Osmosis 2007 - Guidelines for Management Student Paper Contest

Objective

The Osmosis Research Report Contest offers the management students an opportunity to exercise and improve business, technical, written and verbal communication/presentation skills. Throughout a manager’s career, one will be constantly called upon to communicate ideas to others. Researching, writing and report provides a student with invaluable early experience in expressing innovative/creative ideas related to business.

Eligibility

1. The author(s) must be (a) management student(s) (MBA/PGDM) from any discipline in the 1st or 2nd year of management education
2. Not more than 2 students should author each contribution.

Number of Entries

There can be any number of entries per Institute.

Important Dates

1. Last date for abstract submission: 24th October
2. Last date for report submission: 18th November
3. Declaration of result of contest: 7th December
   
   

Prizes

1. Prizes and certificates for the top 3 winners:
1st Prize: Rs.15000; 2nd Prize: Rs.10000; 3rd Prize: Rs.7000

Guidelines

1. Reports should cover business and technology aspects of subjects reasonably within or related to the areas with which the author is familiar, either from courses, hobbies, summer work, or other similar experiences.
2. he participants are required to send a soft copy of their entry to the following mail id: Osmosis_MBA2007@mindtree.com. The final report should contain a self declaration and a Professor Certification page on the originality of the work.
3. For all your queries on the research report, you can reach us on Osmosis_MBA2007@mindtree.com.
4. It is mandatory to use MindTree Templates for submission of Abstract and Report. You can download these Templates from (Website Link). Make use of “Osmosis MBA Research Report Abstract Template” for submitting the Abstracts and “Osmosis MBA Research Report Template" for submitting the report.
5. The subject of your mail should start with ‘abstract:’ followed by the Title of your (The title may be shortened if necessary for the subject). For ex: If you are submitting an abstract on topic ‘Osmosis MBA Research Report Abstract Template’, the subject should read – Abstract: Research Report Contest Ab-stract. On receiving the abstract, we will communicate to you similar mailing details about the final report submission.
6. Do not search /download a published report from the net. These will be disqualified. (MindTree reserves the right to bringing such malpractices to the notice of the College Authorities).

Paper should

1. Be original (can refer other s/ books but not copy/ paste the contents).
2. Elaborate the abstract submitted earlier.
3. Be minimum of 5 pages and maximum of 12 pages (see ‘Written preparation’ section for details)
4. Contain diagrams, code snippets, data, charts etc. to demonstrate the points discussed.
5. Include references to the papers/ books used for writing the topic.
6. Contain contents that are correct.
7. Address confidentiality of the data contents.
8. Contain acknowledgements to the person (s) provided feedback/ suggestions
9. Be from the area of topics below.
   
   

Topics

Topic	Description
1. Business applications of RFID in Consumer Goods and Retail Industries	How would RFID add value to CPG industries & What can be the challenges in its implementation?
2. Would SOA provide competitive advantage for companies in the Manufacturing Industry?	Comparative study and a risk analysis of implementing SOA.
3. Trade Promotions Management solutions: The next revolution for Indian CPG Companies	How can TPM help Indian CPG companies in achieving proper demand supply ratio, enhance market share and increase brand visibility.
4. Risk and Return on IPO Investment in India: The 1990 to 2006 Experience.	The nature of fund raising, major trends, size of the markets, and number of IPOs that came during 1990-2006.What is emerging and likely change influence on fund raising from corporate.
5. Is India ready for Hedge Fund Investment?	The nature of volatility, nature of control such as restriction on short sell and structural problem of securities lending and borrowing and its Impact on the hedge fund strategies.
6. Indian Finance Market - A structural insight	The Macro and Micro structure of Indian Financial Systems. Inefficiencies in capital formation and inefficiencies in information dissemination, and possible corrective measure regulators can take.
7. Current trends in the Producers & Carriers Insurance Industry	Integration of Producers and Carriers in the P&C Insurance Industry - Current Trends and Future
8. Micro-insurance in India - Hype or business opportunity?	A comparison study is required on Micro Insurance in India. It should include pros and cons of both sides of the coin along with a final recommendation.
9. Web 2.0: The new dimension to insurance	How can Web 2.0 help in enhancing efficiency of Insurance companies in terms of customer service and increase in market share?
10. Impact of Web 2.0 technologies on the travel industry	How should the travel industry evolve to take advantage of Blogging and social networking sites?
11. Emerging technologies for the Indian travel industry	Also what are the US and UK technologies and are they feasible in India?
12. Impact of search engines on Travel distribution's changing landscape	Influence of these search engines on the traditional travel distribution network. Who will emerge as the winner? Should include recommendations.
13. Brand Analytics - Emergence of web as the next frontier	With the emergence of the 'social web' and rapidly changing demographics of the online population, what's the next frontier for brand managers?
14. Mobile Commerce - Reality or Hype?	Mobile payments seem to be becoming a reality now -at least, from a technology perspective. Is there a real market for this technology?
15. Second Life / Virtual World - Strategies for success	What's the relevance and impact of Second Life / Virtual World on the corporate world?

