Accenture B-School Challenge 2018 National Winner Sharang Gaikwad’s Story

Did you just say that we have won this Accenture B-School Challenge 2018? Well, that was exactly what my reaction was. I was excited and thrilled. Never did we expect to be the National Winners, but hard work does pay off. When I registered for the competition, I was clear in my mind that I want to be a potential Accenture employee. And I was all set to give every ounce of my sweat and blood for it.

Our preparation involved multiple steps. Firstly, we identified the problem and that was “How to improve the agriculture sector's situation in India?”. Then we tried to put a scalable, a feasible solution because these were the most important aspects to consider when working on a real-life problem. Working in a team is fun but it always has its own challenges. We had some conflicts while working. But according to me, this is how teams work. You argue, discuss, and reach a solution that is better and improved than the one you had before. That’s what happened with us, we tackled our conflicts and moved past it to get to the solution faster and better.

What are the important skills to have while delivering your work in front of a horde of people who are veterans in their respective fields? I asked this question to myself and the answers that popped in my brain were- presentation and delivery skills. And thankfully, our team’s forte was just that. Our idea required a lot of conviction and we put the right proportions of what was required. One of the major advantages was the technology background of one of our team members.

There were 10 teams in the finale, all put their best foot forward. The team from IIM, Ahmedabad was our toughest competitor. They ended up winning the Runners-Up title. We've been a part of over 10+ national competitions and the jury for the finale of Accenture B-School Challenge 2018 stood apart. There were over 10 members who were at the top of their respective fields - IIM professors, sectoral MDs, technology experts and more.

We garnered many learnings from this competition which we will hold dear for a long time. I realized that since India is a data deprived country and information of any sort is difficult to obtain, there's a need to start early. Also, the Q&A is the actual ice-breaker. Your PPT may be too but their understanding/takeaways from your PPT is what makes you stand apart. Be thorough with financial feasibility, because the board will always seek clarity on it. These learnings will stay with me forever and I know for a fact that these will only take me forward in life.

Do you have your eyes set on winning Accenture B-School Challenge 2018? Read more about Accenture B-School Challenge 2018 and the organizers Accenture to cover all your basis.

Sharang Gaikwad - IIM Lucknow

(Batch of 2017-19)

Sharang Gaikwad, an MBA student from IIM Lucknow, is a Chemical Engineering graduate; Guitarist at Trinergic; has worked at Hikal Limited as an EA to President for 2 years and would be joining Capgemini in June 2019.