Team ‘Kleos’ wins Cognizant Board Room Contest 2009
November 20, 2009

Neeraj Jain, Palaniappan N, and ParagMehra of SPJIMR emerged winners at the finals of Boardroom 2009, a Smart Business Plan Contest organised by IT and BPO major Cognizant for B-schools across India and Asia Pacific. The winning team “Kleos” received a cash prize of Rs 250,000. Runners up “JAM” from XLRI received a cash prize of Rs 150,000.

The finals were held at Cognizant's Thoraipakkam Office in Chennai. Other finalists included teams from Indian Institute ofManagement, Bangalore, and Indian Institute ofManagement, Indore.

The contest was conducted in three phases spanning two months. It started with more than 150 entries in the first stage. Of these, 100 entries relevant to Cognizantwere selected and 12 teamswere shortlisted for the semifinals. The semifinals comprised a 50 page detailed B-Plan submission and a presentation through Video Conferencing. The top four teams made presentations to Cognizant’s seniormanagement.

Cognizant launched the Boardroom: Smart Business Plan Contest in 2007 to promote spirit of entrepreneurship and innovation among the management students across B-schools in India and the Asia Pacific region. The contest provides a unique opportunity to management students across B-schools to think innovatively, propose new business avenues to Cognizant and draw up business plans on what they think Cognizant's next move for growth, differentiation and leadership should be.