An important B-school experience, case competitions and business simulations bring students an opportunity to battle it out with other competing B-schools and prove their mettle, while also strengthening personal and professional networks

One of the most interesting experiences of B-school life is fighting it out in interschool case competitions and business simulations. Management schools across the world swear by the effectiveness and relevance of these case competitions in ensuring the learning and development of students. Not only do case comps (as they are popularly called) give students a chance to apply the core business concepts learned in the classroom, but some also come with a massive upside of Pre-Placement Interview (PPI) or Pre-Placement Offer (PPO) opportunity by the partner company for the winning teams!

ISB students, often with Dare2Compete (D2C) as an intermediary, are exposed to a multitude of opportunities to showcase their talent and edge over other b-schools like IIM – A/B/C, XLRI, NUS & NTU, Singapore among others in the form of these competitions. The grand finales of these competitions present a great networking occasion to students, while also contributing as a major spike on their resume before the placements.

POPULAR COMPETITIONS AND SIMULATIONS

• Most popular amongst ISB students is a business simulation called ‘Stratos’ sponsored by the prestigious Aditya Birla Group (ABG).  ABG Stratos attempts to test student’s understanding across the entire business spectrum – strategy, marketing, finance, operations, etc. Teams of three are given a specific business scenario and are tasked to decide how much to produce, when to produce, how to deal with crisis, how to manage finances; and the results reflect on their stock price by the end of the competition. It is an extremely competitive and hectic simulation, with 6 back-to-back rounds – all in just 72 hours!!

Campus winners are then required to present their learnings and findings in a ppt to finally battle it out on the national level with other teams

• Another popular case comp is L.I.M.E. by HUL. Unilever is a dream company for the majority of marketing aspirants, thus rendering L.I.M.E. even more important for these candidates. It is very intensely contested amongst all leading B-school students, with the finale also being telecast on CNBC-TV18. Students can participate in teams of 3 and are given up to four weeks to compile and present their analysis and ideas for the given problem. L.I.M.E especially challenges participants with its unique requirement of submitting all ideas + analysis in a single PowerPoint slide, where less, definitely becomes more!

• HULT Prize is one of the largest and most prestigious annual b-school competitions across the world, witnessing participation from over 121 schools globally. Themed around addressing pressing social issues, the competition challenges participants to come up with sustainable solutions and offers the US $1 million dollars as seed capital to the winning team. In fact, a team of 4 students from ISB batch of 2014 became the first Indian team to win the HULT challenge for their idea to address the issue of Non-Communicable Diseases and received the one-million-dollar funding from Bill Clinton himself.

• RB Global Challenge in another esteemed global ideation competition which aims to encourage social entrepreneurship amongst b-school students. The competition is divided into 2 preliminary rounds. The first round is a business simulation that tests the agility of teams, while the second round invites scalable and financially viable ideas that address critical issues of hygiene, wellness, or nourishment. The shortlisted teams from Round 2 battle it out in the regional finale, with the national winners getting to represent the country at the Global Finale in London.
  
  Trivia: A team of 3 students from ISB co’2020 were national winners of the RB Challenge 2019 and took home a prize money of INR 10 lakhs.

• ISB students have left an indelible mark on a host of IIM-A competitions like Blitzkrieg, Kotler’s Conundrum, Armageddon, and Exchequer year after year. All these competitions are organized by IIM Ahmedabad as part of their Red Brick Summit

Other popular competitions are Google Case Challenge, L’Oréal Sustainability Challenge, Mahindra War Room and Microsoft PM Challenge. The real-world learning edge offered by these case competitions is unmatched, but ISB adds a new dimension to this learning in the form of its own in-house student organized management festival called ADVAITA. Introduced only in 2013, it has grown leaps and bounds in the last 7 years witnessing enthusiastic participation from 40+ management schools across the world.

A complete list of case competitions and business simulations that ISB students have participated in, is shared below.

More resources:

ADVAITA Official Page, Official Blog for competition registration and info.

ISB-Ivey Global Case Competition 2018

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With a strong focus on ISB and a team of Former ISB Admissions Officers onboard, ISBmantra offers personalized Application Consulting & Interview Prep services. Feel free to send your profile to info@isbmantra.com for a free profile evaluation.

