Accenture B-School Next-Horizon Strategy Challenge inspires young business leaders to reinvent the future

As disruptions go, the past 2-3 years have upended conventional business models more than ever. The erstwhile traditional models of business have given way to digital-first ones where the lines between business and technology have blurred. Decisions are now increasingly being backed by data and analytics. This approach has offered new revenue-making opportunities and has the potential to make a direct impact on the bottom line.

The era of “digital transformation” is well and truly here where every organisation worth its salt sees it as a catalyst for growth. And the quest to become a data-driven organisation and gather insights isn’t an easy one. It requires a combination of entrepreneurial instincts, creative thinking and analytical thinking. Over many decades, Accenture has brought its invaluable consulting experience across different industries to address challenges and deliver measurable, value-led outcomes.

In that light, at the Accenture B-School Next Horizon Strategy Challenge 2022, budding young talent competed to showcase their consulting prowess. This sixth edition of the annual event has put “modernisation of industries” in the spotlight. The competition invited the brightest minds in the country from the top business schools to come up with interesting and disruptive approaches to complex problems.

Over a month, more than 8,400 participants from India’s leading 16 business schools contested for a place in the finals. The challenge, conducted in a hybrid-mode, opened with teams comprising four members each. A rapid-fire quiz round was followed by a business simulation round where they wore the hat of a CEO to offer their take on profitability. 160 teams were shortlisted and made presentations to Accenture leaders across different industries ranging from banking, communication, media and technology, consumer goods, retail, energy, industrial, mobility and life sciences. The platform offered an opportunity to students to come up with innovative approaches to address complex problem statements across industries.

The grand finale involved eight winning teams: IIM-Ahmedabad, IIM-Bangalore, IIM-Lucknow, IIM-Kozhikode, IIM-Udaipur, Indian School of Business, Faculty of Management Studies and Xavier School of Management. Students were mentored by Accenture experts for the final presentation. Additionally, the B-school students underwent a storytelling workshop to sharpen their presentation skills. An in-depth industry masterclass, too, was offered to enable students to gain deeper business insights.

The competition’s grand finale was a close one with the team from Indian School of Business bagging the first prize, followed by the team from Indian Institute of Management Lucknow as the runner up and the team from Indian Institute of Management Udaipur, which secured the third place. The team from Faculty of Management Studies was awarded a special jury prize.

The eminent jury included Piyush N. Singh, Senior Managing Director, Lead –India Business, Accenture; Sanjay Dawar, Managing Director – Global Strategy and Consulting, Accenture India; Anurag Gupta, Managing Director and Lead - Strategy & Consulting, Accenture in India; Kala Venkatesh, Managing Director and Lead – Learning, Global Strategy & Consulting, Accenture; Satish Sharma, President – APMEA, Apollo Tyres; Vijayendra Singh, Chief Operating Officer, Apollo 24x7, Randhir Singh Kalsi, Senior Executive Director, Maruti Suzuki; and Ranjit Gupta, Founder and CEO, Ocior Energy.

The top three teams from the sixteen teams, will also be offered a pre-placement interview opportunity at Accenture.

Moneycontrol journalists were not involved in the creation of the article.