Marico’s Over The Wall Challenge: Going Beyond Textbooks to Discover Business Leaders

The 12th season of Marico’s flagship business idea competition, Over the Wall (OTW), has reached its exciting conclusion after months of rigorous competition! 

We are proud to announce that the winner of OTW Season 12 is Team TSS from IIM Kozhikode! Their groundbreaking idea—an international market entry strategy for AI-powered waste sorting technology—captured the essence of innovation and strategic vision that OTW seeks to foster. Our heartfelt congratulations also go to the Runner-Up, The Strategists from MDI Gurgaon, whose exceptional strategy—an innovative sales framework for eco-friendly engineered boards made from agricultural waste—demonstrated remarkable business acumen and potential.

Nurturing Tomorrow’s Business Leaders

Marico’s ‘Over the Wall‘ business idea competition is designed to provide young, aspiring business leaders with a platform to showcase their skills and tackle real-world challenges. Participants of OTW—students from B-Schools across India—compete for a prize pool of over INR 10 lakhs, along with the opportunity to be mentored by leaders within Marico, and develop unique solutions to live business challenges. They also stand to gain invaluable networking opportunities with Marico’s senior leadership.

“In OTW, what Marico does very beautifully is give live business projects. What we also provide are business leaders as mentors. So what OTW participants therefore gain is solving real-life problems with a larger business perspective and bring in their own unique thought process into how you can solve our problems.”

– Dr. Shilpa Vora, Chief R&D Officer, Marico Limited

Season 12: Unprecedented Participation

Launched in August 2024, this season of Over The Wall engaged 50 of India’s top B-schools and attracted over 26,500 registrations. Participants underwent a comprehensive evaluation process including quizzes, business idea submissions, mentorship sessions, and CxO presentations. The final challenge involved a month-long project addressing real-world challenges for portfolio companies within Scale-Up, Marico Innovation Foundation’s no-equity accelerator for startups working on groundbreaking innovations. 

‘Over The Wall’ Winner: TSS, IIM Kozhikode

Shivani Deepal Mundargi, Shashank Kumar, and Tanishq Agarwal created a strategic international market entry plan for Ishitva Robotic Systems under the guidance of Siddhartha Roy, Business Head at Marico. They identified high-potential international markets for pilot projects and developed tailored marketing strategies for each customer segment.

‘Over The Wall’ 1st Runner Up: The Strategists, MDI Gurgaon

Avinash Kaushik and Sanidhya Goel focused on sales development for Craste, a Scale-Up portfolio company. Mentored by Saikumar Rathod, Divisional Head (West) at Marico, they developed a cost-effective sales and distribution strategy to meet Craste’s one-year sales target for its innovative engineered boards.

Looking Forward

The conclusion of Over The Wall Season 12 marks not just the end of a competition, but the beginning of new possibilities. The solutions developed by these student teams are already being implemented by our Scale-Up portfolio companies, creating tangible business impact.  This symbiotic relationship between academia and industry exemplifies MIF’s mission to bridge innovation gaps in the Indian ecosystem.