Four top B-Schools from India have been shortlisted as the finalists for the India Retail Forum (IRF) Rising Star Challenge 2016 to be held on September 22, 2016 at India Retail Forum (IRF) 2016 in Mumbai. The finalists include Indian School of Business, Welingkar’s Institute of Management, SIBM, Pune and SIESCOMS.
Every year, IRF offers a platform to over 300 of the brightest minds from India’s finest B-schools to compete and present the smartest ideas in retail at the IRF Rising Star Challenge, presented by Tommy Hilfiger. These young minds get the opportunity to present their Business Plans in 15-minute presentations in front of India’s leading retail business heads.
For this year’s competition, 100+ teams from India’s top 20 B-Schools competed for the ultimate retail brainteaser prize. Now, the four selected finalist teams will attempt to crack the code of ‘Future Retail Stores’ live on the IRF stage on September 22, 2016.
The topic for this year’s IRF Rising Star Challenge is to create a ‘Future Life Store – Creating a Home-Away-From-Home’. The grand jury includes
- CEO, Tommy Hilfiger – Shailesh Chaturvedi
- CEO, Jubilant FoodWorks – Ajay Kaul
- Head – Strategic Partnerships, Axis Bank- Pankaj Jaju
Contestants’ business plans should demonstrate what products, concepts and services can replicate the comfort of life at home in a Retail Store.
The idea will be to replicate a 360-degree experience of fun, productivity, entertainment & relaxation – as close as possible to the home experience. The ‘Future Life Store’ should offer more than conventional lifestyle stores, and be an unique experience in itself. Contestants’ must:
- Demonstrate the concept
- Define the key differentiating elements vis a vis conventional Lifestyle stores
- Create a co-marketing pitch for Brands & services- Suggest a business plan and roadmap for 5 year
India Retail Forum (IRF), the premier knowledge and networking platform for India’s vast, multi-dimensional and multi-hued retail industry, will kick start on September 21, 2016 at the Renaissance Mumbai Convention Centre Hotel in Mumbai.
Launched in 2003, IRF brings together the most successful and influential retail visionaries, consumer and retail experts and the industry’s powerful decision makers on one mega platform as a means to retail enlightenment. Unprecedented consumer insights, retailing innovations and path-breaking retail technologies coalesce at every rendezvous to transform India’s retail ecosystem.
At IRF, with its stated mission of being a catalyst for profitable retail, technology will be featured in a stand-alone status as both a key challenge and facilitator for consumer-facing businesses. With this in mind, the second annual edition of India Omnichannel Forum (IOF 2016) is being organised alongside IRF 2016, and will focus on Customer-Centric Commerce –Engage, Experience, Enable.
Register for India Retail Forum 2016 and India Omnichannel Forum 2016
IOF 2016 is a tailored and one-of-its-kind technology forum for business owners, business leaders and technology teams to meet, engage and conceptualise the next-generation of consumer experiences. Enriching the quality and expanse of retail experiences across physical and digital worlds through intuitive consumer engagement and technology enablement is the vision of the India Omnichannel Forum.
