SIBM claims the Airtel iCreate 2018 crown

Airtel is one of the leading Telecommunication Service Provider in India and it is through the power of innovation that it has achieved a commendable rate of success in the past few years. Airtel is in continuous search for talents who can apply out of box theories and iCreate 2018 was conceptualized for the same.

Airtel iCreate 2018

Airtel iCreate 2018 witnessed overwhelming participation from these premier B-schools of the country-

1. Indian Institute of Management (IIM), Ahmedabad              
2. Indian Institute of Management (IIM), Bangalore                 
3. Indian Institute of Management (IIM), Calcutta                    
4. Indian Institute of Management (IIM), Lucknow
5. Indian Institute of Management (IIM), Kozhikode
6. Indian Institute of Management (IIM), Indore
7. Faculty of Management Studies (FMS), Delhi
8. Indian School of Business (ISB)
9. Indian Institute of Foreign Trade (IIFT), New Delhi
10. Management & Development Institute (MDI) Gurgaon
11. National Institute of Industrial Engineering (NITIE), Mumbai
12. SP Jain Institute of Management and Research (SPJIMR), Mumbai
13. Xavier School of Management (XLRI), Jamshedpur
14. Tata Institute of Social Sciences (TISS), Mumbai

iCreate was open to both final and pre-final year students pursuing full-time MBA, who could form teams of 2 members and participate.

The course of the competition was divided into the following rounds-

Round 1: Case Submission

After registering for iCreate 2018, the teams got case studies across these 4 streams (Sales & Marketing, Finance, HR & Supply Chain). Students had the privilege to solve more than one case as well.

After delving into the case and researching on the problem statement, Teams had to submit an executive summary and presentation defining the strategy proposed, as a solution to the case.

All the received entries were evaluated by a panel consisting of Airtel's Top Leaders and the Senior Young Leaders.

Here are the criteria on which the entries were evaluated:

•  Business & Situation Analysis
•  The novelty of Ideas/ Out-of-the-box thinking
•  Ease of Implementation
•  Supporting Analytics
•  Financial Viability/ROI
•  Quality of Presentation

A total of 12 teams which included top 10 entries from the 14 participating B- schools and two Wild Card entries from campuses across the country (which were not a part of the participating college list) to participate in the Grand Finale.

Round 2: Grand Finale

All the finalist teams were assigned an Airtel mentor to guide them for their final presentation. The finalists were flown down to Airtel Centre in Gurgaon for the Grand Finale, wherein they presented their case solution to a panel comprising of eminent Airtel leaders- Ajai Puri, Ram Kuppuswamy, Sagar Raina, Gaurav Khandelwal and other leaders from different streams. The participants got a wonderful opportunity to interact with the top business leaders to get a holistic perspective about the business.

Winners and Prizes

Invincibles from Symbiosis Institute of Business Management (SIBM) was declared as the winner of iCreate 2018 and the team from Management and Development Institute (MDI) became the 1st Runner-up. The other two felicitated National Finalists were teams from Indian Institute of Management (IIM) Kozhikode and Tata Institute of Social Sciences (TISS) respectively.

The National Winner was awarded a cash prize of INR 3,50,000 and the Runner up received INR 200,000 along with PPIs for the Airtel Young Leader program respectively. The other two national finalists next in line were awarded INR 50000 respectively. Top 30 teams across the country also received special recognition.