Date:21/11/2008 URL: http://www.thehindubusinessline.com/2008/11/21/stories/2008112150930500.htm

Back Cos use case study to woo talent from campus

Winners get cash rewards and pre-placement offers.

Bindu D. Menon

New Delhi, Nov. 20 Companies are hunting for fresh ideas from B-schools using case study contest as a plank.

Using budding managers to ideate and devise fresh strategies, India Inc is doling out cash rewards and pre-placements offers to the winners, besides testing their own brand appeal among students.

Pepsi, Spencer’s Retail and Dabur are some of the companies posing real time challenge to budding managers.

Tasting Success

In its second edition of its initiative called Taste the Success – Become Indra’s Advisors, PepsiCo is presenting the winning team an opportunity to present their case studies to Ms Indra Nooyi, Chairperson and CEO, PepsiCo, along with a pre-placement offer in the company. The runners up will bag Rs one lakh, besides pre-placement interview. PepsiCo received at least 582 entries from various top league management schools across the country.

Speaking about the initiative, Mr Pavan Bhatia, Executive Director-HR, PepsiCo India, said: “The response that we received from the management students last time showed that the students are always on the lookout for such opportunities and innovative mediums to prove their talent. While such contests provide management students a chance to challenge themselves with a real-time situation, it also provides PepsiCo an opportunity to engage with some of the finest brains to arrive at innovative solutions.”

Dabur Navigator

Dabur had last year launched its Navigator programme – an initiative under which B-school students were asked to formulate business strategies for the FMCG major. The firm had received entries from over 120 teams.

The Executive Director-HR of Dabur India Ltd, Mr A Sudhakar, said, “Through the Navigator programme, we were looking at suggestions in terms of growing our business, both organic and inorganic. One of them could directly shape the future of Dabur India Ltd. Besides, this exercise of outsourcing business strategy gives a fresh perspective to the organisation.”

He said the company had solicited ideas from leading business schools of India based on the themes of innovation, acquisition and expansion. “Apart from the benefit of generating business ideas for the organisation’s growth, this initiative is also a way of building the Dabur brand among students,” he added.

According to Mr Samar S. Sheikhawat, Vice-President-Marketing, Spencer’s Retail, “We always have a consistent research requirement. This kind of contest helps address the research needs besides helping us to scout for a talent pool.”

Mr Amit Kapoor, Honorary Chairman of Institute for Competitiveness India, said: “With the increasing war for talent on campus, there is a need for organisations to constantly innovate and partner with academia to do things differently that help capture larger mind share. This contest provides new avenues for students who are always on the lookout for various platforms to showcase their business sense, creativity and talent.”