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