Opportunity brief
About the Opportunity
Saudagar 2026 is the flagship business strategy competition organized by Saksham, the Entrepreneurship Cell of IIM Udaipur, as part of Solaris 2026, IIM Udaipur's Annual Management Fest. Built around "Build. Acquire. Integrate.", Saudagar challenges participants to think like entrepreneurs, build a commercially viable business proposition, defend their decisions, and adapt their strategy as the competition progresses.
Guidelines:
- Eligibility: Open to undergraduate and postgraduate students.
- Team Size: Teams can consist of 1 to 3 members.
- Participation: A participant can be a member of only one team.
- Mode: All rounds will be conducted online.
- Originality: All submissions must be the team's original work.
- Shortlisting: Only shortlisted teams will advance to subsequent rounds.
Structure and Rounds:
Round 1: Business Intelligence Challenge
- Format: Online timed quiz.
- Number of Questions: 30 questions.
- Duration: 10 minutes.
- Coverage: Business and corporate awareness, strategy, marketing, finance and economics, startups, logical reasoning, data interpretation, and business situations.
- Attempts: Each team will get one attempt.
- Progression: The bottom 10% of teams will be eliminated. The remaining teams will qualify for Round 2.
Round 2: Build the Business
- Format: Business Case Analysis and PPT Submission.
- Duration: 5 days.
- Task: Qualified teams will receive a common business case and develop an original and commercially viable business proposition.
- Submission: Maximum 5 slides, excluding the title slide and appendix.
- Submission Focus: Core business problem | Customer and market opportunity | Proposed solution | Business model and revenue logic | Competitive landscape | Go-to-market strategy | Financial viability | Implementation | Key risks and mitigations
- Progression: Submissions will be evaluated by the judging panel. The strongest teams will qualify for the Boardroom
Round 3: The Boardroom
- Format: Live Business Presentation and Panel Q&A.
- Duration: 15 minutes per team.
- Task: Teams will present their business proposition and defend their assumptions, choices, financial logic, competitive position, and execution plan before the judging panel.
- Progression: The strongest teams will advance to the Marketplace.
Round 4: The Marketplace
- Format: Live Marketplace and Capability Acquisition Round.
- Duration: 2 hours.
- Virtual Capital: ₹1 Crore per team.
- Task: Teams will identify capabilities they need, such as distribution, customer acquisition, technology, marketing, partnerships, pricing, or supply chain, and compete to acquire them from other teams.
- Bidding: Each team can make a maximum of 2 bids.
- Integration: Acquired capabilities must be meaningfully integrated into the team's original business proposition.
- Progression: Teams will use their Marketplace decisions to revise their business proposition for the Final Pitch.
Round 5: Final Pitch
- Format: Final Business Presentation and Q&A.
- Duration: 15 minutes per team.
- Task: Teams will present their revised business proposition and explain what they acquired, why they acquired it, how they allocated their capital, how it was integrated, and how it strengthened their business.
- Outcome: Final winners will be determined by the strength of the business proposition and the decisions made throughout the competition
Evaluation Criteria:
Teams will be evaluated on problem understanding, quality of analysis and insights, strategic thinking, commercial viability, feasibility and execution, differentiation, decisions under constraints, Marketplace strategy and capital allocation, integration of acquired capabilities, clarity of communication, and response to questions.
Prizes:
Total Prize Pool: ₹15,000
- Winner: ₹10,000
- Runner-up: ₹5,000
Rules:
- Each participant can be a part of only one team.
- All submissions must be the team's original work.
- Plagiarism, fabrication of data, misrepresentation, or use of another team's work will result in disqualification.
- Teams must follow the prescribed submission format and deadlines.
- The organizing committee reserves the right to modify the competition schedule, format, or operational rules if required.
- Any important changes will be communicated to the registered teams.
- Decisions of the organizing committee and judging panel regarding qualification, scoring, and final rankings will be final.
- Detailed instructions for each round will be shared with qualified teams before the respective round.