Commquest 2019 is an event under the flagship of the annual Commerce fest of the Heritage Xperiential Learning School. This event was organised in collaboration with the Indian School of Business and Finance (ISBF). Students from more than 10 schools participated, over a span of 2 days, from 24 July 2019 to 25 July 2019.
The activities were designed to help students to broaden their understanding of the world of business, finance and economics. The purpose of these activities was to get students to expand their critical and analytical thinking, to understand the functioning of real-world economic problems, and to work in a collaborative manner with others to debate and share interpretations.
DAY 1
ADMAD
Advertising- an important part of product marketing.
The event Commquest is held every year, so that students get to build upon their skill of innovation and originality.
On the onset of the event, the different schools were provided with different pictures, where they had to design a product of their choice and advertise it. Their main objective was to convince the judges that their product is the best out there in the market.
When asked the teachers about their expectations from the students, they clearly stated that the invention perhaps, the outcome should be something inventive and ingenious. Secondly, their main purpose to introduce such an astute and unique event was to see how innovative children can be and their capability to form out of the blue business ideas.
As the event passed by, the schools were allotted a precise amount of time where they compiled all their ideas and came up with a fresh new product. As soon as their time got over, they they were all quite confident about their respective inventions and were ready to present.
Every school was being judged on the following criteria’s:
Creativity, Overall presentation, Innovative ideas and the effective use of props.
a. The Shri Ram School Aravali:
The first scene they depict is of a man who has difficulty to see due to the harmful UV rays. The team then explains how the eyes of a fish protect the UV rays from entering the eye. They make a product of the glasses that have the power of the eye of the fish. The main idea was, to show how people worldwide are in danger from the UV rays and a solution of that is to have fish eyes as a part of the specs as they help protecting from the UV rays.
b. Lotus Valley:
The setting of their advertisement was in a village where the people earn money by selling milk that isn’t that safe to drink. They show how consuming milk can be dangerous and how it’s important to know the quality of milk before consumption. Their product was, ‘Swach Dhoodh’ which showed the benefits of earning more money just by selling this particular product.
c. Scottish High:
Their advertisement started off by a group of boys teasing another boy on the basis of the slow function of his device. The team introduced their product, a phone where signal could be found easily and it functioned really fast. They at last, stated their product was a mobile phone with the power of a shark and the speed of a horse.
d. Heritage school Rohini:
Heritage Rohini started their presentation by depicting an everyday situation on the roads, where the traffic is tumultuous and the pollution is unbearable. They introduced their product, Time Transporters in order to get rid of the traffic and the pollution, in order to make life easier.
e. Blue Bells:
They portray a scene where the festival of Diwali is taking place. A set of children discuss the amount of money they have saved in order to buy new mesmerising gifts for themselves. Although, this joyous feeling quickly goes away when they see a poor child who doesn’t even have money to buy his own shoes. The set of children then decide to buy a pair of shoes for the poor child, contributing their own money respectively. The product they buy, the shoes, are very stylish and are said to be quite comfortable.
f. DPS 45:
They started off by portraying a scenario where a person was constantly slipping due to the shoes she had put on. In order to resolve the problem faced by many of the people their teams decided to create a product, ‘Pamela flip flops’ which helps in getting a good grip and is very beneficial. They emphasised how you won’t slip even if walking on top of numerous banana peels.
g. DPS(Mathura):
They show a common problem between couples where the love is one sided and the wife longs for love from her beloved husband. She then gets introduced to a product called “billy- gee” has been created to resolve issues between couples. The working of “billy-gee” has been created to resolve common issues between couples.
h. Blue Bells(Modern School) :
They depict a typical scene in an office setting where the employee is late for the millionth time and get’s fired. He says his problem is due to the bad functioning of his watch. They come up with a new product called ‘Bay-Watch’ where the watch/clock gives you a totally accurate time and it makes it convenient for you to face everyday issues.
i. HXLS:
They depict a girl who is sad and gets lightened up and joyous just by looking at a small thing, like a book.. Their main idea was to show how the littlest of things can make a person happy, for example, some get happy by reading, some by books.
j. HXLS 2:
They depict a phone called ‘Uni-call’ where they show how two employees of an office that talk behind the back of their senior. The Senior gets introduced to the innovative ‘Uni-call’ and gets a conformation about the insults he receives from his employees. Their main idea was to tell how their device, Uni-call helps in getting any type of a connection or signal that may be helpful in various instances and situations.
