum of games, ranging from business games and case studies to paper writing contests and quizzes. The prize money amounted to around 7.5 lakh rupees, among the highest in the Indian b-school circuit. Companies such as Essar, Pepsi, the Aditya Birla Group, TATA Steel, etc partnered Ensemble 2007.

Ensemble 2008 promises to be an even better show. Centered around the theme 'Advantage India - The Bird of Gold Spreads Its Wings', the games are even more inventive this year. Apart from quizzes and business plan contests, there are events for Marketing enthusiasts and Finance wizards. Adventure lovers and wannabe consultants will also find something for them at XLRI over the next two days. The Aditya Birla Group is the principal partner of Ensemble 2008.

A major addition to Ensemble that has happened this year is the inauguration of Astarte, the cultural festival of XLRI. The major events of this year's edition are - Nukkad, a street play competition, and AnoreXia, a fashion show.

Ensemble 2008 - Inauguration

Ensemble 2008 was inaugurated at Father Prabhu Hall at 10:30 today morning. Father James Santhanam, Professor at XLRI, and Professor Pingali Venugopal, Dean (Academics), inaugurated the fest by lighting the sacred lamp. Sandeep Agarwal, General Secretary of the Student Affairs Council, represented the student body.

Later, giving the inaugural address, Father James spoke of the unique culture that XLRI had developed over the years. "We have a culture of excellence, a culture of integrity, a culture of pioneering vision," he said. XLRI had been established in 1949 with the motto of 'changing the face of the Earth', he said, and pointed out that XLRI had since then consistently been at the frontline of management education in India.

Next, Shiv Rohira, member of the Students Affairs Council (SAC), gave a short speech on the history of Ensemble.

Exemplar First Round Results

Team Ensemble and the Marketing Association at XLRI (MAXI) are pleased to announce the shortlisted teams for Exemplar!



Exemplar Shortlist (In no particular order):

Crossroads, IIMB
Strategists, IIFT Delhi
CSR, XLRI
The Masters, IIML
Pragya, FMS

Exemplar Waitlist (In order of merit):

1. Diptangshu, IIFT Kolkata
2. Insomniacs, FMS
3. Horizons, XLRI

CONGRATULATIONS!!!

Concept-2-Creative Results

The Marketing Assocation of XLRI, in association with Big FM, is pleased to announce the shortlisted teams for Concept2Creative: The Battle of the True Mar Gods @ XLRI !

The teams were evaluated based on their creativity, marketing acumen and presentation of ideas. We tried our level best to select 5 entries, but we were unable to limit it to that. So, we have increased the number of teams for the final round by One. :)

The shortlisted teams (in no particular order) are as follows (Team, Member, Institute):

1 Mitra, Tarunesh, IIFT
2 Instant, Suchi, IMT
3 Swash, Prayrita, XLRI
4 Eyeball, Kashif, SPJIMR
5 Charlies Angels, Monikanika , XLRI
6 Want2Win, Prashant, IIML

Wild Card Entrant:

Team Bane Shrikant XLRI

Waitlisted teams (in order of merit) are as follows:

1. Las Vegas, Nirmal, IIML
2. Maverick Marketers, Pallav, IIFT Kolkata
3. Pragati, Lakshmi, SPJIMR


CONGRATULATIONS!!!

Discessio Imperators Stage II Results

Discessio Imperators declares the list for the shortlisted team for the final stage.

The top 8 Teams that qualified are as follows (In no particular order):



For the list of waitlisted teams, please visit the Ensemble 2008 site.