Eveready finals

After winning the campus round, we had to work only on toothpaste/toothbrush industry and drop the biscuits idea. There were other specific instructions from the company asking us to work on exact requisite details - Positioning of product, target group, launch, geography, marketing plan and even the financials for the next 3 years.

We thought the best way to move forward is to contact our faculty. we mailed some profs and 2 profs were ready to help for the same. Firstly, we met our strategy prof and got some inputs for the same. He advised us to knit everything around the core competency of the company and also to drop the toothbrush launch. According to him, it is always better to focus on one product only whenever a launch is planned by a company. After garnering some more inputs from him, we started to work on our project.

Google is the best friend for such stuff and we searched analyst reports, company annual reports, competitor's reports, industry setup etcetra. Making a strategy involved elaborate discussions amongst ourselves, difference of opinions and even heated discussions! But everyone had a point to put forward but in the end, it brought to table many issues which are difficult to think when working single-handedly on such stuff. This is where, I believe team dynamics make a phenomenal difference.

After 4 days of sleepless nights :D, we met our marketing prof also, but one night before the final competition ;) We spent concrete 2 hours with him and got honest feedback, improvements and excellent suggestions. With less than 12 hours to go for our final presentation, we still decided to incorporate the changes. In the end, all of us were quite satisfied with our final outcome.

After managing a 4 hour sleep, I had to haggle with my prof to give me attendance for the class which I had to miss to attend the competition. He was quite cool about it and gave me attendance without much problem. As the presentation was to be held in ITC Sonar Bangla in Kolkata, Eveready arranged a pickup for us from the campus.

Upon reaching there, we met our competitors from IIM B, L and XLRI who had arrived in the city the previous night and were accommodation in ITC itself! It was quite a socialising session for all of us and we also did not miss out on the opportunity to click some pics of the scenic beauty there :)

The competition started at around 11 with Board of Directors being a part of the audience. The judges and the audience consisted of all division heads of the company and various other senior and respected people from the industry. Deep down, I really felt honoured to be making a presentation in front of such an august gathering.

XLRI was the first one to present, who proposed the idea of Eveready foraying into personal care products. Next came IIM L, which told them to move into portable chargers using USB ports. IIM B was up next, advising them to launch gamut of products for men only, which they divided in 2 categories - pre shave, shave and post shave! Our team was the last to go and the strangest thing happened with us - not a single question was raised for us after our presentation was over. We thought, we weren't so also ;)

Well, it was lunch break and results were due after it. Lunch gave us an opportunity to interact personally with senior people from the industry. We had a talk at length with a gentleman who had been in the marketing field for the last 35 years and worked with leading brands like HUL, Colgate and Airtel to name a few. He pointed out some of our mistakes and it was quite insightful to talk to him.

Once the lunch was over, we got together for the results. As always, the teams were called in increasing order of performance. We were the first ones to be called i.e. we were the 4th best team, XLRI being 3rd, runners-up were IIM B and IIM L were the winners.

The concluding part of the competition was a group photograph with the judges and all the participants.

Ya, its sad to lose but 50k prize money was some consolation though ;)

Our marketing prof is still more than happy with our efforts and wants us to write a case study on the same. Lets see, how does that turn out to be.

Eveready Innovation Contest

B-School is all about 'learning' and grasping new concepts et al (you get the drift of what I want to convey) So, apparently many corporates believe that since we are assimilating so much knowledge, its good to put our brains to work for solving some of the real-life problems of them.

On similar lines, Eveready Industries India Limited (EIIL) launched a competition in the campus. This competition is launched in 4 campuses across the country - IIM B, IIM L, XLRI and IIM Calcutta. The competition is launched to identify a new business opportunity for EIIL. They are already a leaders in batteries, have recently moved into tea and mosquito repellent distribution in the country, launched their own set of torches and lighting etc amongst other products. They basically wanted to explore a line of business in which they could capitalise on their distribution network, association with colour 'Red' and should be able to generate an expected revenue of few crores in the coming years. The event was open only for first yearites and that too in a team of 4 members. Also, the format of the competition involved two rounds - one campus and one final. Teams would be competing within the campus and only ONE team per campus would be battling it out in the finals.

We also jumped into this competition and pledged to work to the best of our abilities. We need work on it for some time but a far-off deadline decreased our effort rates. But sense of urgency creeped in when the submission deadline came knocking our door. We started working on it and started exploring opportunities in possible industries. We listed down the industries or areas in which the company could explore. After boiling down to around 8 industries or lines of business, we had to narrow down to 1 or maximum 2. This involved reading analyst reports for the particular, future growth potential, competitors and most importantly penetration levels. After rounds and rounds of discussion amongst ourselves, it finally decided to foray into toothpaste/toothbrush and also in biscuits market.

After making a satisfactory ppt with all numbers, growth projections, SWOT analysis etc, we waited for the campus round to begin. We were lucky to be the very first ones to present in front of the company officials. We were cross-questioned to quite some depth. Some questions we were able to answer but some of them really left us thinking and little loss for words. In the end, we were not really happy with our overall performance.

After a few days, the cultural secretary of our campus, who was coordinating this event, calls me up and asks for my room number. He promises to be there in 10 minutes and informs about the news we least expected - we had WON the campus round :) :)

After the news sank in, we got the mail from the company official too informing us about our victory and what was expected out of us in the next round. The final round will be in Calcutta only but in the front of company's Board of Directors!

The finals are on Wednesday, 28th January...wish me luck!