PR Newswire | 27 Nov, 2014
NEW DELHI: PepsiCo India, one of the largest MNC food and beverage businesses in the country, today announced Team V.I.P from IIM Calcutta as the winners of the eighth season of 'Become Indra's Advisors Contest', a unique campus challenge that looks for the most entrepreneurial B-School graduates in the country. In this season, 333 team submissions were received from the top 25 B-Schools across the country. Students from IMT, Ghaziabad (Team Specter) and SPJIMR, Mumbai (Team Falsehoods Grasshopper) finished first and second runners-up respectively.
'Become Indra's Advisors Contest' (BIAC) is one of the most prestigious business plan contests in the country and attracts extensive participation. This engaging contest provides students with once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to present their business case solution to none other than PepsiCo's Chairman and CEO, Indra Nooyi at PepsiCo's headquarters at Purchase, New York.
It is a coveted contest that the top B-School students in the country look forward to every year. The winning three-member team of Nandakumar A, Vasanth R, Venkatesh Gopalkrishnan walked away with the trophy after beating five other finalists for the opportunity to travel to New York and also bagged a Pre Placement Offer (PPO) at PepsiCo India. The first and the second runners-up received cash prizes of Rs. 2,00,000 and Rs. 1,50,000 respectively and Pre Placement Interviews (PPI).
The topic for this year's competition was 'Seizing the e-commerce business opportunity', wherein PepsiCo encouraged students to come up with recommendations towards making the most of the e-commerce space by giving them a business proposition that PepsiCo can work on. The participants were encouraged to deconstruct the opportunity to come up with relevant and impactful business solutions for the e-commerce segment.
The finalists presented their ideas to PepsiCo's India leadership team including D Shivakumar, Chairman & CEO, PepsiCo India; Sudipto Mozumdar, Sr. Director - Customer Development, PepsiCo India; Vipul Prakash, VP Marketing, PepsiCo India; Hari Menon, Co-Founder & CEO of BigBasket.com; and Arjun Kolady, Vertical Head eCommerce, Facebook India. The parameters used by the jury to evaluate these presentations were originality, feasibility and potential impact of the idea, and clarity and persuasiveness of the presentation.
Speaking about the initiative, Samik Basu, Chief Human Resources Officer, PepsiCo India, said, "We have successfully completed the 8th season of 'Become Indra's Advisors Contest'. The contest is our flagship campus recruitment programme and serves to engage young minds and be a part of their learning journey. This year's challenge gave students an opportunity to analyse the e-commerce space and come up with possible solutions."
According to Raman Singh, Director- Talent Acquisition, PepsiCo India: "This contest is immensely popular due to the uniqueness of a realtime challenge that the contest provides. This year PepsiCo summer interns were our ambassadors in announcing the launch of the contest in the B-school campuses this year. This has been one of the major factors that contributed to a 77% increase in the number of business case submissions as compared to last year. The contest further consolidated our position as a preferred employer amongst students of premier institutions."
Commenting on their win, members of the winning team, V.I.P from IIM Calcutta, said, "'Become Indra's Advisors Contest 2014' has been an exciting journey for us. The business case provided pushed us to come out with our creative best by thinking out-of-the-box and challenging our intellect. We had to deep dive into the issue to come up with a concept that the jury would deem radical and game-changing. We are thrilled to meet Ms. Nooyi in person and share our ideas with her. We are grateful to PepsiCo for this opportunity."
About PepsiCo India
PepsiCo entered India in 1989 and has grown to become one of the largest MNC food and beverage businesses in India. PepsiCo India has been consistently investing in the country and has built an expansive beverage and snack food business supported by 37 beverage bottling plants and 3 food plants. PepsiCo India's diverse portfolio includes iconic brands like Pepsi, Lay's, Kurkure, Tropicana 100%, Gatorade and Quaker. Within 2 decades, the company has been able to organically grow eight brands, each of which generate Rs. 1,000 crore or more in estimated annual retail sales and are household names, trusted across the country.
PepsiCo India is driven by its global commitment to sustainable growth, Performance with Purpose: PepsiCo's promise to provide a wide range of foods and beverages from treats to healthy eats; to find innovative ways to minimize our impact on the environment by conserving energy and water and reducing packaging volume; to provide a great workplace for our associates; and to respect, support and invest in the local communities where we operate. In 2009, PepsiCo India achieved a significant milestone, by becoming the first business to achieve 'Positive Water Balance' in the beverage world, a fact verified by Deloitte Touché Tohmatsu India Pvt. Ltd. The company has been Water Positive since then. For more information, please visit www.pepsicoindia.co.in
Primary Media Contact: Suraj Kashyap, suraj.kashyap@bm.com, +91-9953317764, Genesis Burson-Marsteller
Secondary Media Contact: Sandipan Ghatak, sandipan.ghatak@pepsico.com, 0124 - 4998463, PepsiCo India
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