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)