Touted as “India’s First Fully Online” Business Challenge (because of its unique concept of conducting the entire event over the internet), MastishK was an instant hit amongst B-schools and Corporates alike. To top it all MastishK had participants from top-notch B-schools from as many as 20 countries worldwide. A staggering number of 17542 hits with more than 2500 registrations vouch for the incredible success of this sui-generis creation. For people who missed the frenzy last year, here is a brief “peep into the past” :
Date of launch : 2nd October, 2004
Mastishk started with the launch of the informalz section to get the participants into the groove. Informalz consisted of Cerebral Knights – The Quiz game, Cross Roads – The Crossword puzzle and Khoj – The game which tests the most important ability of any B-School student “Googling”. The informalz section also saw the launch of Arbit Choudhury – India’s first BSchool Comic character, who symbolizes a typical B-school student with all his jargons, concepts and wise-cracks. After a few days, the attraction shifted to the main events – Entreplayer, Media Moguls and Tol Mol. A brief description of the games is given below:
Entreplayer: This game tested the participants’ ability to react to the changing market forces which included the number of players present in the market as well. Players opted for an organic growth or adopted the “merger & acquisition” route for expansion. The ultimate objective of each participant’s was wealth maximization. Players had to bid for resources, add value to them, price the product, negotiate with competitors & suppliers and finally market the product.
Media Moguls: In Media Moguls a specific amount was allotted to the teams, for each stage and for the entire game, to allow them to develop their media plans.
Ad Rates and situational changes for each stage were specified and it was up to the participant to decide the allocation of resources for advertisements during certain shows running on different channels on television.
Tol Mol: In Tol Mol the objective was to arrange supplies for the customer at the cheapest cost. This game considered the strategies required for efficient procurement considering various pricing elements. Milk Run is a route optimization simulation in which a truck either delivers product from a single supplier to multiple retailers or goes from multiple suppliers to a single retailer.
After 10 days of continuous and unparallel frenzy and rave reviews, MastishK 2004 was branded as one of the most successful B–school online event.