SP Jain wins ET CITI Grand Masters
- Times News Network | 24th Jan'09

Mumbai: The biggest B-school battle in the country, the ET Citi Grand Masters, had a wide array of arsenal. From the six thinking and colourful hats of Edward de Bono, to Peter Drucker's ideaology to an amount equivalent to 9% of global GDP that runs through a particular bank's transactions, the questions were mesmerising and edgy.

Not all of them flummoxed the participants though, where the warriors were out in full force. The grand finale this year stayed true to its custom with the home team emerging as winners in a bitterly fought battle.

In a competition to judge the competence of future dynamic business managers, Aditya Gupta and Harish Sreedharan from the SP Jain Institute of Management and Research charged through the field, notching up the numbers and the winning title.

MASTERS OF THE GAME: N Rajashekaran- country business manager, Global Consumer Group, Citi India- flanked by winners Harish Sreedharan and Aditya Gupta (with trophies) at the Grand Finale of ET Citi Grand Masters. Also in the picture (from extreme left) P Satish, deputy director, retail operations, Samsonite, Derek O Brien and (extreme right) Ian Gore, HR head, South Asia, Citi

The cherry on the cake-pre-placement interviews slotted for the winning team from Citibank. That one sure stumped the team, who could not believe their ears.

Earlier in the evening, five stalwarts took the stage. Ashish Sharma and Anuj Jalote from IIT-Delhi, Gourav Chattopadhyay and Arvind Sharma from IIM, Bangalore, C Ramshankar and Abhishek Nagaraj from IIM, Kolkata, the Mumbai team and Deepak Sekar and Saurabh Basantani from IIM, Ahmedabad. The questions flew thick and fast ensuring that the contestants as well as the audience were all fired up and ready.

After the first two rounds, Delhi was leading with 40 points, while the Mumbai team was second at 30 points. After that, it was Mumbai all the way, toting up a mean total to 166, showing their prowess and skill at not just the questions but also at debating.

Termed the Flip, contestants had to debate on a topic, given to them only at 4 in the evening, and then had to present the flip side in the given time frame. The Mumbai team breezed through this round, gobbling up most of the points on the way. The Delhi team stood second pocketing 127 points.

The audience too had their own share of fun and thrill and also bagged some awards reserved specially for them. The final lap of the managerial showground managed to bring the house down, with participants sheer presence of mind, wit and luck.

Sponsored by Citi and powered by ICRA, the prize sponsors were TravelPort and Samsonite. The official time keeper was Pierre Cardin. Campus partner was ET in campus, beverage partner was Qua and online media partner was Pagalguy.com.

Source: The Times of India, The Economic Times, 24th Jan'09