After winning the campus round, we had to work only on toothpaste/toothbrush industry and drop the biscuits idea. There were other specific instructions from the company asking us to work on exact requisite details - Positioning of product, target group, launch, geography, marketing plan and even the financials for the next 3 years.
We thought the best way to move forward is to contact our faculty. we mailed some profs and 2 profs were ready to help for the same. Firstly, we met our strategy prof and got some inputs for the same. He advised us to knit everything around the core competency of the company and also to drop the toothbrush launch. According to him, it is always better to focus on one product only whenever a launch is planned by a company. After garnering some more inputs from him, we started to work on our project.
Google is the best friend for such stuff and we searched analyst reports, company annual reports, competitor's reports, industry setup etcetra. Making a strategy involved elaborate discussions amongst ourselves, difference of opinions and even heated discussions! But everyone had a point to put forward but in the end, it brought to table many issues which are difficult to think when working single-handedly on such stuff. This is where, I believe team dynamics make a phenomenal difference.
After 4 days of sleepless nights :D, we met our marketing prof also, but one night before the final competition ;) We spent concrete 2 hours with him and got honest feedback, improvements and excellent suggestions. With less than 12 hours to go for our final presentation, we still decided to incorporate the changes. In the end, all of us were quite satisfied with our final outcome.
After managing a 4 hour sleep, I had to haggle with my prof to give me attendance for the class which I had to miss to attend the competition. He was quite cool about it and gave me attendance without much problem. As the presentation was to be held in ITC Sonar Bangla in Kolkata, Eveready arranged a pickup for us from the campus.
Upon reaching there, we met our competitors from IIM B, L and XLRI who had arrived in the city the previous night and were accommodation in ITC itself! It was quite a socialising session for all of us and we also did not miss out on the opportunity to click some pics of the scenic beauty there :)
The competition started at around 11 with Board of Directors being a part of the audience. The judges and the audience consisted of all division heads of the company and various other senior and respected people from the industry. Deep down, I really felt honoured to be making a presentation in front of such an august gathering.
XLRI was the first one to present, who proposed the idea of Eveready foraying into personal care products. Next came IIM L, which told them to move into portable chargers using USB ports. IIM B was up next, advising them to launch gamut of products for men only, which they divided in 2 categories - pre shave, shave and post shave! Our team was the last to go and the strangest thing happened with us - not a single question was raised for us after our presentation was over. We thought, we weren't so also ;)
Well, it was lunch break and results were due after it. Lunch gave us an opportunity to interact personally with senior people from the industry. We had a talk at length with a gentleman who had been in the marketing field for the last 35 years and worked with leading brands like HUL, Colgate and Airtel to name a few. He pointed out some of our mistakes and it was quite insightful to talk to him.
Once the lunch was over, we got together for the results. As always, the teams were called in increasing order of performance. We were the first ones to be called i.e. we were the 4th best team, XLRI being 3rd, runners-up were IIM B and IIM L were the winners.
The concluding part of the competition was a group photograph with the judges and all the participants.
Ya, its sad to lose but 50k prize money was some consolation though ;)
Our marketing prof is still more than happy with our efforts and wants us to write a case study on the same. Lets see, how does that turn out to be.
Friday, January 30, 2009
Tuesday, January 27, 2009
Forgotten Attachment detector
Gmail introduced this feature in September 2008. I really liked this feature because after working for 3 years,I realised that forgetting to attach a file is one of the most errors that happens while one is sending like umpteen mails daily.
But, when it was introduced, I tested it twice or thrice and it did NOT seem to work. I decided to give feedback to Google for the same but discovered that many other avid Gmail users seem to have noticed that this feature is really not working. But I did not disable this feature from the Lab Settings.
MBA, to a large extent requires a lot of e-mail exchange throughout the day and lot of attachments are exchanged on an hourly basis. But my memory seem to have never disappointed me and I almost never forgot to attach the required file in the mail.
But today morning, it happened! I wrote a mail to a prof and hit that sent button and voila, a small pop-up window was there, staring at me and saying - "It seems you have forgotten to attach a document". I thanked Gmail from core of my heart for coming out with this brilliant feature :) :)
Just wondering, if MS Outlook can come up with something similar!
But, when it was introduced, I tested it twice or thrice and it did NOT seem to work. I decided to give feedback to Google for the same but discovered that many other avid Gmail users seem to have noticed that this feature is really not working. But I did not disable this feature from the Lab Settings.
