This is perhaps one of the strange ways in which one can blog. Chennai airport is disappointing to say the least, and here I am sitting in a dirty corner (to catch a plug point), fighting mosquitoes and sleep, to get to you an event that has been THE EVENT in these first few months of my MBA.
Following events are depicted possibly with a bias and any resemblance to an existing actual event is totally intentional..
It all started with this stumbling upon DoMS, IIT Ms release for Samanvay, annual fest, on dare2compete.com, and what transpired since then has been hectic fun, as extreme on both the scales(hectic, fun) as far as you can imagine. Just to add perspective to what I want you to understand, the synopsis of the event excited me so much so that I started preparing strategies on whom to rope in to have the best possible chance. And the end result, though could have been better, does leave a sense of pleasure, a sense of satisfaction, and a reaffirmation of my belief in hard work.
Oh yes. It was plenty hard work. However, from what I hear of the events that unfolded during the first round (online quiz on Online Retail, which I somehow managed to miss), it will be foolish of me to claim something like that. When you make legendary blind guesses after seeing like a bald dude's photo and connecting it to Amazon CEO, I mean, who the fuck does have that kind of 'epiphany'.
But then again, the real work started off in the 2nd round, and after missing out on all that fun how could I let this go. And I am pretty sure that my fellow CXOs would agree to this that it ain't good having an obsessed crazy prick kicking them from behind to get the work done. You ought to resort to such extreme measures though. What really helps is the amount I enjoy it doing sometimes, I confess. Also, at the risk of being called an egotist, I'd like to pat my back on the amount of work that I'd gotten done on those timelines. What dedication cannot achieve in this world.
(MBAs) --> As CXOs we had to start and build upon a startup art supplies company making strategies across all functions. O'course I ended up with the most 'ghissu' of works, the work that involved the most leg work, the COOs job, but that had to be taken up and worked upon as some other functions depended upon it. I still am pleasantly surprised at the adrenaline rush that I get in such time crunch situations. Awesumness :)
The real experience still awaited us in the shadows though. Today finally arrived. The organizers did pack a punch in the final round. A board room environment was set up. Situations were given encompassing all functions and instant decisions were to be made However the biggest surprise was when we heard about judges being industry moguls. And then when IIM B (who eventually won) went on with their presentation first, it was like we had bitten more than what we could chew. Being newbie's and all, we were so much off colour in terms of presentation (compiled in like half an hour while sitting at the airport) that we even contemplated backing out at one point. We had good workings, that is what got us the short list, but that counts to zilch in front of the judges if you aren't able to bring it out through the presentation and then back it up with deep domain expertise. And with all the competition being from second year, we really needed to cover in the presentation what we lost in terms of knowledge. Kudos to the team for pulling off the presentation well, just on the weight of the knowledge of the workings and getting the points across to the judges, compelling them to adjudge the best CMO and CIO from IIFT Kolkata.
Take Aways -->
Belief, dignity and pride, it was tough, those last few hours of the competition.
Amazing learnings from such an exhaustive and comprehensive competition, exposing us to various business dimensions at once, getting work done under immense time constraints (mostly due to parallel activities).
The competition in general, and deep realization of work that needs to be put in for such competitions.
And most of all, the encouragement that our competitors gave us in the end, commending our work to be of the highest order given that we just started off with our MBA, instructing us to keep at it, hell yeah !!
Signing Off.
Harshit Didwania
COO and self proclaimed Team Leader ;)
Team Kamikaze - IIFT K
Nice!!
ReplyDeletesimply fab...its always nt abt winning its abt participatin...u hav dat winner attitude yeahh..nd wen u get 2 learn so many things u naturally cum out as a winner...nd most of all u got selected in d top 5...dats a big deal ohkk..i know hw much effort u had put up here...i hav seen dat willingness in u,dat spirit of get goin nd face d challenge,dat spark in ur eyez 4 winning d competition...dats wt is required...juz luvd dat take away part...ur fyts wd d deadlines,time nd nt forgetting mosquitoe fyts leavin d mark at chennai airport..lolzz..perfct time management..all entrepreneur skills.....nd as i say appreciation is betr dan expectation...so u guys got enuf of dat m sure...appreciations nd encouragements frm evrybody arnd...nd fr me u r a true winner....keep up d same spirit nd strive evn harder 2 reach dat perfction nd u'll defintely b dere...keep goin high high nd high....juzz too proud of u:)))....
ReplyDeletedanke, shikha :) you always end up lifting my spirits to new heights by saying such wonderful things..
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