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Defending champions from IIM Bangalore make an electric run with the Reliance TUP 5.0 trophy
Defending champions from IIM Bangalore make an electric run with the Reliance TUP 5.0 trophy
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Reliance conducts its flagship competition, The Ultimate Pitch every year. Known as Reliance TUP among B-Schoolers, it has garnered an aspirational fan following. Providing a platform to B-School students to come up with innovative ideas that have the power to kindle a competitive spirit, Reliance TUP celebrates the entrepreneurial zeal amongst students. With its fifth edition in 2019, Reliance expanded its base to over 72 premier B-Schools of the country with a primary thought that even the smallest of ideas can spark something huge.
In an attempt to make the upcoming batch of B-Schoolers familiar with the nitty-gritty of the corporate world, Unstop (formerly Dare2Compete)launched an all-new initiative - D2C Winning Mantras, an endeavour to ignite the spirit of competitiveness. As we interacted with the winning teams of top 15 corporate competitions, countless stories poured out - their best experiences to the moment that made all the hard work worthwhile. In the second chapter of Winning Mantras, we reached out to Devashree Masker, Akriti Gupta, Kartik Anand and Swayam Tibrewal, the National Winners of Reliance TUP 5.0.
Read on and watch the video to know why Reliance TUP holds a distinguished space in the realm of corporate competitions, and the all-encompassing Winning Mantra of Reliance TUP.
In Akriti’s words, Reliance TUP was a competition about creating a business case for an existing or a new innovative product. It tested students on their ability to deliver the perfect pitch for their product, one that covered all business aspects, and whether or not it is a viable investment for a company that can be taken to market. A holistic challenge, it covered all aspects of Finance, Marketing, Operations and the like.
The competition was divided into four rounds:
In the first round of registration, the participants were asked to submit a 3-minute video pitch about their product, basis which the Reliance team chose a number of teams from each campus that would participate in the next Lift-Off or the campus round. Students in the second round were required to present their Big Ideas in front of a Jury from Reliance. One team from each campus was chosen to participate in the Semi-finals - a virtual round, new to the competition.
Around 70-75 teams reached the Semi-finals where they pitched their idea to the Reliance team virtually. On grounds of that, 15-16 teams were then called to Mumbai for the Grand Finale.
The Grand Finale lasted for about two days where the finalists participated in an “Idea Fair” on the first day. The finalist teams had to set up an idea booth and pitch their product to the Reliance employees present on campus. The grand finale was full of energy and it was extremely helpful in gauging expectations from the participants. On the second day, the grand finale was held where the finalists presented their Big Idea in front of an esteemed panel of judges and audience.
To answer this, Devashree notes that it was during the campus launch when they learnt that IIM Bangalore had lifted the winning trophy of Reliance TUP 4.0, last year. This not only motivated them but also inspired them to take that legacy forward with TUP 5.0.
She also mentioned that everybody from the team had an engineering background and so they were more inclined to come up with an idea that lies in that domain. To back that up, they had Swayam in their team who had previously worked on the technology of a particular idea during his engineering days. The rest of the team came up with a business case of the idea and narrowed it down to a particular application.
The next step was to come up with a prototype of the idea which required a laboratory due to technical constraints. For this, they collaborated with their professors and approached an engineering college to build their prototype. A lot of brainstorming on the idea helped in refining the idea at hand.
They focused on making the business case sustainable, one that can be scaled up and has huge market potential. In regard to the presentation, the team took care of elaborating on the business case of their idea and keeping the technical part limited, in the 3 minutes given to them. All the technical questions were answered in the Q&A round.
Remembering the roadblocks that the team encountered during the course of the competition, Swayam mentions the time when they had not prepared a prototype for their campus round. The team had thought of not going into the technical details until they were asked a question on those lines. So, they couldn’t answer a few in-depth questions asked by the jury.
However, to avoid such circumstances in the semi-finals and the grand finale, they ensured to prepare an FAQ sheet and run through all expected questions so that they are able to answer well on the final day.
Moving on to the Jury that judged the competitions, Akriti adds that the Jury comprised people from the executive portfolios of Reliance, primarily the team from the Strategy and Innovation domain. Some senior managers, as well as managers from JioGenNext, were present to judge the finalists.