MBA, to a large extent requires a lot of e-mail exchange throughout the day and lot of attachments are exchanged on an hourly basis. But my memory seem to have never disappointed me and I almost never forgot to attach the required file in the mail.
But today morning, it happened! I wrote a mail to a prof and hit that sent button and voila, a small pop-up window was there, staring at me and saying - "It seems you have forgotten to attach a document". I thanked Gmail from core of my heart for coming out with this brilliant feature :) :)
Just wondering, if MS Outlook can come up with something similar!
Monday, January 26, 2009
Eveready Innovation Contest
B-School is all about 'learning' and grasping new concepts et al (you get the drift of what I want to convey) So, apparently many corporates believe that since we are assimilating so much knowledge, its good to put our brains to work for solving some of the real-life problems of them.
On similar lines, Eveready Industries India Limited (EIIL) launched a competition in the campus. This competition is launched in 4 campuses across the country - IIM B, IIM L, XLRI and IIM Calcutta. The competition is launched to identify a new business opportunity for EIIL. They are already a leaders in batteries, have recently moved into tea and mosquito repellent distribution in the country, launched their own set of torches and lighting etc amongst other products. They basically wanted to explore a line of business in which they could capitalise on their distribution network, association with colour 'Red' and should be able to generate an expected revenue of few crores in the coming years. The event was open only for first yearites and that too in a team of 4 members. Also, the format of the competition involved two rounds - one campus and one final. Teams would be competing within the campus and only ONE team per campus would be battling it out in the finals.
We also jumped into this competition and pledged to work to the best of our abilities. We need work on it for some time but a far-off deadline decreased our effort rates. But sense of urgency creeped in when the submission deadline came knocking our door. We started working on it and started exploring opportunities in possible industries. We listed down the industries or areas in which the company could explore. After boiling down to around 8 industries or lines of business, we had to narrow down to 1 or maximum 2. This involved reading analyst reports for the particular, future growth potential, competitors and most importantly penetration levels. After rounds and rounds of discussion amongst ourselves, it finally decided to foray into toothpaste/toothbrush and also in biscuits market.
After making a satisfactory ppt with all numbers, growth projections, SWOT analysis etc, we waited for the campus round to begin. We were lucky to be the very first ones to present in front of the company officials. We were cross-questioned to quite some depth. Some questions we were able to answer but some of them really left us thinking and little loss for words. In the end, we were not really happy with our overall performance.
After a few days, the cultural secretary of our campus, who was coordinating this event, calls me up and asks for my room number. He promises to be there in 10 minutes and informs about the news we least expected - we had WON the campus round :) :)
After the news sank in, we got the mail from the company official too informing us about our victory and what was expected out of us in the next round. The final round will be in Calcutta only but in the front of company's Board of Directors!
The finals are on Wednesday, 28th January...wish me luck!
On similar lines, Eveready Industries India Limited (EIIL) launched a competition in the campus. This competition is launched in 4 campuses across the country - IIM B, IIM L, XLRI and IIM Calcutta. The competition is launched to identify a new business opportunity for EIIL. They are already a leaders in batteries, have recently moved into tea and mosquito repellent distribution in the country, launched their own set of torches and lighting etc amongst other products. They basically wanted to explore a line of business in which they could capitalise on their distribution network, association with colour 'Red' and should be able to generate an expected revenue of few crores in the coming years. The event was open only for first yearites and that too in a team of 4 members. Also, the format of the competition involved two rounds - one campus and one final. Teams would be competing within the campus and only ONE team per campus would be battling it out in the finals.
We also jumped into this competition and pledged to work to the best of our abilities. We need work on it for some time but a far-off deadline decreased our effort rates. But sense of urgency creeped in when the submission deadline came knocking our door. We started working on it and started exploring opportunities in possible industries. We listed down the industries or areas in which the company could explore. After boiling down to around 8 industries or lines of business, we had to narrow down to 1 or maximum 2. This involved reading analyst reports for the particular, future growth potential, competitors and most importantly penetration levels. After rounds and rounds of discussion amongst ourselves, it finally decided to foray into toothpaste/toothbrush and also in biscuits market.
After making a satisfactory ppt with all numbers, growth projections, SWOT analysis etc, we waited for the campus round to begin. We were lucky to be the very first ones to present in front of the company officials. We were cross-questioned to quite some depth. Some questions we were able to answer but some of them really left us thinking and little loss for words. In the end, we were not really happy with our overall performance.
