E-Paper
More than just fun and games
WHAT WOULD you call an event for which 280 students had been working on live corporate research projects over a period of four months with 100 or more students working on various support functions?
WHAT WOULD you call an event for which 280 students had been working on live corporate research projects over a period of four months with 100 or more students working on various support functions?
Not a marketing fair, at least!
But, that’s what IIM-Lucknow’s (IIM-L’s) two-day INDEX to be organised at Nehru Bal Vatika, Aliganj from November 25 is and it is probably this that makes this fest different from others.
To make the only B school event of its type in the city a huge success, nearly the entire IIM-L campus, including senior faculty members, are involved in giving last-minute touches to this fest with a difference.
Of course, as Prof Dharmendra Sengar, chairman, students affairs at IIM-L says, there would be fun and frolic, games, prizes and funky competitions just like any other fest. Nishant Idnani, coordinator, INDEX adds, “Everyone who visits INDEX on the two days would definitely not return empty handed.” But, INDEX has more to it than simple fun is because of the sheer amount of planning that goes behind the function. Every INDEX project is conducted by a team of 20 students in close coordination with their professors and the officials of those corporate houses whose projects are taken up by IIM-L students.
“This year, 10 prominent corporate houses have given various projects to IIM,” said professor Debashish Das Gupta.
IIM students at INDEX gain insight into the consumer’s perspectives/needs through intelligently designed games.
For people, it’s simple fun, as they simply play a game, answer a few questions, and walk away with attractive prizes. But, for IIM students, this is a serious business which they do every year for their corporate clients. With the innovative IIM exercise getting a very good feedback from the industry, the client base of IIM-L has spread across various organisations with fast moving consumer goods (FMCG) companies, banking, services sector, IT sectors and industry heavyweights like HLL, TATA group partnering with IIM-L regularly now.
The students form different teams design various projects, which are evaluated by faculty members and prominent industries, like AC Nielsen, ORG-MARG over four stages. Each corporate research brief is analysed by the participating teams who then submit their research proposals. At the end of this exercise, each team is allocated a project-based on its performance on the individual proposals. Then preliminary research interviews and focused group discussions are undertaken to develop the research instrument. The design of disguised experimentation is then undertaken to transform the research instrument into a game scenario for the respondents in order to get unbiased responses. IIM students then collect the data at the fest, collate the data, come out with their findings and send them over to them.
