Three youngsters from IIM-Bangalore emerged winners in the Global Marketing Competition, organised by ESIC Business and Marketing School, Spain, held last month. Kaustubh Sathe, Praveen Mokkapati and Ravi Kiran Cheni, have won a specialised Master’s from ESIC, and a prize money of 6,000 Euros.
More than 4,600 students, representing 800 universities from 80 countries, participated in the competition. They worked for more than two months over three stages to reach the finals and trump teams from Novosibirsk State Technical University, Russia; Universidad Rey Juan Carlos, Spain; Peruvian University of Applied Sciences, Peru; Major National University of San Marcos, Peru; Catholic University of Guayaquil, Ecuador and Goa Institute of Management, India.
“We took decisions based on our individual strengths and past industry experiences. Each of us handled aspects that we were good at,” says Praveen who has had the experience of taking part in competitions before and guided the other two during the final. While Kaustubh was the number-cruncher, Ravi brought practical understanding of the automotive industry to the trio’s discussions. “This combination of experience was the key to our success,” says Kaustubh. An enthused Ravi says, “It has reinforced our confidence in implementation of business strategies and empowered us better to take on real life challenges at the enterprise level.” Open to undergraduate, graduate and doctoral students from public and private institutions, it aimed to strengthen ties between the academic and business world.