After a few days, the cultural secretary of our campus, who was coordinating this event, calls me up and asks for my room number. He promises to be there in 10 minutes and informs about the news we least expected - we had WON the campus round :) :)
After the news sank in, we got the mail from the company official too informing us about our victory and what was expected out of us in the next round. The final round will be in Calcutta only but in the front of company's Board of Directors!
The finals are on Wednesday, 28th January...wish me luck!
Monday, January 19, 2009
ICON Concluding part
Upon reaching the campus in the morning, he came to know that the time for the next elimination has come. Only 4 out of 8 would move ahead.
The people who were moving ahead were called out and I was NOT in them those 4. Hard luck maybe! But the journey till that time was really awesome.
I decided to stick around for some more time and watched the next round. Here, again they played in a team of 2 and had a role play task. One had to be a lawyer and had to pitch for this teammate to become the ICON. After the first round of pitching, lawyer from first team teamed up with client of the other team and vice-versa. Now, the roles reversed and person who played lawyer last time became client this time and client became the lawyer.
The last and final round involved an interview in front of an audience which is I am very sure not an easy task!
The winner was the person from IIM Lucknow - Mr. Shantanu :) :)
Also, I got the time and opportunity to spend more quality time with my friends in FMS and the trip was worth the effort!
Brilliant game, team ICON :) :)
The people who were moving ahead were called out and I was NOT in them those 4. Hard luck maybe! But the journey till that time was really awesome.
I decided to stick around for some more time and watched the next round. Here, again they played in a team of 2 and had a role play task. One had to be a lawyer and had to pitch for this teammate to become the ICON. After the first round of pitching, lawyer from first team teamed up with client of the other team and vice-versa. Now, the roles reversed and person who played lawyer last time became client this time and client became the lawyer.
The last and final round involved an interview in front of an audience which is I am very sure not an easy task!
The winner was the person from IIM Lucknow - Mr. Shantanu :) :)
Also, I got the time and opportunity to spend more quality time with my friends in FMS and the trip was worth the effort!
Brilliant game, team ICON :) :)
Class statements II
After some brilliant statements made by the faculty listed here, there were some more instances in the following months.
So, here are 3 more brilliant statements from our faculty.
3. Cost Accounting faculty, when asked about the question paper for the exams, got a little irritated and told us that it will be application based etc etc. To put the point across in a better way, she remarked "Class is for absorption, hostel is for reflection and exams are implementation!"
2. We have Human Resources course in this term and has two part - one is about theory which was covered through case studies and other half was personnel economics which involved a lot of mathematics. And the faculty was different for both the parts. The exam is scheduled on 23rd January and HR is popularly labeled as a "Globe" or a "GAS" paper, which essentially refers to writing anything and one would get some marks. The faculty for the latter part warned us that he would restrict the space for writing answers and warned everyone "Who are in verbosity, save your pearls for the next course" ;)
1. We had a course in business ethics this term and the faculty was explaining some concept from war in the Mahabharata. He told us that when Arjun was not comfortable to fight in the war upon seeing his own family members on the other side, Lord krishna took the chariot and parked in the MIDDLE of Bhism Pitamah and Drondacharya's chariot, facing them. "This", he exclaimed,"is the first known case of WRONG PARKING!" We could not help but laughed our hearts out :)
So, here are 3 more brilliant statements from our faculty.
3. Cost Accounting faculty, when asked about the question paper for the exams, got a little irritated and told us that it will be application based etc etc. To put the point across in a better way, she remarked "Class is for absorption, hostel is for reflection and exams are implementation!"
2. We have Human Resources course in this term and has two part - one is about theory which was covered through case studies and other half was personnel economics which involved a lot of mathematics. And the faculty was different for both the parts. The exam is scheduled on 23rd January and HR is popularly labeled as a "Globe" or a "GAS" paper, which essentially refers to writing anything and one would get some marks. The faculty for the latter part warned us that he would restrict the space for writing answers and warned everyone "Who are in verbosity, save your pearls for the next course" ;)
1. We had a course in business ethics this term and the faculty was explaining some concept from war in the Mahabharata. He told us that when Arjun was not comfortable to fight in the war upon seeing his own family members on the other side, Lord krishna took the chariot and parked in the MIDDLE of Bhism Pitamah and Drondacharya's chariot, facing them. "This", he exclaimed,"is the first known case of WRONG PARKING!" We could not help but laughed our hearts out :)
Saturday, January 17, 2009
ICON Part V
After testing us on finance, sales and marketing and communication, debating and general awareness levels; only one other vertical was left to be tested, i.e. operations. So, we all were quite confident that this was up next and we were not wrong.
