Students from Indian School of Business win Accenture B-School Challenge 2024
New Delhi – Accenture concluded the eighth edition of its B-School Challenge focused on the theme of ‘Reinvention in the Age of Gen AI.’ The annual challenge aims to recognize, foster, and empower the next generation of consultants who will help reinvent businesses and drive growth. Indian School of Business team emerged as the winner of the challenge. Teams from Indian Institute of Management Bangalore and Faculty of Management Studies were the first and second runners-up respectively, and Indian Institute of Management Lucknow team was recognized with a special jury award.
The winning teams received prizes cumulatively worth INR 10,00,000 (10 lakh). In addition, the top three teams from all the participating business schools received a pre-placement interview opportunity with Accenture.
A record number of ~11,000 students from top 16 business schools in India participated in the two month-long challenge. Students went through four rounds of intensive evaluation.
The first round of the Accenture B-School Challenge 2024 featured a rapid-fire quiz to test critical thinking and analytical skills of the participants. This was followed by a round of interactive online simulation where students were required to role-play as Chief Operating Officers (COOs) and make decisions around driving business profitability. Ten teams from each school were shortlisted at the end of the second round. Accenture organized storytelling workshops and industry-specific masterclasses for the selected teams to help them hone their presentation skills and gain deeper industry insights.
In the third round, the students presented solutions for specific business challenges across different industries including consumer good & services, banking, energy, mobility, life sciences, communications and media among others. The top eight finalist teams were then mentored by Accenture leaders in preparation for the final round, where they presented their business strategy to the jury.
The finalists were evaluated by a jury that comprised of senior leaders from both the industry and Accenture. These included:
- Ashween Anand, CFO, Tata Starbucks
- Suhel Bidani, Digital Lead, Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation
- Mathew Cyriac, Chairman and Whole-time Director, Florintree Advisors
- Dr. Suresh Ramanathan, Dean & Principal, Great Lakes Institute of Management
- Suresh Nanduru, India Lead for Strategy & Consulting – Global Network, Accenture
- Prithvijit Roy, Managing Director, Lead – Data & AI, Strategy & Consulting – Global Network, Accenture
- Juhi Munjal, Managing Director – Data & AI, Strategy & Consulting – Global Network, Accenture
This year’s participating business schools included Indian Institute of Management Ahmedabad, Indian Institute of Management Bangalore, Indian Institute of Management Calcutta, Indian Institute of Management Lucknow, Indian Institute of Management Kozhikode, Indian Institute of Management Indore, Indian Institute of Management Udaipur, Indian School of Business, Faculty of Management Studies, Jamnalal Bajaj Institute of Management Studies, S.P. Jain Institute of Management and Research, Xavier School of Management (XLRI), Indian Institute of Foreign Trade, Management Development Institute, National Institute of Industrial Engineering and Tata Institute of Social Sciences.