IIMC retains B-school trophy

The Indian Institute of Management Calcutta (IIMC) annual festival, Intaglio 2005, hosted over 200 participants from the domestic and foreign institutions and leading business schools from India and abroad such as MIT, AIT and other IIMs.

IIM Calcutta managed to hold back Swiss Knife, the award for the best team, while JBIMS won the quiz conducted by Siddharth Basu.

On the closing day, Ajit Balakrishnan of Rediff spoke on the festival theme, "Excelling at managing change", harping on the need of organisations to constantly innovate and upgrade themselves to the ever changing technology and the dynamic business environment, lest they become extinct.

B Mohanty of the treasury department of State Bank of India gave students a practical overview of the industry and spoke on SBI's growth plans.

Earlier speakers at Intaglio 2005 included economist Omkar Goswami and Mohanbir Sawhney of the Kellogg School of Management.

Raymond held a grooming session for business school students to teach them how to dress to impress in the corporate world.

Intaglio saw students pitting their wits against each other through novel games over the last few days.

Participants bought and sold imaginary assets while analysing future market trends in keeping with existing flawed market conditions.

Marketing was the underlying theme for several contests, one game allowing free use of artistic skills and creativity, and another seeking ways to beat problems faced during disaster or recessions.

Formulating a marketing strategy in an era of uncertain demands and costing patterns was another challenge.

Outsourcing and the challenges facing technology-managers coming out of management schools was the subject of another game, claimed to be the first in any B-school festival.

Organised on the theme 'Excellence in managing change', the games ranged from trading on the basis of partial information flows and planning mergers, to brand-based contests and efforts to redefine the structures used to formulate strategy and plan for growth in information technology companies.

In recognition of the importance of the world of risk management with derivatives, one game allowed non-student participants from industry.