This is how the game looked like. We were again spilt into teams of two and this time my partner was the other person from XLRI. The whole DU campus was the playground for us. We had some tasks to be completed and we would awarded points for them. We had 3 modes of transport - car, cycle and of course walking or jogging. There were costs associated to undertake any mode of transport. The car was most expensive followed by cycle and walking was of course, free :) The successful completion of a task gave us some points for the same.
Now, here come some constraints. We could not use same mode of transport for 2 consecutive tasks, some tasks required a particular mode of transport only, some tasks had to be done before a stipulated time and some after a stipulated time. Also, a buddy was assigned to each team who will be us all the time. Moreover, there were these news flashes which added more uncertainties in the game. And to complicate things further, number of cycles and car were restricted which meant the planning can go haywire if the next mode of transport which we need is not available and time will be spent in waiting only!
Both of us first of all identified tasks which were possible to do in the given time frame. The game started around 10 30 in the night and was to continue till 7 in the morning. Both of us were game to be awake till the morning, come what may! We set out to finish tasks one after other in the planned fashion. Even some news flashes were helpful also. Like, the moment we finished a task involving a car and planned to walk for the next one, the news flash came which resticted any vehicle movement for the next 30 minutes but walking was allowed :) Another time, wherein we had to buhy something and deliver it at another place, we got this news flash that anything we bought would be at half price :) :)
We kept on working when around 1 am we got this flash that a "curfew" is imposed from 1 30 till 5 and hence nothing can take place. Basically, this was to allow us all to catch up some sleep. We returned to our rooms at around 2 30 and were ready to go again at 5 in the morning. We completed some more tasks in the Delhi winter and I was enjoying jogging in the fog. The game was supposed to be over at 7am and we were our way back after completing our last task possible. We got this news flash which allowed us a bonus task which required us to cycle from a location to VKRV Rao hostel (where I had stayed in FMS days). That was the end of a wonderful round for all of us.
We went to Gwyer Hall (adjacent hostel of VKRV) for a cup of tea but everyone was quite hungry and tired and it was decided to eat the breakfast there only. It was a feeling a nostalgia for me as I remembered the umpteen hours I had spend in that canteen when I was there for one year.
We were required to report back at 10 30 in FMS campus again fully dressed (formally) and this gave us an hour or so for some sleeping. I had to pack too as I had an evening flight to catch.
Upon reaching the room, tiredness took over me and I slept :P Working on the JIT (Just-In-Time) syndrome, all of us got up, packed and left for the campus where an important announcement awaited us..
Coming up next, concluding part of ICON series
This is how the game looked like. We were again spilt into teams of two and this time my partner was the other person from XLRI. The whole DU campus was the playground for us. We had some tasks to be completed and we would awarded points for them. We had 3 modes of transport - car, cycle and of course walking or jogging. There were costs associated to undertake any mode of transport. The car was most expensive followed by cycle and walking was of course, free :) The successful completion of a task gave us some points for the same.
Now, here come some constraints. We could not use same mode of transport for 2 consecutive tasks, some tasks required a particular mode of transport only, some tasks had to be done before a stipulated time and some after a stipulated time. Also, a buddy was assigned to each team who will be us all the time. Moreover, there were these news flashes which added more uncertainties in the game. And to complicate things further, number of cycles and car were restricted which meant the planning can go haywire if the next mode of transport which we need is not available and time will be spent in waiting only!
Both of us first of all identified tasks which were possible to do in the given time frame. The game started around 10 30 in the night and was to continue till 7 in the morning. Both of us were game to be awake till the morning, come what may! We set out to finish tasks one after other in the planned fashion. Even some news flashes were helpful also. Like, the moment we finished a task involving a car and planned to walk for the next one, the news flash came which resticted any vehicle movement for the next 30 minutes but walking was allowed :) Another time, wherein we had to buhy something and deliver it at another place, we got this news flash that anything we bought would be at half price :) :)
We kept on working when around 1 am we got this flash that a "curfew" is imposed from 1 30 till 5 and hence nothing can take place. Basically, this was to allow us all to catch up some sleep. We returned to our rooms at around 2 30 and were ready to go again at 5 in the morning. We completed some more tasks in the Delhi winter and I was enjoying jogging in the fog. The game was supposed to be over at 7am and we were our way back after completing our last task possible. We got this news flash which allowed us a bonus task which required us to cycle from a location to VKRV Rao hostel (where I had stayed in FMS days). That was the end of a wonderful round for all of us.
