Mumbai/Jamshedpur: Tata Steel announced the winners of the 9th edition of its annual business challenge for premier B-Schools in India, Steel-a-thon on September 24, 2022, where students presented their innovative solutions on real-life business cases. Team Fluke from MICA Ahmedabad emerged as the winner and Team Firebolt from IIM Raipur secured the runner-up position in Business Track. Team Steelars from XIM Bhubaneswar was declared the winner and Uddeshyea from IRMA Gujarat the runner-up position in Value Chain Track. Team HR Crew from XIM Bhubaneswar were declared the winner of the People Track while Team Drifter from IIM Bangalore came in as the runner-up.
Steel-a-thon 2022 witnessed record participation, with a total of 9000+ students registering in teams of three students each, from around 28 premier B-schools in India. For this year’s edition, the teams had the option to choose a case from 3 tracks and submit their ideas/solutions for any one case. The tracks and their themes were – Business—Growth aspirations (Grow More), Value Chain—Sustainable Value Chain (Do More), and People—Employee Well-Being (Live More).
A total of 1036 teams submitted the executive summary for the pre-finale. Post the rigorous examination of the submissions, 53 teams got selected for the pre-finale round. Finally, only 16 teams made it to the finale. The finalists presented their business case solutions to a jury comprising senior management of Tata Steel led by Rajeev Singhal – Vice President Marketing & Sales (Flat Products); Peeyush Gupta – Vice President Supply Chain, Tata Steel; Ashish Anupam – Managing Director, Tata Steel Long Products and Zubin Palia – Chief Group HR & IR, Tata Steel.
Rajeev Singhal, Vice President, Marketing & Sales (Flat Products) said: “We have now been through 9 seasons of Steel-a-thon and it only gets better and better. In this edition too, we saw some young and brilliant minds showcase great determination, passion, and innovative ideas at the finale. Fiercely contested by the best minds from across the country. Heartiest congratulations to all the winners and a big thank you to all the participants for making this season historic.”
Peeyush Gupta, Vice President, Supply Chain, Tata Steel, said: “We are excited to witness such a strong and engaging participation with every passing edition. This is a clear sign of the growing popularity of the Steel-a-thon and its progress over the last nine years. It is heartening to see young minds with enormous potential work towards building the connect between academics and business challenges. While I heartily congratulate the winners, I want to express my gratitude to all the participants to pinch out time from their grueling MBA schedule to analyse the business cases. We were impressed by the insights and quality of recommendations made by the teams, and it speaks volumes about the talent that is expected to come in the business in the coming years.”
The winning teams for each track received prize money worth INR 2,50,000 and the Runners-up were presented with cash prizes worth INR 1,50,000. These teams also received PPO (pre-placement offers) and certificates. Select students from the National Finalists will receive a PPI (pre-placement interview) opportunity.
Steel-a-thon is a platform that gives young minds a window to not only showcase, but also get real-time excerpts and insights from the best in the industry. The participants of Steel-a-thon greatly benefit from the mentorship provided by the senior management of Tata Steel which exemplifies the focus on quality and attention to detail. The platform intends to groom more and more budding leaders for real-life business challenges through the application of their classroom knowledge on the practical front. This year was no different where it offered students a chance to work on real-life business challenges.
