Managment students across India and the Asia Pacific region now have a chance to propose new business avenues for Cognizant Technology Solutions and draw up a business plan on the company’s next move for growth, differentiation and leadership.

While the business plans are the intellectual property of the company, the winning teams have a choice to be part of the team that converts the plan to reality.

Termed ‘Board Room - Smart Business Plan Contest’, students can submit plans about new service offerings, new industry to be serviced, mergers or acquisitions, including leveraged buyouts, joint ventures, alliance or network-based business among others, said Satish Jeyaraman, director (human resources), Cognizant.

The contest will be held in three phases. The first phase involves submission of a short executive summary of the business proposal.

In the second phase, the selected teams will be mentored by Cognizant business consulting managers.

Subsequently, they will submit an updated executive summary of the business plan for evaluation by the judges.

The teams will also get an opportunity to present their plans to the Cognizant juries in their respective locations, either face-to-face or through videoconferencing. In the final phase, the top three teams short-listed will present their ideas to Cognizant senior leadership.

“The business proposals are judged on the basis of degree of creativity and innovation, appropriateness of the strategy for exploiting the opportunity, the financial feasibility of the plan, the team’s ability to present and defend the viability of the plan and the team's ability to conduct primary research to analyse the market,” said Jeyaraman.

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