After all the mesmerising presentations were over, the teachers decided to share the results. DPS 45 came first, followed by DPS Mathura in the second place and Lotus Valley in the third.
The World of Business
I would be lying if I said that Commquest taught me nothing except the way the
minds of future business-people work. The first event, the business plan, led me into
a world that I had never before set foot in. To every single student assembled in the
Chanakya Hall, from every one of the eleven schools invited, this wasn’t just an
event that could be a stepping stone to becoming successful entrepreneurs in the
future, but it was more to do with using all their knowledge to help and save other
people.
From tying up with existing organizations and providing labour safety, equipment
and insurance to the poor workers of society, innovating portable toilets with dung
beetles in them, to creating biodegradable pods that served as shampoo, packaged in dissolvable plastic, Commquest was a beautiful platform to combine a knack for business, with the desire to help those in need.
Devices that could help detect cancer in its early stages, apps that can connect
potential investors to legitimate start-ups, not to forget the startling discovery we
made regarding the benefits of consuming insects on a daily basis which called for
the making of another brilliant business plan.
At the end of the day, three teams came out above the rest of them. In 3 rd place we had Nibble, from DPS Sector-45 with their ingenious algorithm that helped
distribute the excess food collected to the poor and providing them with balanced
diets. It was a proud moment for us when our very own secured 2 nd place with
Employ-Able, an initiative that aimed at helping the disabled to get jobs when they
felt that they could not. And lastly, in 1 st place stood Lotus Valley with Thread Saver
that attempted to collect unused fabric or clothes that could no longer be sold from big companies and reuse the material to sell their own designs at cheaper prices.
But, it didn’t really matter who won at the end of the day, because each idea, each
business plan, was no less than the other.
DAY 2
The second day of Commquest 2019 involved students engaged in different activities and constantly trying to tell the true from the untrue, to challenge the status quo and to understand the causes of things. The day consisted of the following activities and left the participants with enhanced analytical skills as well as the need to understand why.
Power of Why:
The session began with an in-depth study on the recent failure of Jet Airways and went on to compare it’s marketing strategy with competitive airlines such as IndiGo. After having a thorough discussion on the need to ask “why”, the teams were presented with a case study which they had to look at from a questioning perspective.
Business and Finance Quiz:
The quiz consisted of teams of different schools answering questions regarding basic understanding of business and finance as well as the current affairs relating to the same. Alongside the quiz, the teachers attended a workshop for teachers regarding redesigning teaching and assessment practices to improve student learning.
Critical Thinking in Collaboration with ISBF:
“Are the rich getting richer and the poor getting poorer?”
During this session, the participants were posed with this intriguing question and were told to analyse its layers. The participants studied not only particular individuals but also different companies and as well as countries. After which, all the teams went around the room to assess different perspectives and views. This ended with the participants having an extensive discussion, as a group, regarding the question that was posed.
Careers in Economics, Management and Finance:
Nearing the end of the event, a session was conducted regarding the different careers in Economic, Management and Finance. This session helped the students broaden their perspective and look at the several career options that exist. Ranging from Data Science and Statistics to Investment Banking and Consulting, the possibilities are endless.
In Conversation with a representative of ISBF
Q1. What are you expecting out of the students today?
“We’re pretty much looking at the school selecting and sending in the students, so I’m looking at the cream of Gurgaon and Delhi. With a proposition like the power of why, we expect the students to use the skills that they don’t use a lot in the classroom and try to apply them in a competitive environment.”
Q2. What do you expect students to learn from today?
Firstly, to begin to question everything that they take for granted with the question of why. Bring those ideas that get them to rethink ideas that come their way. The idea behind critical thinking isn’t questioning for the sake of questioning but you must be able to advance knowledge. And the only way you can advance knowledge is by assessing where it is today. I expect the students to describe, evaluate and then analyse the issue after which they should learn to question beyond the pre existing knowledge and if anything more can be done.
Q3. What is Critical Thinking?
Critical thinking is higher order thinking and learning skills. To explain to a layman, there are some thinking skills that are rudimentary, like remembering. Second stage, understand. You’ve remembered, recollected and now you have to understand the concept. Next stage, analyse. Next stage, evaluate. The final stage would be something like create. You move up the ladder of critical thinking and begin to analyse, evaluate and create.
Closing Ceremony
The closing ceremony comprised of an Indian classical dance performance, as well as some songs performed by students of the host school. The event concluded with the declaration of results and the award ceremony.
Comments