Prayaag, the annual B-school festival of Jamnalal Bajaj Institute of Management Studies was held from 22nd to 24th February. The theme this year was CEO-Volution[/b], signifying the metamorphosis and evolution of a B-school student into a CEO. CEO-volution focussed on the evolution of modern CEOs into the leaders of tomorrow. A brilliant mind, an unbreakable mettle and an unshakeable spirit defines them and students got the opportunity to see this spirit in action during the course of Prayaag.
The preliminary rounds for all the main events were launched on the internet. The top teams for the final campus rounds were selected through a mixture of online quizzes and case-study submissions. All events were staggered through a period of three days and were judged both by esteemed JBIMS alumni and industry experts.
The first day of Prayaaggot off to a rollicking start. In line with CEO-Volution, the inauguration was done byMr. NalinMehta, Managing Director at Mahindra Navistar Automotives Ltd. Mr. Mehta had the crowd enthralled with his account of his journey from a salesman to a Managing Director. He also had a word of caution for the students when he said that the environment is changing constantly and the ones who are slow to adapt are the ones to lag behind the rest.Three of the main events were lined up for the first day:B-team, a competition about the intricacies of banking; Stock Stars, an event about stock trading andFooty Masters, a strategy event that harnessed the mass appeal of football. Outstation teams performed exceedingly well, grabbing the top prize in all three events. Besides these core business events, there were also various on-the-spot registration competitions such as
Treasure Hunt which managed to attract many contestants. The karaoke set never seemed to get a rest throughout the day.
The second day did not lose any of the momentum built up by the first. Markshaala, a marketing strategy event, presented a real life case study for the contestants to analyse and present innovative solutions. Each team came up with unique answers that really seemed to make the job extremely difficult for the judges. On the other hand there were Bourse Ballad and Finquilab, which were core finance events and involved some heavy number crunching and technical analysis. Both these events were so designed that the teams had to face some strenuous Q &A rounds. However, to their credit, most of the teams were up for the challenge and satisfactorily answered the questions pertaining to their presentations.The day concluded with GIC Re-Volution, a re-insurance case study event that was put forward by GIC. The team that provided the best solutions to the problems faced by the re-insurance industry took home the honours. This was a better day for the host institute as two teams from JBIMS took the podium.
The concluding day began early in the morning with Prayaag’s flagship event ‘The Invincibles’ that lasted for nearly ten hours. Be it marketing, operations, finance or HR, the teams were tested in each of these domains. Another highly challenging event was Lead India, where teams had to design their own political party with its own agenda and manifesto. The judges were on the lookout for a presentation that satisfactorily tackled the issues that today’s India faces rather than one that made unrealistic promises.The final event was The Enterprise, another live case-study challenge presented by the Hygienic Research InstitutePvt. Ltd. Teams had to come up with creative solutions to the problem faced by the company regarding exploding into the expanding hair-care market.
While Prayaag hosted all these intense events, it did not mean that there was no place left for fun.TheTreasure Hunt, with its innovative format, kept participants on their toes. For those who were partial to music and dance, there was a whole segment of activities titled Fun@Prayaag. There was also an intra-batch event by the name of Avs Alpha wars which turned out to be a massive hit.
In restrospect, Prayaag’13 turned out to be perhaps the biggest and most successful festival in the history of JBIMS. The legacy created by this chapter of Prayaag is sure to set a precedent and encourage more such grand events.
The preliminary rounds for all the main events were launched on the internet. The top teams for the final campus rounds were selected through a mixture of online quizzes and case-study submissions. All events were staggered through a period of three days and were judged both by esteemed JBIMS alumni and industry experts.
The first day of Prayaaggot off to a rollicking start. In line with CEO-Volution, the inauguration was done byMr. NalinMehta, Managing Director at Mahindra Navistar Automotives Ltd. Mr. Mehta had the crowd enthralled with his account of his journey from a salesman to a Managing Director. He also had a word of caution for the students when he said that the environment is changing constantly and the ones who are slow to adapt are the ones to lag behind the rest.Three of the main events were lined up for the first day:B-team, a competition about the intricacies of banking; Stock Stars, an event about stock trading andFooty Masters, a strategy event that harnessed the mass appeal of football. Outstation teams performed exceedingly well, grabbing the top prize in all three events. Besides these core business events, there were also various on-the-spot registration competitions such as
Treasure Hunt which managed to attract many contestants. The karaoke set never seemed to get a rest throughout the day.
The second day did not lose any of the momentum built up by the first. Markshaala, a marketing strategy event, presented a real life case study for the contestants to analyse and present innovative solutions. Each team came up with unique answers that really seemed to make the job extremely difficult for the judges. On the other hand there were Bourse Ballad and Finquilab, which were core finance events and involved some heavy number crunching and technical analysis. Both these events were so designed that the teams had to face some strenuous Q &A rounds. However, to their credit, most of the teams were up for the challenge and satisfactorily answered the questions pertaining to their presentations.The day concluded with GIC Re-Volution, a re-insurance case study event that was put forward by GIC. The team that provided the best solutions to the problems faced by the re-insurance industry took home the honours. This was a better day for the host institute as two teams from JBIMS took the podium.
The concluding day began early in the morning with Prayaag’s flagship event ‘The Invincibles’ that lasted for nearly ten hours. Be it marketing, operations, finance or HR, the teams were tested in each of these domains. Another highly challenging event was Lead India, where teams had to design their own political party with its own agenda and manifesto. The judges were on the lookout for a presentation that satisfactorily tackled the issues that today’s India faces rather than one that made unrealistic promises.The final event was The Enterprise, another live case-study challenge presented by the Hygienic Research InstitutePvt. Ltd. Teams had to come up with creative solutions to the problem faced by the company regarding exploding into the expanding hair-care market.
While Prayaag hosted all these intense events, it did not mean that there was no place left for fun.TheTreasure Hunt, with its innovative format, kept participants on their toes. For those who were partial to music and dance, there was a whole segment of activities titled Fun@Prayaag. There was also an intra-batch event by the name of Avs Alpha wars which turned out to be a massive hit.
In restrospect, Prayaag’13 turned out to be perhaps the biggest and most successful festival in the history of JBIMS. The legacy created by this chapter of Prayaag is sure to set a precedent and encourage more such grand events.