Written Preparation

1. All papers must be Arial/Times New Roman 12 font.
2. The pages of the report must be numbered consecutively. The Introduction, Body, Conclusion, Tables and Diagrams may not exceed 12 pages while the above sections with the Appendices may not exceed 15 pages.
3. In general, the contents of a Student prize paper shall be organized as follows:
   
   
   1. Identification:
      Since the judges must handle the report without knowledge of the identity of the author or his Institute, it is required that the report itself show no identification other than the title. Do use “Osmosis MBA Research Report Template” for submitting your report for the Contest. (Website link)
      Also, the name of the authors and institute should not be mentioned any where else other than the space provided in the Template. On receipt of the abstract, you will be sent a unique identification number, which you should quote in the final report in the space provided in the Template.
      
   2. Table of Contents:
      The table of contents should consist of a list of the parts of the report and the page numbers, in order in which they occur.
   3. Abstract:
      The abstract should not describe the report, but should give, in brief, the essential facts of its contents; for example, a brief of the problem or objective and a concise summary of the results or conclusion, touching upon methods or other details only if they are unique or if they are of some particular significance. The abstract should be of 150-300 words.
   4. Definitions, Abbreviation and Acronyms:
      You can include conventions/ Abbreviations used in the report.
   5. Introduction:
      The introductions should lead to the development of the subject so that the reader may obtain a clear understanding of the significance of the report or article prepared. This can often be done by briefly giving the state of the art as background and then by bringing out the added advantages of the method of approach and emphasizing the importance of the results or conclusions.
      
      
      • 5.1 - Name of the Paper:
        Write the name (title) of the Paper - few words
      • 5.2 - Classification:
        Classify your Report Based on Titles provided by MindTree Consulting Ltd. – Mobile Commerce – Reality or Hype? / Second Life / Virtual World - Strategies for success / Indian Finance Market – A structural insight etc.
      • 5.3 - Context:
        To assist the judges in maintaining objectivity, no mention of the author's name or Institute should be made in the article. Any references to the author's Institute should read "the university" without giving the actual name. The main argument of the subject is carried out in the context of the report, complete with supporting data. The argument should proceed in a logical sequence according to a prepared outline. The writing should be in the third person. Support data and results can be presented most effectively as curves, charts, or tables.
   6. Tables:
      Generally, each table should be typed on a separate sheet and numbered consecutively using Roman numerals: Table I, Table II. Small tabulations or listings may be made in the text where necessary for continuity. Each table should be titled by giving the brief description as a heading following the table number at the top. Ditto marks should not be used in tabled, but brackets may be used to group information on several lines.
   7. Figures:
      Figures should be numbered consecutively using Arabic numerals: Figure 1; Figure 2, etc. The reading material on illustrations should be kept to a minimum. In short, the reading material should be included in the captions. Portions of the illustrations may be identified by letters and explained in the captions. Whenever feasible, several curves should be combined on the same coordinates. Their identifying letters or numbers should be in clear spaces between cross section lines. Readers generally prefer having the figures distributed through the article, although it is also permissible to bind them together at the end.
   8. Appendices:
      The figures and tables in the Appendices should be numbered consecutively following the numbers used for the figures, and tables in the text (such as, if table IV were last in the text, table V would be first in the appendices.)
   9. Conclusion:
      The conclusions are often considered the most important part of a report. They should be stated concisely in a separate section at the end of the report. If there are three or more conclusions, better emphasis can be obtained by numbering each conclusion and setting it off in a separate paragraph.
   10. References:
       To enable the reader to consult important works used by the author incidental to the preparation of his manuscript and other related literature which might be helpful, a suitable reference list should be appended. References should be numbered consecutively and should follow the form shown below:
       
       For a book: W.A. Edison, "Vacuum Tube Oscillators," John Wiley and Sons, Inc., New York, New York, pp. 170-171, 1948.
       
       For an article: B. Lawrence, B.H. Weil, and M.H. Graham, "Making online search available in a industrial research environment," Journal of the American Society for Information Science, pp. 364-369, Nov-Dec. 1974.
   11. Acknowledgements:
       Acknowledge all the persons that have contributed and are not the co-authors
4. Judging
   The following is the evaluation criteria for the papers/ abstracts (in the order listed)
   1. Originality of the content
   2. Business Aspects
   3. Facts supported by data, charts, diagrams, code snippets etc
   4. Technology appreciation
5. Note - The judges' decision will be final and binding
6. MindTree Rights
   MindTree reserves the right to use the content of all submitted papers in any desired manner.