BS B-School Projects Award: Winners go off the beaten track for solutions

Projects on employee attrition, public health and community-based therapeutic platforms walked away with the top honours at the Business Standard-CG Power and Industrial Solutions Best B-School Project Award 2020 held here on Friday. This signalled a growing trend among the participants this year to look for solutions to seemingly intractable problems through community-based, adaptive, technology-enabled networks.

At the event, held online for the first time because of the pandemic, a power-packed jury chose Subham Sinha from XLRI and his project on building early warning signs to identify attrition risk, as the winning entry. The first and second runners-up this year are both women —  Shubhra Agrawal from XIMB, Bhubaneswar for her project on strengthening digital capabilities for the treatment of erectile dysfunction and Disha Patil from L. N. Welingkar Institute of Management Development and Research for her project on home reinforcement therapies for autism spectrum disorder.

The jury chaired by Ajit Balakrishnan, Founder, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Rediff.com included industry stalwarts Ambi Parameswaran, Founder, Brand-Building.com, Rajat Gupta, leader in McKinsey’s global energy and materials sector, Rajkamal Vempati, Head of Human Resources at Axis Bank and Lloyd Pinto, President-HR at CG Power and Industrial Solutions.

Applauding the students for a set of well-researched and innovative entries this year, Balakrishnan said that it was particularly heartening to see management students apply their aptitude to such a wide range of problems. From staff attrition to manufacturing efficiency and health, the jury was impressed by the choice of subjects and the passion with which the students applied their analytical and research skills to problems that have not found similar champions in the past.

Sinha won the top prize for his project titled Attrition Prediction Early Warning RAG Mode that he did with Tata AIG. (RAG stands for red, amber, green which in management parlance is a warning system used for project management). Sinha won high praise from the jury for his understanding of the problem at hand and the sensitivity that he had shown towards the collection, classification and use of employee data needed for the project.

Agrawal impressed everyone with the clarity with which she approached the subject of erectile dysfunction (ED) that is still considered a taboo topic in the country. Her project titled, ‘Strengthening digital capabilities of Boston Scientific India (BSCI) Erectile dysfunction direct-to-patient plan’ sought to strengthen the digital capabilities for treatment of the disease that affects 50 per cent of the 50-plus male population in the country. BSCI is among the world’s leading pharma and research companies on ED. The jury admired the thoroughness and practical attitude that she demonstrated in her project details and presentation.

Patil has helped develop a commercial business model for Digital Impact Square, a TCS Foundation initiative. Her project titled ‘Enhancing Home Reinforcement therapy for Children with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD)’ looks to create affordable, scalable and easily implementable solutions for families that struggle to find the best care for their children who suffer from the problems caused by ASD.

The jury found it remarkable that a management perspective was brought to bear upon what is often regarded as a chronic and impossibly difficult problem among many households in the country. They found that Patil brought her understanding of the medical care and therapy environment (she is a dental surgeon) to the problem and was able to create a model that served the core objective of the initiative which is to leverage technology to addresses the communication gap between parents and therapists.

The three winners were chosen out of a short list of five that was drawn from a set of 15 top entries out of a total of 165 projects logged in by 110 business management schools from across the country. Balakrishnan said that he was glad to see many more women participants taking centre-stage in the programme this year.

The projects were scored on the following criteria: Understanding of the problem, quality of research and analysis, innovation and practical solutions, presentation skills and the students’ ability to successfully answer the questions posed by the jury members.

Business Standard first instituted these awards in 2007 to honour excellence among students from India’s best B-schools. A national level competition, the award is an opportunity for B-schools to nominate one project by their students as part of their academics.