A team from the Indian School of Business won the Accenture B-School Challenge 2023. Teams from the Indian Institute of Management Calcutta and the Faculty of Management Studies were, respectively, the first and second runners-up of the challenge. A team from the Indian Institute of Management Lucknow was recognised with a special jury award. 

The recently held seventh edition of the annual Accenture B-School Strategy Challenge 2023 focused on the 'Total Enterprise Reinvention theme.' The annual challenge aims to discover, nurture, and empower the next generation of consultants who will help reinvent businesses and drive growth.

Over 9,800 students from 16 top business schools in India participated in the two-month-long competition. The participating schools included the Indian Institute of Management (IIM) Ahmedabad, the Indian Institute of Management Bangalore, IIM Calcutta, the IIM Lucknow, IIM Kozhikode, IIM Indore, IIM Udaipur, Indian School of Business, Faculty of Management Studies, Jamnalal Bajaj Institute of Management Studies, S.P. Jain Institute of Management and Research, Xavier School of Management (XLRI), Indian Institute of Foreign Trade, Management Development Institute, National Institute of Industrial Engineering and Tata Institute of Social Sciences.

There were four rounds to the challenge. The first round featured a rapid-fire quiz to test the participants’ critical thinking and analytical skills. This was followed by a round of interactive online simulation where students role-played Chief Operating Officers and demonstrated decision-making skills related to driving business profitability. 

Ten teams from each school were shortlisted at the end of the second round. Accenture organised storytelling workshops and industry-specific masterclasses for the selected teams to help them hone their presentation skills and gain deeper industry insights.

In the third round, the students presented solutions for specific business challenges across different industries, such as consumer goods and services, banking, energy, mobility, life sciences, communications and media, among others. The top eight finalist teams were then mentored by Accenture leaders in preparation for the final round, wherein they presented their business strategy to the jury.

The finalists were evaluated by a jury comprising senior leaders from the industry and Accenture. These included Suresh Narayanan, CEO and MD of Nestle India Limited; Ajay Seth, CFO of Maruti Suzuki India Limited; Puneet Jain, CEO of Hindustan Times Digital; Rajkiran Kanagala, president and chief business officer of Transport Corporation of India (TCI) Ltd; Raghu Polisetty, senior managing director and lead - strategy & consulting global network at Accenture; Sanjay Dawar, managing director, lead of strategy and consulting global network, Accenture in India; Divya Nigam, strategy lead, strategy and consulting global network, Accenture in India.

Students from the top three teams from each of the sixteen participating business schools have received a pre-placement interview opportunity with Accenture. Additionally, the top three winning teams received prizes cumulatively worth Rs 10 lakh.