Giving students a unique experience with Steel-a-thon Season 7 Grand Finale

A day solely dedicated to acknowledge and test the budding leaders, some of the biggest names in the corporate fraternity of TATA brought Steel-a-thon 2020 Season 7 to a glorious end on December 18, 2020, leaving the audience as well as participants with a feeling of wonderment. To bring you the best highlights of the event, here is a post-event wrap up of Steel-a-thon 2020 Season 7 Grand Finale!

One epic challenge, 27 premiere B-Schools, 3000+ registrations, and close to 6 Lakh website impressions, Steel-a-thon 2020 Season 7 left an indelible mark on the first-year management students with its multiple fascinating and challenging case studies in various domains. As quoted by Mr. Suresh Dutt Tripathi, Vice President, Human Resource Management, Tata Steel, “Steel-a-thon helps build talent, giving students an experience of the differentiated culture and value system of Tata Steel. It helps us build a long-lasting relationship with students and create a new and even more exciting cohort of brand ambassador.”

A structured framework for effective competition

With an idea to foster a collaborative environment amongst students, academia, and corporate houses and provide aspiring career opportunities for the young talent of India, Steel-a-thon 2020 Season 7 was artistically divided into a number of rounds:

Round 1: Executive Summary Submission Round

Round 2: Detailed Presentation Submission

Round 3: Virtual Presentation 

Round 4: Grand Finale

The competition unfurled with the Executive Summary Submission Round, where teams submitted a 1-slider PPT of their proposed solution in the prescribed format. This was followed by round 2 of Detailed Presentation Submission, which required the teams to upload their entry on the submission page. Based on the case submissions, the finalists were shortlisted.

The teams that played their cards well to grab a position in the third round of the competition, presented a detailed presentation on the case in front of the esteemed jury. Each team got 8 minutes to present and 7 mins for Q&A (A total of 15 minutes) to present their solutions. 3 teams were finally shortlisted from each case domain to proceed to Steel-a-thon 2020 Season 7 grand finale.

Meet the illustrious jury and the national finalists

The judge’s table was shared by Mr. Peeyush Gupta, Vice President, Steel Marketing and Sales; Ms. Atrayee Sarkar, Vice President, HRM Designate; and Sourav Roy, Chief, Corporate Social Responsibility. Each member of this panel was so incredibly versed in the technical aspects that it enabled them to give real insights to the presenting teams. Without any rehashed critiques, they gave probably the most intelligent and technically specific feedback out there.

Talking about the national finalists, 10 teams finally made it to the Grand finale of Steel-a-thon 2020 Season 7 after dodging the bullets from three rounds. Each team got a chance to present their solutions to real-world business problems catering to different domains like HR, Marketing and Sales, Operations and Strategy, and Corporate Communication to the senior leadership team of Tata Steel. The teams that bagged the place of National finalists are:

And the winners are...

On the fresh morning of December 18, 2020, Steel-a-thon 2020 Season 7 grand finale kickstarted with a brief introductory session and wishes from the judges. Each team presented their detailed presentation reflecting unique, innovative, and realistic solutions with holistic approaches to tackle the challenges at hand. However, battling a tough competition only 4 teams made it to the winners tally. 

Appreciating the efforts of all the teams, the esteemed jury declared, Team Pro-Nerds from XIMB as the National Winners of Steel-a-thon 2020 Season 7; Team Godspeed from MDI Gurgaon as the First Runners up, and Team Rhapsody and Team Man-agers of steel from XIMB and FMS Delhi respectively as the Second Runner up. As declared earlier, the winners were awarded Inspire internship, PPOs, certificates, and handsome prize money!

To sum up, Steel-a-thon 2020 Season 7 created a momentum that is unparalleled. The jury, participants, audience, the backend team, and every other person connected to the challenge made the journey memorable and compelled everyone to open up to different viewpoints which eventually placed the challenge into a broader context!

Don’t forget to read the success stories of the winners of Steel-a-thon 2020 Season 7:

• How we bagged the place of National Winners of TATA Steel-a-thon -By Roshni Panda from XIMB
• Our journey of becoming the runners up of TATA Steel-a-thon -By Shovan Mohapatra from MDI Gurgaon
• What getting crowned as the second runners-up of TATA Steel-a-thon feels like -By team Rhapsody from XIMB
• Making it to the top 10 in TATA Steel-a-thon -By Amitesh Gaurav from XISS
• The overwhelming experience of being the national finalists of Tata Steel-a-thon -By team Oracle from IIM Raipur
• What it takes to bag the place of national finalists at TATA Steel-a-thon -By Team Planet Agriculture from IRMA