April 9, 2023: In its latest partnership, this business school brought Ashneer Grover back to the judge’s hot seat in a unique Shark Tank! Masters’ Union, the new-age practitioner-led business school, hosted an exciting “Shark Tank” for high school students, with renowned entrepreneur Ashneer Grover as the judge. Over 6,500 students from more than 500 schools across 30+ Indian cities competed to get a chance to pitch their innovative business ideas to Ashneer Grover, with the hopes of winning grand prizes worth INR 10 Lakhs.
The cutthroat competition was spread over three grueling rounds over 6 weeks, where students from all parts of the country submitted their applications to be part of Masters’ Union’s The CEO Challenge. The three-part series can be viewed on Masters’ Union YouTube channel. The first episode was released last week and has garnered close to 10 lakh views and counting. With the second episode out now, the video has got over 2 lakh views in less than 24 hours of its release. Masters’ Union will release the series finale on 16th April. You can catch the first two episode here: https://bit.ly/3ZZfJBo
“A founder’s or CEO’s job seems fancy, but really isn’t. It is one of the hardest jobs, as it involves making multiple decisions all the time. And you only get better and make more right ones than the wrong ones, with experience. I have had many ideas pitched to me by experienced folks. But I was really impressed to see such intellect and application from school students in classes XI and XII. Congratulations to the Masters’ Union for developing the CEO Challenge—it is a great concept and far more effective than classroom lectures. I think it’s important that more schools and B-Schools create such platforms that add real value to the students.” said Ashneer Grover, former MD, BharatPe.
The CEO Challenge was created with the belief that by allowing students to experience the role of a CEO, the B-school can inspire them to pursue careers in business and help to develop the next generation of leaders. ‘The CEO Challenge’, was broken down into 3 rounds. In the first round, students participated in a 7-day-7-minute marathon that had an online MCQ-based tech and business simulation. This was followed by a 4-hour-long Virtual Case Study Competition Internship, which culminated in a face-to-face round with Ashneer. The top 18 applicants from across India presented their final business ideas to the Former Shark Tank India Judge Ashneer Grover, at the Masters’ Union Gurugram Campus. The series overall has amassed more than 12.15 lakh views on the business school’s YouTube channel.
Pratham Mittal, Founder, Masters’ Union said, “Our aim is to enable students across the country to dream beyond textbooks. Hence, our vision is to teach business by doing business. We believe that only by running a business and delving deeply into the subject matter can one learn the nuances of business. That’s how the CEO Challenge was born: to give high school students a platform to present their innovative business ideas and inspire the entrepreneur within them. Ashneer became our obvious choice when it came to deciding on who would be the best judge and could motivate students and also help them understand the nuances of what goes into leading a business. These young students’ enthusiasm and creativity were truly inspiring. We were delighted to see such fantastic business ideas and pitches from students across India.”
The innovative ideas in the final round involved topics like financial literacy, protecting the environment, advancing sustainable fashion, and encouraging energy conservation. Ten students have been selected to shadow CEOs of reputed companies for one day in order to gain hands-on experience in decision-making, strategy development, and other important skills. The top 3 winners were Divyanshi Gupta from Adarsh Jain Dharmik Shiksha Sadan, Delhi, for her ed-tech startup “Skill Before Degree”; Raghvi Ajmera from Rockwoods International School, Udaipur, for her customized social platform “Uni-Connect”, and Adya Chouhan from Shikshantar School, Gurugram, for her FinTech start-up idea “Marham”. These 3 students were awarded cash prizes worth a total of INR 10 Lakhs or their outstanding performance and innovative ideas.
