Businesses all over the country are waking up to opportunities in the mass markets that have not received attention in the past. Recent trends in Indian markets indicate a distinct shift towards the ‘Bottom of the Pyramid’. Each of the events at Ensemble will attempt to give a flavor of the steps that corporates have taken in order to build the commercial infrastructure at the bottom of the pyramid – namely, shaping aspirations, creating buying power, improving access and tailoring local solutions

Corporates such as Reliance Infocomm, ITC, HLL, CTS, Hero Honda, O&M;, Murugappa Group, Tata Steel, Air Deccan, etc. have partnered with XLRI in this effort and all events will involve working on ideas closely linked to real life business needs. The total prize money for all events is around Rs 5.5 lakh

Ensemble 2005 will begin with ideaSUMMIT- the keynote address and panel discussion where luminaries from industry and academia will share their insight and experiences of dealing with the opportunity for tomorrow’s businesses and the chance to make India a better place by leveraging the potential at the Bottom of the Pyramid. IdeaSUMMIT will host the originator of the ITC e-Choupal, an executive from HLL’s Project Shakti, the man fueling the growth of Reliance Webworld and driving Eveready’s mastery of the rural markets, all on the same stage.

This will be followed by a host of events spanning all business functions, i.e. Marketing (Concept2Creative), Finance (Temple of Osiris), HR (The Wicked Knot), Strategy (Abhikalp, Grassroots) and Operations (Flight of Icarus).

The flagship game ITC-Pharaohs will transport the participants to another world, where they while facing odds that are extreme in nature, will have to build a pyramid on the sands of ancient Egypt. It is aimed at testing teams on a slew of skills ranging across all management functions.

Lekh , the annual research paper writing competition , will provide a platform for the best young minds in the field of management studies to present original research articles looking at issues involving current business scenarios with the theme being “Inverting the pyramid – Focusing on mass markets”.

Other events are Quizzotic and X-Hume (Quiz Contests), Poonji (an Investment game), Treasure Hunt (one of the most popular events of Ensemble each year with participants fanning out over the entire city in search of that elusive treasure!) and many more.

A befitting finale to two days of hectic competition will see the managers of tomorrow unwinding with some pulsating music. Ensemble 2005 will play host to the grand-daddies of Indian rock – Parikrama.

So come November 12th, XLRI will be home to the best management talent of the country who will compete with each other in an effort which will result in path breaking ideas and new paradigms.

As a part of Ensemble, Maroon, XLRI’s business game for MBA aspirants is scheduled to be held in the last week of November.

This game is targeted at all MBA aspirants – undergraduate students and working professionals who hope to get into a top B-school. Last year, the game attracted around 7500 students from across the country- each team consisting of three participants.
The game Maroon would be played online over a span of five days. The game tests business fundamentals in a fun and entertaining way – something, which has captured the imagination of the participants over the past 3 yrs of its existence.

It is heavily publicized across the major cities in India- Delhi, Mumbai, Kolkota, Chennai, Bangalore, Trivandrum, Coimbatore, Pune, Chandigarh and Hyderabad among others. The game this year will be hosted by sify.com who will also serve in capacity as our web partner for the event. The Hindu Education Plus, PaGaLGuY.com, BusinessWorld, Barista, Landmark, IMS will be event partners for Maroon.

For more details, please visit:

http://xlri.ac.in/ensemble2005
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