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The one week-long induction period for Indian School of Business’ flagship PGP is a celebration and coming together of the best minds of this country

Exhilarating, Enthralling and Exhausting!

Only three of the hundred words one would use to describe the ISB O-Week experience. This creatively crafted, high energy week lays the perfect foundation to rest of the year for PGP candidates, with a healthy mix of induction sessions, team building & bonding exercises and parties – LOTS OF PARTIES!

ISB is a completely student driven school with the student body having complete autonomy + responsibility to make of the year what they may. As it is a one-year program, there is no teething period or time for junior-senior interaction, which is exactly where the O-week comes in. This week acts as a way for the previous class to pass the baton and along with it, a lot of knowledge and fun memories to incoming class.

WHAT TO EXPECT FROM ISB O-WEEK?

Expect the unexpected!

Cliché apart, here is capturing some of the most important and interesting bits of the week –

Day 01

Students and their families are welcomed to campus, and as they take in the magnificent view and lush greenery, housekeeping staff helps check them into student quads. Students then rush to complete their registration process, where they are greeted with warm smiles and quick ice-breaking initiatives by senior alums manning the booths. This is then followed by a welcome address from Dean, a welcome dinner and game night / theme party. With the simplicity of first day, students seldom fathom the craziness that await them next

Day 02 & Day 03

The second day marks the beginning of a blitzkrieg of activities. While the days are spent attending info-sessions by different administrative bodies and physically intensive, amusing team-building exercises, the evening is spent enjoying an enthralling unplugged event by alums featuring music, drama, stand-up and more! Day 03 usually sees one of the best o-week activities called treasure hunt, which is ISB’s novel way of giving newcomers a tour of the sprawling campus. Incoming students also get to try their hand at the most popular sport at ISB – no, not cricket, not football – it’s an ultimate frisbee, a unique and extremely celebrated part of the ISB culture!

Trivia: A couple of ISB alums have represented India at international flying disc world championships.

Day 04 & Day 05

By this time students have already been segregated into 8 sections and been passed upon the section gyaan – informal induction sessions by alums updating the incoming batch about their section spirit animal, unique traditions, section identity and bonding! This then paves way for Section Wars, where sort of a section jingoism is channeled to prove your section as the best and most talented. Section wars witness an extremely competitive but massively fun student participation and by end of the week creates a strong sense of belongingness amongst students

Day 06

Being the highly competitive school that ISB is, section wars are topped with SV wars where the four student villages (ISB’s version of student hostels) fight with each other to throw the coolest party of O-week – ultimately allowing students to bond with their quaddies (roommates in ISB lingo) and future neighbours. Day 05 and Day 06 also comprise of presentations delivered by ex-presidents and core members of 25+ clubs at ISB, hence walking the new batch through the specificities of each group, membership process and overall benefits. This plays an important role in helping students decide which club(s) would best complement their academic and career aspirations.

Day 07 & Day 08

Be ready to end the madness of week with sundowners, the very famous traffic lights party and of course the Talent Night! Talent night is possibly the biggest and most prepped for event of orientation week, with each of the eight sections at ISB giving musical performances, skits and a medley of other talents based on a unique theme. Alums from the previous batch add scores from the rest of section war competitions with the scoring of Talent Night to announce the ultimate winner – the section which walks home with o-week braggin’ rights!

COVID HAD NOTHING ON CLASS OF 2021’S O-WEEK

When faced with the unprecedented challenge of first few weeks of PGP going digital for the batch of class of 2021, the most innovative minds of class of 2020 came together to plan the most creative, fun and memorable o-week in the history of ISB. Zoom parties, virtual bar hops, digital version of shark tank, drinking games, virtual talent night, simulation marketing games, treasure hunt – you name it and co2020 made it happen!

COVID may have taken away the physical interaction, but it only bolstered the ISB spirit!

About ISBmantra

With a strong focus on ISB and a team of Former ISB Admissions Officers onboard, ISBmantra offers personalized Application Consulting & Interview Prep services. Feel free to send your profile to info@isbmantra.com for a free profile evaluation

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