We went to Gwyer Hall (adjacent hostel of VKRV) for a cup of tea but everyone was quite hungry and tired and it was decided to eat the breakfast there only. It was a feeling a nostalgia for me as I remembered the umpteen hours I had spend in that canteen when I was there for one year.
We were required to report back at 10 30 in FMS campus again fully dressed (formally) and this gave us an hour or so for some sleeping. I had to pack too as I had an evening flight to catch.
Upon reaching the room, tiredness took over me and I slept :P Working on the JIT (Just-In-Time) syndrome, all of us got up, packed and left for the campus where an important announcement awaited us..
Coming up next, concluding part of ICON series
Friday, January 16, 2009
ICON Part IV
After the lunch break, we again assembled for the next round. Here, came a little schoker for us. As the event was totally under the wraps, we had no clue what was coming our way next. It was eliminate 2 people now as the per original plan. But since only person from IIM A already left due to personal reasons, the organisers decided of elimination just one more as they wanted to keep an even number of people in the game. The dreaded time came and the participant from IIM L was eliminated.
Now, the details of the next round were disclosed. This was in partnership with Cafe Coffee Day (CCD). We were made into teams of 2 (total 4 teams) and were assigned a CCD outlet each in Connaught Place, which has around 7 CCDs :D Our task was to maximise sales for CCD when we were there for 2 hours. And the sales were not through coffee or ffod, but through the merchandise CCD sells in each of its outlet. It includes, cookies, mints, discount cards and many other things.
Apart from this, each team had to come up with a business plan in order to boost CCD sales. The evaluation was on the basis of sales and the B Plan submitted to the CCD management.
I was teamed with a person from FMS and both of us started making the plan while traveling towards the assigned CCD outlet. We were assigned the Shivaji Stadium CCD outlet. Oh yes, forgot to mention! We were required to wear the CCD cap and Apron alongwith the ICON sweatshirts. This dress really gave us the feel of the task at hand.
Once we got there, I got down to making the B Plan and the other person started the selling part. He was quite successful in selling stuff in first 30 minutes but dearth of new customers really did us in. For some time, we together worked on the B plan and finished it once for all.
For the next one hour, we had more customers in the outlet and they did listen to the offers very patiently (apparently IIM C and FMS were enough to make an impression ;) ) But somehow, no one was interested in buying the stuff. After long persuasion, we were able to sell one more merchandise only after the initial success.
The results were not officilly out for this round but I am sure, we must have lost it. But we did not lose the lesson - SELLING IS TOUGH !!!
Continuing with the excellent hospitality, we were taken to Rajdhani restaurant in CO only, which is famous for the Gujrati thali menu. And my friend from IIM A was not really happy to go there :P :P but other were! It was an excellent meal and we were told to stuff in as much as apparently a "tough" round was due next.
About the next round, it will be in my next post...
Now, the details of the next round were disclosed. This was in partnership with Cafe Coffee Day (CCD). We were made into teams of 2 (total 4 teams) and were assigned a CCD outlet each in Connaught Place, which has around 7 CCDs :D Our task was to maximise sales for CCD when we were there for 2 hours. And the sales were not through coffee or ffod, but through the merchandise CCD sells in each of its outlet. It includes, cookies, mints, discount cards and many other things.
Apart from this, each team had to come up with a business plan in order to boost CCD sales. The evaluation was on the basis of sales and the B Plan submitted to the CCD management.
I was teamed with a person from FMS and both of us started making the plan while traveling towards the assigned CCD outlet. We were assigned the Shivaji Stadium CCD outlet. Oh yes, forgot to mention! We were required to wear the CCD cap and Apron alongwith the ICON sweatshirts. This dress really gave us the feel of the task at hand.
Once we got there, I got down to making the B Plan and the other person started the selling part. He was quite successful in selling stuff in first 30 minutes but dearth of new customers really did us in. For some time, we together worked on the B plan and finished it once for all.
For the next one hour, we had more customers in the outlet and they did listen to the offers very patiently (apparently IIM C and FMS were enough to make an impression ;) ) But somehow, no one was interested in buying the stuff. After long persuasion, we were able to sell one more merchandise only after the initial success.
