HUL FinAce Season 8: Unlocking the CFO quotient - from classroom to boardroom

HUL and CNBC-TV18 successfully concluded the 8th edition of FinAce, HUL’s marquee B-school finance case study competition. The rigorous journey commenced 3 months ago, with more than 3600 students participating in groups of 3, competing in a gamified simulation after which 11 teams were shortlisted for a challenging semi-final round and finally 4 teams locked horns at the grand finale held on 01st Oct.

India’s leading FMCG company, known to have springboarded some of the brightest finance minds in the country, continued its legacy of grooming young talent into future-ready finance leaders. HUL ensured a holistic exploration of various facets of the ever-evolving world of finance and business strategy at each level of the competition. HUL’s commitment to nurturing talent, enhancing foundational knowledge, and preparing students to navigate the complexities of the business environment was once again brought to the forefront.

In line with the current year’s theme of Unlocking the CFO quotient: from classroom to boardroom, teams explored the tenets of financial planning and experienced the challenges of strategic business decision-making faced by a growing enterprise. This year's case was based on the complex journey of portfolio expansion that most businesses go through. The case required the participants to evaluate both organic and inorganic routes to business expansion in the Foods & Beverages industry, while generating synergies and staying true to the organization's purpose at large.

The stellar jury at the finale included Mr. Ritesh Tiwari, Executive Director, Finance & IT and the Chief Financial Officer of Hindustan Unilever Limited (HUL), Mr. Shiva Krishnamurthy, Executive Director, HUL and BU GM-Nutrition & Ice-cream and Mr. Shashank Mehta, Founder & CEO, The Whole Truth Foods. Their wealth of experience and knowledge in the field of business, strategy and finance ensured the contestants were quizzed on different aspects of decision making. Finalists who made it thus far comprised of 2 teams from ISB, 1 from IIM Lucknow and 1 from from IIM Bangalore.

Speaking of evaluation parameters, Ritesh Tiwari, CFO, HUL, said, “Judging will be in terms of how granular and data-driven the solutions are, the creativity in problem solving, and the simplicity of story-telling.”