Innovative solutions key to winning

IIT-Kharagpur student wins first prize for business expansion plan in tier-3 towns at McCain Foods

Projects in business expansion strategy, raising efficiency standard of engineering stores and improving warehouse performance were the winners at the Business Standard Best B-School Project Award 2016.

A project on expansion strategy in tier-3 and cost-effective methods of creating brand awareness by Chirag Patil, a final year student at Vinod Gupta School of Management, Indian Institute of Technology (IIT), Kharagpur, won the first prize. The project was done at McCain Foods India where Patil provided an expansion plan for the frozen French fries leader in small towns across Gujarat and Maharashtra. The project provided cost-effective expansion for the company in eight small towns.

Ravi Chouhan of Shailesh J Mehta School of Management at IIT, Bombay won the second prize for his project on improving efficiency standard of engineering stores. He did the project at Kimberly-Clark Lever where he recommended use of lean-lift to improve the efficiency of the stores. 

Mohanish Khairnar, a National Institute of Industrial Engineering, Mumbai student came in at third position for his project on performance improvement and manpower optimisation at Snapdeal’s warehouses. He came up with solutions to remove bottlenecks, create synergy with the courier partner, thereby reducing processing time and improving resource utilisation.  The ninth edition of the awards saw a power-packed jury shortlist five candidates. Nishi Vasudeva, former chairman and managing director, Hindustan Petroleum Corporation was the chairperson of the Jury. Other jury members included Ambi Parameswaran, founder, brand-building.com; Sandeep Chandola, managing director, Deloitte Support Services; and Sanjay Singh, executive vice-president and global head - human resources, Crompton Greaves.

“All these projects provided innovative solutions to emerging challenges across various sectors. Judging them was not only tough but also provided insights on evolution of various sectors,” said Vasudeva.

Veteran adman Parameswaran said, “For most of these students, summer projects offer the first opportunity to see how the real world works. So, it was delightful to see how these students used their conceptual knowledge for providing practical solution to real life problems.”

IIT-Kharagpur’s Chirag Patil, who set up counters to promote McCain’s French fries outside grocery stores to establish his hypothesis, said he was overwhelmed with the strength of the jury and the selection process. He said, “I am overwhelmed to win the award. Making a presentation to such an eminent jury and getting their appreciation has given me a lot of confidence," he said. 

IIT-Bombay’s Ravi Chouhan, whose project had an ambitious goal of making Kimberly-Clark Lever’s engineering store world class, said, “The questions that the jury asked made us think of real life issues. It gave us an experience which will help us do better in future.”  

Mohanish Khairnar from Nitie, who applied lean management tools at Snapdeal said, “The kind of interest the jury has taken in our work is inspiring. The whole experience from applying for awards to selection for winners has been quite transparent and enriching.” 

Business Standard received 175 projects for evaluation in 2016, from which five were selected for the final round. The consolation prizes included a project on supply chain optimisation at Tata Steel by Supreme Koustuv of Indian Institute of Management, Trichy; and business development plan for GetmyParking.com by Ragini Jain of the Department of Management Studies, IIT, Madras.