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4980 Team
Members
1245 Teams
17 Business Schools
1 Dream
12 Weeks
The Mahindra Group’s flagship employer brand
program - The War Room - reigned as India’s
biggest B-school event for the fourth year in a
row. Ever since 2007 this strategy contest has become
an eagerly awaited cult brand at
India’s top B-school campuses.
The strategic intent behind
this mega event is to provide
an opportunity for India’s best
and brightest B-School minds to
improve their strategizing skills,
while enhancing the equity of
the Mahindra employer brand.
The theme for this year’s War Room event was
‘The Rise of Arjuna’. It challenged participants from
the top 17 B-Schools of India to achieve the highest
level of dedication and passion, in order to win the
most powerful weapon ‘The
Bhramastra’ and become the
‘Champion of Champions’ in
the Grand Finale.
These bright young
achievers had to come out
with a sector strategy for
their chosen sector in the
Mahindra Group and the
Participants of the War ROOM 2011 Grand Finale with the Mahindra Groups’ Senior Management Team.
Mr. Anand Mahindra, VC & MD, Mahindra Group, chaired The War Room 2011.
team with the best strategy would win the War Room
2011. This challenge resulted in over 4500 budding
managers understanding the Mahindra Group’s
various businesses and devising
innovative strategies.
Each four-member team registered
itself online on the Mahindra War
Room website and then submitted
their presentation. Thereafter, short-
listed teams from every campus
presented their sector strategies
to Senior Mahindra Managers.
The winning teams titled ‘Campus
Champions’, won an opportunity
to present their strategies to
Mr. Anand Mahindra
and the Presidents
of the Businesses on
November 18, 2011, at
the ITC Grand Central,
Mumbai.
The resultant mix of
innovative thoughts,
long-term vision and
detailed analysis of
M&M’s businesses
impressed our juries
and it was tough to
select a single Campus Champion in many cases.
The Grand FinaleFriday, November 18, 2011, witnessed the grand finale
at the ITC Grand Central in Parel, Mumbai. It witnessed
68 of the best young brains from the country’s Top 17
B – Schools, who had been specially flown in from
across the country, present their sector strategies to
a jury constituting Mr.
Anand Mahindra, and
Sector Presidents of
the Mahindra Group.
Other senior managers
from various Group
Companies were also
present. Mr. Anand
Mahindra chairing
this seminal event
spoke volumes of his
engagement with the
youth.
Mr. Rajeev Dubey, President –
Group HR and After Market and
Member of the Group Executive
Board, welcomed the gathering and
spoke about how M&M believes that
unleashing the potential of its people
is vital to sustain a competitive
advantage. He briefed the young War
Room participants on the three sets
of factors – Knowledge, Execution
Skills and Self Awareness – which
decide who we are and what we
want to do. He also stated how important it is to move
from competition to co-ompetition, from ‘win-lose’ to
‘win-win’, from ‘I’ to ‘We’, as in today’s world there is
no suitable business alternative.
An eminent jury comprisedof Mr. Anand Mahindra and the Sector Presidents.
Mr. Rajeev Dubey, President – Group HR and After Market and Member of the
Group Executive Board, focuses on how M&M believes in unleashing the potential of
its people in order to sustain a competitive advantage.
Mr. Allen Sequeira, Executive VP, Group HR and Leadership
Development, welcomed everyone to the grand finale of the fourth
edition of The War Room.
After a tough battle, Team WIMWIANS
from the Indian Institute of
Management, Ahmedabad, which
chose the Farm Equipment Sector, emerged
the winners of The War Room 2011. Their
presentation revolved around the road map
for the B-HAG strategy, which is to attain
Farm-tech Prosperity.
They were presented with a cheque of
Rs. 2,00,000 by Mr. Anand Mahindra, VC
& MD, Mahindra Group, who expressed
appreciation of the quality of the presentation
and the passion that went into making it.
As a special token of appreciation, Mr. Allen
Sequeira handed over Club Mahindra vouchers to all
the four team members for a 2-night, 3-day package,
across any of the Club Mahindra properties in India.
‘The Dark Knights’ from the Indian Institute of
Management, Kolkata, emerged the Runners-up, with
a strategy for the Cleantech Sector. They focused
on future growth opportunities in the solar energy
sphere. They were presented with a cheque for Rs 1,
Team WIMWIANS from the Indian Institute of Management, Ahmedabad, which chose the Farm Equipment Sector, emerged the winners.