The Jury assessed the ideas on grounds of their business case and the value the product would add to the market. They also evaluated the participants on the feasibility of their idea, how well-thought-of it was, if or not they can think on their feet and whether or not they had considered all contingency plans.
“They were not really trying to test us as much as they were trying to help us think further and broaden our perspective”, said Akriti.
Talking about the other unique ideas presented by various participants in the Grand Finale, Kartik mentioned about a team that worked on gaming and had brought a PlayStation with them to engage the audience in the Idea fair and subsequently pitch their product. Another team had put up standees and speakers to attract people to their booth, finally bagging the most popular choice award in the Idea fair. This is where Kartik emphasizes the importance of the look, touch and feel of the product in an idea pitch competition.
Kartik and Swayam ask upcoming students to keep the following points in mind when preparing for an idea pitch competition:
Adding to these points, Devashree brings to light another fact that should be kept in mind during the initial stages. She mentions the importance of reaching out to probable customers and stakeholders of your product and try selling them your product. Look at the questions they ask and seek answers for them. The kind of queries they have will give you an in-depth idea of what consumers want. You may come up with a lot of other aspects that you’d not have anticipated initially.
In regard to the importance of B-School competitions, the winning team from IIM Bangalore had the following insights:
And if you happen to reach the grand finale of Reliance TUP, you will get a chance to visit their Jamnagar refinery in a private jet!
On sharing one closing advice for the upcoming B-School students, Swayam, Devashree, Akriti and Kartik brought the following points to light:
To know more about Reliance TUP, watch the video above.
In an attempt to make the upcoming batch of B-Schoolers familiar with the nitty-gritty of the corporate world, Unstop (formerly Dare2Compete)launched an all-new initiative - D2C Winning Mantras, an endeavour to ignite the spirit of competitiveness. As we interacted with the winning teams of top 15 corporate competitions, countless stories poured out - their best experiences to the moment that made all the hard work worthwhile. In the second chapter of Winning Mantras, we reached out to Devashree Masker, Akriti Gupta, Kartik Anand and Swayam Tibrewal, the National Winners of Reliance TUP 5.0.
Read on and watch the video to know why Reliance TUP holds a distinguished space in the realm of corporate competitions, and the all-encompassing Winning Mantra of Reliance TUP.
Structure of Reliance TUP - The Ultimate Pitch
In Akriti’s words, Reliance TUP was a competition about creating a business case for an existing or a new innovative product. It tested students on their ability to deliver the perfect pitch for their product, one that covered all business aspects, and whether or not it is a viable investment for a company that can be taken to market. A holistic challenge, it covered all aspects of Finance, Marketing, Operations and the like.
The competition was divided into four rounds:
- Ignition
- Registration
- Lift Off
- Momentum
- Touch Down
In the first round of registration, the participants were asked to submit a 3-minute video pitch about their product, basis which the Reliance team chose a number of teams from each campus that would participate in the next Lift-Off or the campus round. Students in the second round were required to present their Big Ideas in front of a Jury from Reliance. One team from each campus was chosen to participate in the Semi-finals - a virtual round, new to the competition.
Around 70-75 teams reached the Semi-finals where they pitched their idea to the Reliance team virtually. On grounds of that, 15-16 teams were then called to Mumbai for the Grand Finale.
The Grand Finale lasted for about two days where the finalists participated in an “Idea Fair” on the first day. The finalist teams had to set up an idea booth and pitch their product to the Reliance employees present on campus. The grand finale was full of energy and it was extremely helpful in gauging expectations from the participants. On the second day, the grand finale was held where the finalists presented their Big Idea in front of an esteemed panel of judges and audience.
How did you come up with the winning Idea?
To answer this, Devashree notes that it was during the campus launch when they learnt that IIM Bangalore had lifted the winning trophy of Reliance TUP 4.0, last year. This not only motivated them but also inspired them to take that legacy forward with TUP 5.0.
She also mentioned that everybody from the team had an engineering background and so they were more inclined to come up with an idea that lies in that domain. To back that up, they had Swayam in their team who had previously worked on the technology of a particular idea during his engineering days. The rest of the team came up with a business case of the idea and narrowed it down to a particular application.
The next step was to come up with a prototype of the idea which required a laboratory due to technical constraints. For this, they collaborated with their professors and approached an engineering college to build their prototype. A lot of brainstorming on the idea helped in refining the idea at hand.