The results were not officilly out for this round but I am sure, we must have lost it. But we did not lose the lesson - SELLING IS TOUGH !!!
Continuing with the excellent hospitality, we were taken to Rajdhani restaurant in CO only, which is famous for the Gujrati thali menu. And my friend from IIM A was not really happy to go there :P :P but other were! It was an excellent meal and we were told to stuff in as much as apparently a "tough" round was due next.
About the next round, it will be in my next post...
Sunday, January 11, 2009
ICON Part III
Since this event wanted to test an individual in all dimensions of management, an absolutely new event was in store for us. Forgot to mention, that finally only 5 B-Schools could make it. ISB and IIM-B were not present due to other commitments back in campus.
This round was the "Private Equity Round". Here, we were made into 5 team of 2 people each, randomly made by the organisers. I teamed up with a person from XLRI. The task was follows - we had a virtual sum of USD 2 Billion. And we were given a list of 15 real companies, mostly from emerging economies of Brazil, Russia, India and China. Each team had to analyse each and every company and create a private equity investment pitch in 5 hours (10 pm to 3am). We had an option of investing in none, 1 or any number of companies, even all! 3 am deadline was o do analysis and make a proper presentation which the team would be presenting in front of external judges the following morning. Only resource available was the omnipresent internet but no chats allowed et al.
In our team, we split the task of analysing the companies. My partner took 8 companies and I took 7 companies for analysis. We set aside 2 hours for self due-diligence of all the companies assigned to this. This involved going through balance sheet, profit and loss accounts, industry in general, policies in that country etc. If the company was not listed, then I worked on the limited data available. Some of the companies had not even started commercial operations like Virgin Galactic. It was really difficult to analyse such companies with no data whatsoever and on top of that limited finance knowledge.
After 2 hours were over, we exchanged our views on which companies to invest in. We segregated companies according to risk and return they offered. After discussion for hour and a half, we finally ended up deciding to invest in 4 companies. Also, we took care that our portfolio was quite diversified in terms of risk and return - one company was high on both parameters, another was medium risk high return, third one medium on both and the last one giving medium returns with low risks. "Low","medium" and "high" were quantitative percentages attached to each category based on analysis and self-set cut-offs.
With only around 75 minutes left, we had a full ppt to make. Starting from our approach, to industry analysis of each company selected, to analysis of each company; everything had to be covered and that too for a 15 minute ppt. Its really not to easy to compress 4 hours effort in a 15 minute ppt. Well, we thought that we did a pretty decent and neat job.
After hectic day, I hit the bed at around 5 am and had to get up by 8 to be ready in time for the next day activities. Upon reaching the venue, we came that one of the guys has backed out from the ICON event owing to bad health. But his team mate was still there and was ready to give presentation alone. The show must go on as they say!
The judges came and each team had their efforts ready in form of ppts. 15 minute ppt was followed by 10 minute Q&A session by the judges and other teams if time permitted. In our ppt, my team mate started first and ate up 9 minutes instead of planned 6 minutes and there was heavy penalty for overshooting the time limit. When I took over, I went in with full throttle, trying to rush through some of the parts of the slides and made sure that our analysis part got the requisite airtime. We handled Q&A in the best possible manner and both of us came out really satisfied.
After all the ppts were done, it was result time and our team WON this event! Not a bad start to the morning :) :)
Here, we were given ICON sweatshirts which were compulsory for the next round. We were given food coupons for lunch in the stalls inside the FMS campus. It was great to eat Delhi delicacies after such a long time.
In the end, I thought corporate finance is not that tough also ;)
This round was the "Private Equity Round". Here, we were made into 5 team of 2 people each, randomly made by the organisers. I teamed up with a person from XLRI. The task was follows - we had a virtual sum of USD 2 Billion. And we were given a list of 15 real companies, mostly from emerging economies of Brazil, Russia, India and China. Each team had to analyse each and every company and create a private equity investment pitch in 5 hours (10 pm to 3am). We had an option of investing in none, 1 or any number of companies, even all! 3 am deadline was o do analysis and make a proper presentation which the team would be presenting in front of external judges the following morning. Only resource available was the omnipresent internet but no chats allowed et al.
In our team, we split the task of analysing the companies. My partner took 8 companies and I took 7 companies for analysis. We set aside 2 hours for self due-diligence of all the companies assigned to this. This involved going through balance sheet, profit and loss accounts, industry in general, policies in that country etc. If the company was not listed, then I worked on the limited data available. Some of the companies had not even started commercial operations like Virgin Galactic. It was really difficult to analyse such companies with no data whatsoever and on top of that limited finance knowledge.
