SPJIMR team excels at the Tata Business Leadership Award (TBLA)
December 20, 2007

The Tata Business Leadership Award (TBLA), initiated in 2004, is an annual business school event organised by the Tata Group. It offers students from select business schools a unique opportunity to compete with the brightest minds and display their business acumen. SPJIMR was one of those select few schools invited to be a part of this initiative.

The students in teams of three to four were given a strategic problem or situation relevant to the Group. They had to make a presentation to senior managers in the Group and defend their case study. The defense was evaluated on parameters such as creativity, clarity, relevance and business value.

The finals of TBLA '08, held recently at the Taj Hotel, Mumbai saw the team from SPJIMR performing exceptionally well. 'Team Sanchar', consisting of Ashish Upadhyay, Raghava Attinuru, Sunrita Bhowmik and Swagata Basak from the PGDM programme won the First Runners Up award at this event.

TBLA '08 witnessed about 230 registrations from the top 7 Business Schools in India, which TAS visits for placements. Fifty-six entries made it to the campus defense round. The SPJIMR round witnessed a record high of 14 entries at this stage. The top team from each campus made it to the final round, where the SPJIMR team eventually finished second.

The judges for the TBLA presentations were Mr. Allen Rosling and Mr. Ishat Hossain, Executive Directors of Tata Sons. For finishing as the runners-up, 'Team Sanchar' received a cash award of Rs. 50,000 and a bunch-load of goodies from the Tata Group Chairman, Mr. Ratan Tata.

When asked to comment on their exceptional performance, the team members expressed their unanimous thanks to all their well wishers from the Institute for helping them achieve this feat. Special mention was made of Prof. Jiban Mukhopadhyay, Economics Department, SPJIMR for guiding the team throughout and being a personal witness to their glory.