Day 2 Update

Finance whizzes ruled the day at the second day of Ensemble 2010 at XLRI School of Business and Human Resources, Jamshedpur, with the launch of Prometheus, the flagship event of FINAX [FINance Association of XLRI] is a unique case study based competition that helped participants understand the lender and promoter's perspective. The event had two rounds, the first of which was an online case study and presentation conducted by executives from the main sponsors of the event, L&T Finance Holdings. The second round was another case study organized by FINAX, wherein the teams were required to analyze and restructure a company in distress. They were then evaluated on the basis of a presentation made to Prof. Ram Kumar Kakani of XLRI. Vinmaya, the team from IMT Ghaziabad bagged the first prize, a whopping Rs.80,000 while Prometheus Bound, the team from MDI Gurgaon emerged runners up, winning a prize money of Rs.60,000. On the whole, Prometheus provided a stimulating learning environment for both the participants and the audience.

MAXI, the Marketing Association at XLRI conducted its much awaited flagship event CIRCUS MAXIMUS on Day 2 of Ensemble. A unique event, it focuses on providing the participants with hands-on experience in marketing. The event comprises three rounds, the first of which is a case study, the second a market simulation and the final round a field activity that tests the selling skills of each team in the real market by asking them to sell in-house handmade products of NGO-Neev. Of the preliminary registrations, the teams from IIM Calcutta, IIM Shillong, NMIMS, XIMB and XLRI were chosen as finalists to compete for a total prize money of Rs.50,000.

Strike or Yield was the flagship Industrial Relations Strategy event, open nationally to all B-schools conducted by the Forum for Industrial Relations(IR) at XLRI. The event comprised of 4 rounds that tested the depth of IR knowledge, strategic Thinking, Presentation skills and Negotiation tact and vision. The event saw participation from the top B-schools of the country specifically schools with strong HR/IR focus including finalists from MDI, TISS, XIMB, XLRI and SIBM. The esteemed judges are Professor Santanu Gupta, who works in the area of Public Economics and Political Economy, Professor S N Bagchi who focuses in the area of Performance Management with interest in decision making and Law Professor P K Padhi. The teams are currently competing for the first prize that stands at Rs. 25,000 and second prize for Rs. 15,000.

The adventure club XLANC organized the first edition of its two-part Quest Adventura series where six teams went rafting at Dimna Lake and participated in wall-climbing competitions. The results will be announced after the completion of the second edition of the event scheduled for Sunday.

The results of Friday’s numerous events have also started pouring in. War of Wits, the flagship HR event by SAPPHIRE in association with the Murugappa Group which had six teams brainstorming about employer branding, was won by Team Jedi from TISS Mumbai. The winners Adfer Muzaffar, Swapnil Kudle and Souvik Mazumdar will share a cash prize of Rs 45,000 while the runners-up from IIM Shilong -- Bhavya Aggarwal, Divisha Agrawal and Nagendra Singh – go away with Rs 30,000.

The first prize for 'Etincelle' - BOSCH Case Study conducted by FIRE@X (Forum for Industrial Relations at XLRI) was bagged by team Pax Proles from XLRI -- Sushant Warde, Charu Priyadarshi, Sangeet Saurabh and Varun Boob -- for their comprehensive case analysis and practical recommendations. The first and second runners-up were team Phoenix and Yellower Helmet. The session ended with a discussion on the 72-day strike at the company’s Jaipur plant with the president of the Mico Bosch Union, Mr. Bhagwan Singh Ranawat, and the Union Secretary Mr. Ved Prakash fielding questions from students.

In Pandora, a business simulation event on the telecom industry in India organized by XLRI’s IT society SOCRATES, the team comprising Kunal Kaul, Nitin Gupta and Ambhuj Srivastav from Great Lakes Institute of Management, Chennai, bagged the Rs. 30,000 prize. NMIMS Bidders G Sumanth Varma, Dhaval Pandya and Bhargav Padh came second from among 70 participating teams from across the best b-schools in the country.

AXIOM, the Operations Society at XLRI, conducted their flagship event Helios on Day 1 of Ensemble. The winners are Free Riders from MDI Gurgaon (Bhavesh Singhal, Pankaj Gupta and Vinamra Sangal) and runners up are Crackers from XIMB (Vinaykumar Patel, Pankaj Kumar Goinka and Sumit Gupta). The simulation game tested concepts from various areas of Operations Management.

Showdown @ Dalal Street, an event conducted jointly by FINAX [FINance Association of XLRI] and NCDEX [National Commodities & Derivatives EXchange], is a simulation event that provides a hands-on actual commodity trading experience to the participants. Of the 30 participating teams, the team from XLRI comprising Anshuman Sharma and Abhijit Shukla bagged the first prize.