A team of students from the Indian School of Business (ISB) won the Accenture B-School Challenge 2024.

Accenture concluded the eighth edition of its B-School Challenge, which focused on the theme of ‘Reinvention in the Age of Gen AI.’ The annual challenge aims to recognise, foster, and empower the next generation of consultants who will help reinvent businesses and drive growth. 

While ISB’s team emerged as the winner of the challenge, teams from Indian Institute of Management, Bangalore and Faculty of Management Studies were the first and second runners-up respectively. The team of Indian Institute of Management, Lucknow was recognied with a special jury award.

In the third round, the students presented solutions for specific business challenges across different industries, including consumer goods and services, banking, energy, mobility, life sciences, communications, and media. Accenture leaders then mentored the top eight finalist teams in preparation for the final round, where they presented their business strategy to the jury.

The finalists were evaluated by a jury that comprised senior leaders from both the industry and Accenture including  Ashween Anand, CFO, Tata Starbucks, Suhel Bidani, Digital Lead, Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, Mathew Cyriac, Chairman and Whole-time Director, Florintree Advisors, Suresh Ramanathan, Dean & Principal, Great Lakes Institute of Management, among others. 

The winning teams received prizes cumulatively worth Rs 10 lakh. In addition, the top three teams from all the participating business schools received a pre-placement interview opportunity with Accenture. A record number of ~11,000 students from the top 16 business schools in India participated in the two-month-long challenge. Students went through four rounds of intensive evaluation.

The first round of the Accenture B-School Challenge 2024 featured a rapid-fire quiz to test the participants’ critical thinking and analytical skills. This was followed by a round of interactive online simulation, in which students were required to role-play as Chief Operating Officers (COOs) and make decisions about driving business profitability. Ten teams from each school were shortlisted at the end of the second round.

Accenture organised storytelling workshops and industry-specific masterclasses for the selected teams to help them hone their presentation skills and gain deeper industry insights.

This year’s participating business schools included Indian Institute of Management Ahmedabad, Indian Institute of Management Bangalore, Indian Institute of Management Calcutta, Indian Institute of Management Lucknow, Indian Institute of Management Kozhikode, Indian Institute of Management Indore, Indian Institute of Management Udaipur, Indian School of Business, Faculty of Management Studies, Jamnalal Bajaj Institute of Management Studies, S.P. Jain Institute of Management and Research, Xavier School of Management (XLRI), Indian Institute of Foreign Trade, Management Development Institute, National Institute of Industrial Engineering and Tata Institute of Social Sciences.

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