They focused on making the business case sustainable, one that can be scaled up and has huge market potential. In regard to the presentation, the team took care of elaborating on the business case of their idea and keeping the technical part limited, in the 3 minutes given to them. All the technical questions were answered in the Q&A round.
Walking past roadblocks and challenges
Remembering the roadblocks that the team encountered during the course of the competition, Swayam mentions the time when they had not prepared a prototype for their campus round. The team had thought of not going into the technical details until they were asked a question on those lines. So, they couldn’t answer a few in-depth questions asked by the jury.
However, to avoid such circumstances in the semi-finals and the grand finale, they ensured to prepare an FAQ sheet and run through all expected questions so that they are able to answer well on the final day.
Why the Reliance Jury was exceptional
Moving on to the Jury that judged the competitions, Akriti adds that the Jury comprised people from the executive portfolios of Reliance, primarily the team from the Strategy and Innovation domain. Some senior managers, as well as managers from JioGenNext, were present to judge the finalists.
The Jury assessed the ideas on grounds of their business case and the value the product would add to the market. They also evaluated the participants on the feasibility of their idea, how well-thought-of it was, if or not they can think on their feet and whether or not they had considered all contingency plans.
“They were not really trying to test us as much as they were trying to help us think further and broaden our perspective”, said Akriti.
Important points for participating in an idea pitch competition
Talking about the other unique ideas presented by various participants in the Grand Finale, Kartik mentioned about a team that worked on gaming and had brought a PlayStation with them to engage the audience in the Idea fair and subsequently pitch their product. Another team had put up standees and speakers to attract people to their booth, finally bagging the most popular choice award in the Idea fair. This is where Kartik emphasizes the importance of the look, touch and feel of the product in an idea pitch competition.
Kartik and Swayam ask upcoming students to keep the following points in mind when preparing for an idea pitch competition:
- Do not make text-heavy slides. Think of the Jury as possible consumers of your product and engage them with great visuals.
- Do not get into the details of the financials of the product. It is not required. Stick to what you already know and make the presentation exciting for the jury. This is what sets apart an idea pitch from a case study pitch.
- Ensure that your idea is creative, unique and innovative. Work on an idea that’s very different from the others. Keep the scalability in mind as well as prepare a proper go to market plan before you begin working on your presentation.
Adding to these points, Devashree brings to light another fact that should be kept in mind during the initial stages. She mentions the importance of reaching out to probable customers and stakeholders of your product and try selling them your product. Look at the questions they ask and seek answers for them. The kind of queries they have will give you an in-depth idea of what consumers want. You may come up with a lot of other aspects that you’d not have anticipated initially.
Why should you participate in B-School competitions?
In regard to the importance of B-School competitions, the winning team from IIM Bangalore had the following insights:
- Corporate competitions help you walk out of the academic rigour and focus on other aspects that are more relevant in terms of practicality.
- You step out of your comfort zone and work in various domains - at times even the ones you do not have knowledge of. This, in short, helps you research and know more about topics you aren’t well-versed in.
- You get to add considerable points to your CV and brag about it during the placement interview.
- In case you win, you might land a pre-placement offer - an opportunity to work with the organization.
- Apart from these, you also get to network with a lot of people from various B-Schools as well as connect with senior leaders from the organization.
And if you happen to reach the grand finale of Reliance TUP, you will get a chance to visit their Jamnagar refinery in a private jet!
One advice for upcoming B-School students
On sharing one closing advice for the upcoming B-School students, Swayam, Devashree, Akriti and Kartik brought the following points to light:
- Focus on making the best version of yourself in things you are interested in - be it academics, corporate competitions, cultural activities, etc.
- If you want to participate in competitions - look for like-minded people who can later be your teammates.
- Treat your B-School life as a once in a lifetime opportunity. Make the most of your time in college.
- Take part in B-School competitions from the very first year. Explore the members you would like to work with, in future competitions. This will bring you closer to winning competitions in the second year of study.
- Start taking initiatives. Take the first step, everything else will follow. The step from zero to one is what counts the most.
- B-School is a place where you witness the personality transformation journey - you learn to connect with people and gel well with them - which is important before you step out into the corporate world.
- Academics is very important. Do not miss out on them because of extra-curricular or other activities. They tend to open a lot of doors for you. You can be good at both.
To know more about Reliance TUP, watch the video above.
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