JBIMS-Mumbai Organizes 'Marketing Maestros' in Association with Bosch & Chempro

JBIMS-Mumbai Organizes 'Marketing Maestros' in Association with Bosch & Chempro

In keeping with the endeavour of fostering the entrepreneurial spirit among its students, The Entrepreneurship Cell at JBIMS in association with Bosch & Chempro, organized 'Marketing Maestros' on the 20th of March 2008.

An event designed to help the MFPA (Mouth & Foot Painter's Association) and the NAB (National Association for the Blind), it put to test the abilities of the students to strategize, emote, and most importantly, sell in the by-lanes of Mumbai.

The day started off with Prof. Arun Sehegal, CEO, Chempro, and a faculty at the institute, teaching the nuances of selling to the students. The emphasis of his talk lay on how a genuine smile, coupled with sincerity of intent, and confidence in your conviction, is half the battle won when it comes to selling. Prof. Sehegal then went on to articulate various strategies that helped him become a successful entrepreneur himself.

The students then bid for products which they thought would fetch the highest return on investment, post which it was a free for all. The objective was to sell as much as possible, and contribute to the cause.

It was cut-throat competition, every team coming up with a different strategy to outwit the other. Approaches ranged from setting-up road-side stalls on Colaba Causeway to approaching corporates on Dalal Street, from selling merchandise to cottage industry outlets to hard-selling over the phone, from making high margins to picking-up bulk orders.

With twelve teams making the final cut, from only four hours of strategising, positioning and hard selling available to them, the students were able to create sales of more than Rs. 45,000, a 100 percent rise over that achieved in last year's event, a fitting testimony to the fact that JBIMS students not only talk the talk, but also walk the walk.

The winners walked away with Rs. 20,000 in cash and a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to contribute a foreword to Prof. Sehegal's upcoming book on selling.

It was a wonderful experience that put the future business leaders in real life situations, forced them to drop any inhibitions, gave them an opportunity to put theory and strategy to practice, but more importantly, it gave them a chance to contribute to a noble cause and learn at the same time.

Concluded.

Contributed by -
The Corporate Relations Committee,
Jamnalal Bajaj Institute of Management Studies, Mumbai.

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