After 2 hours were over, we exchanged our views on which companies to invest in. We segregated companies according to risk and return they offered. After discussion for hour and a half, we finally ended up deciding to invest in 4 companies. Also, we took care that our portfolio was quite diversified in terms of risk and return - one company was high on both parameters, another was medium risk high return, third one medium on both and the last one giving medium returns with low risks. "Low","medium" and "high" were quantitative percentages attached to each category based on analysis and self-set cut-offs.
With only around 75 minutes left, we had a full ppt to make. Starting from our approach, to industry analysis of each company selected, to analysis of each company; everything had to be covered and that too for a 15 minute ppt. Its really not to easy to compress 4 hours effort in a 15 minute ppt. Well, we thought that we did a pretty decent and neat job.
After hectic day, I hit the bed at around 5 am and had to get up by 8 to be ready in time for the next day activities. Upon reaching the venue, we came that one of the guys has backed out from the ICON event owing to bad health. But his team mate was still there and was ready to give presentation alone. The show must go on as they say!
The judges came and each team had their efforts ready in form of ppts. 15 minute ppt was followed by 10 minute Q&A session by the judges and other teams if time permitted. In our ppt, my team mate started first and ate up 9 minutes instead of planned 6 minutes and there was heavy penalty for overshooting the time limit. When I took over, I went in with full throttle, trying to rush through some of the parts of the slides and made sure that our analysis part got the requisite airtime. We handled Q&A in the best possible manner and both of us came out really satisfied.
After all the ppts were done, it was result time and our team WON this event! Not a bad start to the morning :) :)
Here, we were given ICON sweatshirts which were compulsory for the next round. We were given food coupons for lunch in the stalls inside the FMS campus. It was great to eat Delhi delicacies after such a long time.
In the end, I thought corporate finance is not that tough also ;)
Saturday, January 10, 2009
ICON Part II
The first round was suppose take in the Seminar Hall of the institute. Sitting in that place as an audience (most of the times) for one year and now in the spotlight; it was a new experience all together.
We were formally welcomed for the event, explained all the rules and regulations etc etc. The first round was named "War of words" and it was designed to test us on our level of knowledge on current affairs, views on Indian economy and more importantly, communication skills.
This round was played as an institute team format. The first task was to pen down our thoughts as a team on 3 priority sectors for the Indian Government. Basically, we had to act as consultants to the Govt in which concrete steps and plan of action had to be given. All this had to be done in 15 minutes in written format. After submission, teams went in one by one to voice their opinions in 2 minutes. This was followed by Q&A session by the esteemed panel of judges.
Second leg of the round was called "Devil's advocate". Herein, a topic was picked up randomly for each team and then one person had to speak FOR it for 2 minutes, other one AGAINST for 2 minutes, then both will debate for 5 minutes and lastly, judges could ask questions. We were the first ones to go and got the topic "Should I-bankers be tried in criminal courts for siphoning off public funds". My team mate wanted to speak FOR it and I wanted to speak AGAINST the motion. The performance went fine till I was asked the last question about how ethically correct it was for a CEO to securitize his future before quitting on the expense of public money. Apparently, the judge was not really happy with my viewpoint and the debate extended for some time. Well, it was a good topic on speak on and I thanked my Macro Economics faculty and all the summer internship preparation for the same.
In the end, the results were announced. FMS won the round as a team and my teammate was adjudged the best speaker!
It was break time for all of us. This gave me time to catch up with more friends although for a short time. The ICON organising team introduced themselves over dinner (which was quite good) and we got ready for the next round...
We were formally welcomed for the event, explained all the rules and regulations etc etc. The first round was named "War of words" and it was designed to test us on our level of knowledge on current affairs, views on Indian economy and more importantly, communication skills.
This round was played as an institute team format. The first task was to pen down our thoughts as a team on 3 priority sectors for the Indian Government. Basically, we had to act as consultants to the Govt in which concrete steps and plan of action had to be given. All this had to be done in 15 minutes in written format. After submission, teams went in one by one to voice their opinions in 2 minutes. This was followed by Q&A session by the esteemed panel of judges.
