Dainik Bhaskar Group declares the winners for 'Crack the Case'

1st November, 2012: The final round of ‘Crack the Case’ drew competition from across India and sectors with 2 teams from the industry (a team from IMRB & a cross team from Maxus & Cognition Media, India) and 3 teams from top B-Schools (IIMB and XLRI) competing on Dainik Bhaskar Group’s Maharashtra Success story a case study by IIM Bangalore. The 5 teams battled it out to present the best solution to the question, ‘Keeping in mind the fast paced growth and unique market penetration strategy of the Group, which market should Dainik Bhaskar Group enter next?’ The EPGP team from IIM Bangalore – Suryanarayana Pemmaraju and Vinod Unnikrishnan walked away with the Rs. 1,00,000 Prize.

Sharing their views on the experience, the winning team, EPGP, IIM Bangalore said, “The overall experience has been amazing. First it gave us an opportunity to work with a near live case and understand more about the print industry. Had it not been for this contest, we would probably never have known of Dainik Bhaskar Group’s success story and their out of the box approach of looking at a problem. Winning a pan-India contest organized by a leading newspaper such as Dainik Bhaskar is a matter of pride and achievement. It would be interesting to track what the group does in the near future and understand our contribution.”

Suryanarayana Pemmaraju has a rich 8 year experience in software product development and project management with leading IT organizations such as TCS and Dell International & Vinod Unnikrishnan is a veteran engineering manager, boasting of a decade long experience across different industries and companies such as Schneider –Electric & Whirlpool.
The judging panel included– Ravi Rao, Leader, South Asia, Mindshare and Seema Gupta, Faculty Marketing, IIM Bangalore - in addition to Dainik Bhaskar Group’s Senior Management.
The judges were looking for a solution backed strong logic and analysis. Commenting on the experience, Ravi Rao, Leader – South Asia, Mindshare said, “The teams went beyond the case, displaying an incredible level of secondary research. This forum provided a different perspective towards looking at the case. Every presentation was unique in its approach irrespective of the market they were recommending. The strategy, analysis by each group had a different flavor to their approach.”

Seema Gupta, Faculty Marketing, IIM Bangalore who is the author of the case study said, “The case contest brought together academia, media and marketing research industry together. I was impressed by the analytical rigour of the teams. The teams combined quantitative analysis with qualitative judgment leading to divergent solutions which made the contest extremely interesting. The diligence displayed by the teams for an extracurricular intellectual exercise is admirable.”

Commenting on this unique contest, Sanjeev Kotnala, VP, Dainik Bhaskar Group said, “The enthusiasm and dedication shown by the teams was commendable. We were overwhelmed by the quantity and quality of the total number of entries received. Shortlisting them and further bringing out the winner was a tough task for the judges. This was a unique experience for the Brand too since this was the first time that we have invited inputs beyond internal research teams.  ”