50,000 by Mr. Anand Mahindra, who congratulated
them for coming a close second.
Each young team’s wonderful combination of
charts, grids, numbers and a lot of left brain analysis
clearly impressed the M&M management team and the
inputs and models examined by the Sector Presidents
will certainly be useful to the varied Mahindra Group
businesses.
He concluded by saying: “As far as we are
concerned, you are all winners.”
Mr. Allen Sequeira, Executive VP, Group HR
and Leadership Development, spoke of how small
beginnings can lead to rewarding journeys. “Today we
are at a strategic inflection point. As a Group, our XUV
5OO, the 2-Wheeler foray and the take off of the small
transport plane, along with our other businesses, have
the capacity to catapult this Group to stratospheric
levels,” he said. He reiterated that leaders must have
the ability to create magic.
“48 months ago, we ranked 67 in the annual
Campus Track survey conducted by AC Nielsen –
Today we are ranked 12”, said a proud Mr. Sequeira.
He concluded by sharing his thoughts on Rise being
a manifestation of our ability to make a difference
and drive positive change. One such example of
alternative thinking is The War Room, which marries
technology with design and the liberal arts, strategic
vision and attention to detail, which were also
characteristic of visionary leader and pioneer of the
personal computer revolution, Steve Jobs.
The contest then began and witnessed a series of
power-packed strategy presentations – challenging
current business models and proposing innovative
and outstanding strategies for future growth and
leadership in various business domains.
These were evaluated on parameters such as
strategic depth of issues analyzed, innovation and
quality of analysis, quality of presentation, width
of issues covered and their suitability and scope for
implementation.
A Very Positive ImpactMost of the participating students from India’s top B-schools were impressed by the scale, breadth and
leadership of Mahindra Group companies in various business sectors. These factors will certainly help the
Mahindra Group a great deal in attracting the best and brightest talent from these premier campuses.
In the post event feedback survey, participants rated their event experience on parameters such as process
followed (rigor, transparency, clarity), hospitality, etc. on a 5 point scale with 5 being ‘excellent’. M&M received
a whopping score of 4.5 on this scale.
On returning to the campuses a lot of buzz has been created by the teams around the Mahindra Brand,
thereby creating a propitious atmosphere for cashing in on this to further enhance the Group’s Brand Equity
and connect with the youth. The War Room participants are now Mahindra Brand Ambassadors on campuses
and are helping to plan continuous interventions at their campuses to build and sustain a competitive edge in
the talent market.
In addition, this event has contributed immensely towards amplifying the positive image of the Mahindra
Group in the talent market and in building up a strong Employer Brand in today’s competitive market.
The War Room has, in fact, played an instrumental role in improving the Mahindra Employer Brand rank
from 67 in 2008 to 12 in 2011(as per an AC Nielsen Campus Track Survey).
With Mr. Anand Mahindra’s
support, the event was covered
by M&M’s television media
partner CNBC TV 18 and was
telecast in December 2011. The
sheer scale of Mahindra War
Room 2011 and the impact it
has created amongst the desired
audience will be a difficult act to
follow next year. However, the
M&M team hopes to take it to
another level altogether. So keep
your fingers crossed for the War
Room 2012!
Changing PerceptionsThe War Room 2011 events also involved capturing the perception of students about the Mahindra Group pre and post this initiative at campuses. Some of these interesting comments include:
• A Global Company with an objective to make profit.
• A General Management Stream Recruiter. Not open to new ideas – typical Indian conglomerate.
• Predominantly an auto company with a few other small sectors.
• Ethical but unapproachable.
• Trustworthy, traditional and conservative.
• A truly responsible global conglomerate with exceptional leadership.
• A Group which believes in inclusive growth.
• Dynamic, innovation-driven, aggressive, trustworthy, aspirational and global.
• A federation of Companies under an umbrella brand.
• A preferred employer.
• A diversified global conglomerate with an open enriching culture.
‘The Dark Knights’ from the Indian Institute of Management, Kolkata, who emerged the Runners-up, receive their prize from Mr. Anand Mahindra, VC& MD, Mahindra Group.
Perceptions Before The War Room Perceptions After The War Room
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