Second leg of the round was called "Devil's advocate". Herein, a topic was picked up randomly for each team and then one person had to speak FOR it for 2 minutes, other one AGAINST for 2 minutes, then both will debate for 5 minutes and lastly, judges could ask questions. We were the first ones to go and got the topic "Should I-bankers be tried in criminal courts for siphoning off public funds". My team mate wanted to speak FOR it and I wanted to speak AGAINST the motion. The performance went fine till I was asked the last question about how ethically correct it was for a CEO to securitize his future before quitting on the expense of public money. Apparently, the judge was not really happy with my viewpoint and the debate extended for some time. Well, it was a good topic on speak on and I thanked my Macro Economics faculty and all the summer internship preparation for the same.
In the end, the results were announced. FMS won the round as a team and my teammate was adjudged the best speaker!
It was break time for all of us. This gave me time to catch up with more friends although for a short time. The ICON organising team introduced themselves over dinner (which was quite good) and we got ready for the next round...
Sunday, January 4, 2009
ICON Part I
In the times of business fests, there are just so many competitions floating that it is impossible to keep track of all the events. But one event which I caught my eye was the ICON - the flagship event of Fiesta, FMS Delhi's annual management fest. It entailed several rounds of different events to test a person on all the different dimensions possible and hence choose just one winner, who would take it all.
Only 7 B-Schools of the country were sent an invite - IIMs A B C L, FMS, XLRI and ISB. Each institute had to conduct its own selection procedure to send its 2 representatives. In IIM Calcutta, a faculty was appointed to undertake the same and all the interested students were required to send in their CVs and an EOI (Expression of Interest) followed by an interaction with the faculty. In the end, another PGP I (1st year student) and yours truly ;) were selected to represent IIM Calcutta.
FMS now required us to send in a CV, a SOP (Statement of Purpose) and 2 references from past professional/academic life. I was thrilled by the thought of going to Delhi and especially FMS. It was homecoming for me - meeting all my old classmates.
Well, the event instructions came to us requiring us to carry formal clothes and informal clothes and sport shoes. Also, it was told that some amount of physical strain would also be involved. Nevertheless, we took the challenge and headed for Delhi.
But alas! Weather God had other plans for us. Bad fog delayed our Rajdhani by over 3 hours. It was frustrating to move like a bullock cart sitting inside Rajdhani but had no choice. Finally, we made to the New Delhi station and thankfully Delhi Metro came to your rescue. Connectivity between New Delhi Station and Delhi University has become just awesome because of the Metro. Working on JIT (Just-in-Time) syndrome, we finally reached FMS campus at dot 1400 hrs.
It was a feeling of nostalgia for me and finally met my old classmates after a gap of around 9 months. But the meeting was shortlived as all the ICON participants had a secluded accomodation :D and we were required to report back in 2 hours. All the pick up and drop were arranged for us.
We reached our home for the next 3 days and I must say FMS guys did a fantabolus job in hospitality :) :) We got ready for the first round of the event...
Continued in the next post!
Only 7 B-Schools of the country were sent an invite - IIMs A B C L, FMS, XLRI and ISB. Each institute had to conduct its own selection procedure to send its 2 representatives. In IIM Calcutta, a faculty was appointed to undertake the same and all the interested students were required to send in their CVs and an EOI (Expression of Interest) followed by an interaction with the faculty. In the end, another PGP I (1st year student) and yours truly ;) were selected to represent IIM Calcutta.
FMS now required us to send in a CV, a SOP (Statement of Purpose) and 2 references from past professional/academic life. I was thrilled by the thought of going to Delhi and especially FMS. It was homecoming for me - meeting all my old classmates.
Well, the event instructions came to us requiring us to carry formal clothes and informal clothes and sport shoes. Also, it was told that some amount of physical strain would also be involved. Nevertheless, we took the challenge and headed for Delhi.
But alas! Weather God had other plans for us. Bad fog delayed our Rajdhani by over 3 hours. It was frustrating to move like a bullock cart sitting inside Rajdhani but had no choice. Finally, we made to the New Delhi station and thankfully Delhi Metro came to your rescue. Connectivity between New Delhi Station and Delhi University has become just awesome because of the Metro. Working on JIT (Just-in-Time) syndrome, we finally reached FMS campus at dot 1400 hrs.
It was a feeling of nostalgia for me and finally met my old classmates after a gap of around 9 months. But the meeting was shortlived as all the ICON participants had a secluded accomodation :D and we were required to report back in 2 hours. All the pick up and drop were arranged for us.
We reached our home for the next 3 days and I must say FMS guys did a fantabolus job in hospitality :) :) We got ready for the first round of the event...
Continued in the next post!
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