Announcements

SPJIMR’s Post Graduate Diploma in Management (PGDM) participant, Aditya Guha, emerged victorious in the 2024 edition of the Accenture Innovation Challenge. The competition, which saw participation from more than 2,00,000 students, challenges young innovators to ‘reinvent businesses and accelerate change with the power of technology’. Aditya competed as ‘Black Garage’, a single-member team, against teams from over 7,000 b-schools across India to win pre-placement opportunities with Accenture and other prizes.

His winning solution, Black Garage, addresses one of e-commerce’s most pressing challenges: the ₹24,000 crore returns crisis in India. The solution combines AI-driven optimisation with hyperlocal networks to transform the traditional returns process, potentially reducing processing time from 8-12 days to just hours while cutting operational costs by 60%.

“The problem required looking beyond conventional logistics solutions,” shares Aditya. “SPJIMR’s emphasis on innovative problem-solving and real-world application helped shape an approach that considers India’s unique market dynamics.”

The solution’s uniqueness lies in its fail-safe hybrid model that combines AI-powered peer-to-peer matching with a network of local stores, ensuring seamless returns resolution while significantly reducing carbon emissions. This approach has garnered attention not just for its technical innovation but for its potential to create positive environmental and social impact.

Prof. Sheila Roy, Operations Management faculty at SPJIMR, highlights the solution’s significance: “What makes Black Garage particularly impressive is how it challenges fundamental assumptions in supply chain management. Aditya’s solution demonstrates how emerging technologies can help us break traditional trade-offs between speed, cost, and quality. This kind of innovative thinking is exactly what we nurture at SPJIMR.”

Currently working with SPJIMR’s incubator, Aditya is developing the ‘Black Garage’ concept into a market-ready solution. Faculty members from technology and operations domains provide guidance as the project moves from concept to implementation. Prof. Prabhat Pani, who leads sustainability-driven entrepreneurship initiatives at SPJIMR, sees broader implications: “This achievement exemplifies the kind of impact our students can create when they combine rigorous academic knowledge with entrepreneurial thinking. Black Garage isn’t just a competition winner – it represents the potential for student innovations to address significant market challenges.”

Aditya’s achievement stands out not just for the solo victory but for exemplifying SPJIMR’s vision of nurturing innovation that creates meaningful impact. As the project develops within the incubator, it represents a promising intersection of academic excellence and practical innovation in addressing real-world challenges.