Father Dominic Savio with the secretaries of the Management Society

Xavier’s Management Convention, the two-day annual inter-college management fest hosted by St. Xavier’s College management society, in association with The Telegraph, was attended by the likes of Shaheed Sukhdev Singh College of Business Studies (Delhi), Christ University (Bangalore), Jain University (Bangalore) and Bhawanipur Education Society College.

The fest, which was inaugurated by cue sports champ Sourav Kothari, had as theme ‘Jugaad — Improvising India Ingeniously’. In his inaugural speech, Father Dominic Savio, the vice-principal of the department of commerce and business administration, said: “I hope this convention lights a spark in each one of you to ideate, create and find innovative solutions to problems and challenges that face us.” And thus started Jugaad…

Chakravartin

One of the main events of the fest was Chakravartin (Best Manager), which tested the managerial skills of participants through several rounds focussing on areas like human resources, finance, marketing, public relations, entrepreneurship and stress interviews.

Chief guest Sourav Kothari

Jugaad

The event of the fest was Jugaad, a “corporate treasure” hunt spread over two days, three rounds and across the city. The first round –– ‘Trade of Jugaad’ –– involved buying things worth Rs 100 and reselling them for a profit. Then came ‘Jugaad of Pictures’ in which participants had to crack picture clues connected with landmarks in the city. The third round — ‘Jugaad the search for Calcutta’ — which took place on the second day, gave participants a difficult clue and an easy clue about the locations where they had to perform certain tasks.

Vatit Sanchalan

In the finance management event, participants were put through several rounds. With ‘FDI in India’ being the theme of round one, participants had to “secure foreign investments” to revive a sick company. The next round (spread over two days) involved a stock exchange with a twist. The third round brought together monopoly and finance.

Then there was the exercise of making contestants prepare tenders for a make-belief FIFA World Cup 2023, to be held in India!

And then came the final round where participants took on the role of finance ministers drawing up the budgets for four states (Andhra Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh, Kerala and Punjab).

Praja Sambandhalu

The public relations event was also spread over three rounds, the first of which was ‘The Limelight’. It required participating teams to revive the careers of controversial celebrities like Shiney Ahuja and Lance Armstrong.

In the second round –– ‘Cast Your Vote’ –– contestants were asked to convince “a representative of Tina and Anil Ambani” to invest Rs 5 crore in their organisations. The final round –– ‘Rhetoric’ –– was the most entertaining. Participants were given controversial scenarios in which they had to defend their respective organisations/people at fault.

Vikrayakala

The marketing event was designed to test the selling power of contestants. First they had to develop marketing plans to promote renewable sources of energy. Then they were required to sell things on campus. Next, they had to choose a “town” and market events, like a biking competition in Shimla or a surfing competition in Port Blair. And then came the rounds about ambush marketing and surrogate advertising.

J for Jugaad

Anshej Shah and Srivar Harlalka, secretaries of the Management Society, were more than happy with the outcome of the fest. “Jugaad is the Indian version of getting things done efficiently and innovatively. From the day we started planning XMC’13 till the end, jugaad was incorporated in every undertaking of XMC’13 — from event formulation and marketing to logistics and hospitality. The concept of jugaad is what kept us going,” said Anshej.

The BBA department of St. Xavier’s was the overall winner but being the organisers they stepped down and the winning trophy went to St. Xavier’s College department of commerce. The runner-up was Christ University, Bangalore, and the second runner-up was St. Xavier’s College’s department of economics.

Text and pictures: Ritwik Sen