Microsoft's Completely Boss Challenge promotes SMBs in India

NEW DELHI, INDIA: Microsoft announced the top three winners for the Completely Boss Challenge, giving them the opportunity to have the five-year growth plans for their businesses developed by industry experts.

The initiative is India's first platform to reward and celebrate outstanding business leaders from the thriving mid-market sector, wherein 2500 CEOs from across seven cities (Ahmedabad, Bangalore, Chennai, Delhi NCR, Mumbai, Pune and Hyderabad) contested in three rounds of the competition.

The Completely Boss Challenge is a unique opportunity for leaders, CEOs and directors of midsize businesses to highlight their achievements. The winners get a chance to have Microsoft (technology), LinkedIn (talent), Moneycontrol.com (media), WebChutney (marketing), DOOR (business consulting) and CRISIL SME Ratings (knowledge) develop robust five-year business growth plans for their companies.

The contest started with registered participants being evaluated on a quiz on knowledge and application-based questions, which was assigned weightage by QuizWorks. The phase 2, which was City Prelims, included events in the seven cities. The top 50 finalists from each city participated in the next level of an on-ground contest challenge. Three shortlisted candidates from each of these seven cities participated in the finals of the Completely Boss challenge, which selected three all-India winners.

A very enthusiastic Paresh Tulsidas Parekh from Ahmedabad said: "This has been a great experience for me and glad to be amongst the top three winners. I would like to thank Microsoft for creating such a unique platform and look forward to working with the jury to prepare our five-year business growth plan."

"It's awesome to be amongst the top three winners and that too in a competition like this which is a first-of-its-kind. It has been a tough competition wherein CEOs of midsize businesses gave their best shot, thus it is all the more exciting to win against such good competitors," said Gaddam Ranjith Reddy from Hyderabad.

A delighted Uday Purohit from Mumbai, said: "Microsoft's Completely Boss Challenge, targeted towards the mid-market segment, is a great platform for SMBs to showcase their unique business models. The competition opens up a whole new dimension for our business."

Ramkumar Pichai, GM - Microsoft Office Division, Microsoft Corp. India Pvt Ltd, said, "Microsoft programs like the Completely Boss Challenge will enable SMBs to create, foster and grow innovative business models that have a positive impact on their communities and at the same time are crucial to India's economic growth."