Clash Of The Champs
The finals of Business Today-Aditya Birla Group B-school championship, Acumen, saw the winners of regional rounds slug it out in a battle that would have made the gladiators proud.

Applauding the winners: (Left to Right) Santrupt Misra, Director, Aditya Birla Group; Dayanidhi Maran, Union Minister for Communication and Information Technology; Pavan Varshnei, Publishing Director, Business Today and Jayant Pendharkar, Global Marketing Head, Tata Consultancy Services

The FICCI auditorium was jam-packed. It had the air of a rock concert. And guessing from the pulse rates-one could almost feel them-the audience of mostly B-school students was keen to turn it into one. It was, of course, the grand finale of the BT-Aditya Birla Group Acumen quiz-cum-debate contest, held in association with Tata Consultancy Services (TCS).

BT Editor Sanjoy Narayan set off the 'action' clapboard with an introductory speech noting how big Acumen had become as an annual event-with 102 different B-schools participating-and how well it had established communication with "future readers". For now, many were content with the bounty of winning audience gifts-as Shivani Wazir Pasrich announced to a big cheer-rather than business success. Canon printers and scanners, Van Heusen gift vouchers and Acumen memorabilia, it was all up for grabs.

But before that, the serious business of getting contest winners.

Top draw: The audience had a stimulating time as the contestants went about their task with gusto

Engrossed: Minister Dayanidhi Maran (R) with Aditya Birla Group's Santrupt Misra

First of all, the debates. This, as debate moderator Deepak Mukerji noted, required some real heads to be put together. Among preliminary topics, 'The 21st century belongs to India and not China' had the audience on the edge; the sustainability of China's growth was called into question, India's own inherent strengths were extolled and statistical indicators thrown around to make some point or the other.

The debates saw quite some intensity. Raised voices. Angry rebuffs. Table thumps. It was all there, as the audience watched the verbal combatants in combat. For the debate final, we had Aritro Chakravarty and Amod Agarwala of IIM-Calcutta ranged against Ambika K. and Rakshan Muneer of Christ College, Bangalore. The topic: 'All Global Business is Local'. As befits such an event, the teams went hammer-and- tongs to prove each other wrong. Conducted in 'parliamentary style' (don't take that literally, though), the debate had its fair share of questioning and cross-questioning. The audience also rolled up its sleeves for the verbal slugfest, trying to clobber some argument or the other. Some points made their way above all the din. For instance, IIM-Calcutta argued that every single business has to adapt at least its marketing function to different geographies. Christ College argued that the very concept of business, that of exchanging goods or services for a consideration, remained the same everywhere across the world, and in the age of globalisation and universalisation, all it took was minimal adaptation to do business anywhere.

Making a point: Debate champs Amod Agarwala

The aces: Alumni Corporate Quiz winners MDI, Gurgaon's Amit Didolkar (left) and Prasad Shetty from the Kousali Institute of Management

That was it; the winners were to be declared at the end of the evening's proceedings. For now, it was time for Roshan Abbas to take centrestage for the quiz contest. Seated around him were the four contesting teams, the winners of the four zonal rounds: Indian Institute of Foreign Trade (IIFT), New Delhi (North), Jamnalal Bajaj Institute of Management Studies, Mumbai (West), IIM-Calcutta (East) and IIM-Bangalore (South).

What followed was 60 minutes of drama and excitement, with the lead frequently changing hands, before IIFT managed to crack a high-value question by correctly identifying the face of Naina Lal Kidwai (with little more than 10 per cent of her face visible). But that wasn't the only fun question. Do you, for instance, know what 'hole in the wall' banking is? Well, ATM banking. And how did the term 'fly-by-night' come around? In the golden days (rather nights) of sailboats, the 'fly' was the name of a big sail that ships used at night.

By the end of the competition, it was pretty clear that IIFT, represented by Dev Anand Menon and Chandan Mohanty, had stormed past the finish line, with the team of Dhananjay Shettigar and Amit Pandeya from Jamnalal Bajaj close behind (finishing second).

Following the quiz, it was the turn of the evening's chief guest-Union Minister for Communication and Information Technology Dayanidhi Maran-to give away the quiz winners' prizes. But wait, there was another quiz contest to be fought. Yes, the alumni quiz.

Masters of quiz: Winners of the B-school quiz, IIFT's Dev Anand Menon (L) and Chandan Mohanty (R) receive the award from Union Minister Dayanidhi Maran (C) as Aditya Birla Group's Santrupt Misra (far L) and BT's Pavan Varshnei cheer

End game: Case Game winner Joydeep Mukherjee from the Vinod Gupta School Of Management, IIT-Kharagpur, receives the award from J. Pendharkar of Tata Consultancy Services, in the presence of Val Clulow, Deputy Dean, Swinburne Institute of Technology, Melbourne, as emcee Shivani Wazir Pasrich looks on

The four teams took their places, and Abbas got back to work again. This time, quizzing working graduates of B-schools. The rounds, as always, had rather innovative titles ('BT Cover Story', 'Aditya Birla Diversified Portfolio' and the 'TCS Tech Bytes', for example). Some of the questions sure served to pickle the mind. Did you know that the term 'Bug' was first thought up by Thomas Edison? Or how about this... What is common to the actor Paul Muni, the Japanese delicacy Sushi, the Australian national anthem Waltzing Matilda and Chinese 'Junk' boats? Well, they are all names of various types of bonds.

The enthusiasm in the hall was evident in the cheering. All the more so because the final score put the two top teams in a dead-heat tie. This prompted the quizmaster to pick up an audience question and hurl it at the contestants as a tie-breaker. It was a buzzer question, and Prasad Shetty of Pidilite and Amit Didolkar of Wipro were quicker to the buzz with an identification of the original name of the Chevrolet Spark (it was the old Daewoo Matiz).

With that nail-biting finish, Wazir Pasrich announced the prize giving. Business Today Publishing Director Pawan Varshnei was joined on stage by BT Editor Sanjoy Narayan, along with Santrupt Misra and Pragnya Ram from the Aditya Birla group, Jayant Pendharkar from Tata Consultancy Services and Val Clulow from the Australian College Swinburne in Melbourne. IIM-Calcutta was declared winners of the debate, and the quiz winners were known to everybody.

The winners of the Quiz, Debate and Case Game competitions, the last being won by Joydeep Mukherjee of the Vinod Gupta School of Management at IIM-Kharagpur, all won, among other things, a summer course at Swinburne. The runners-up got a new Kinetic Laser motorcycle each.

With that, the third edition of Acumen drew to an uproarious close. Until the next.