It's begun! Case Competitions.
It's begun! Case Competitions.
So, after reading all the posts you guys must be taking MBA to be synonymous to fun, frolic, and excitement. If you do, you are absolutely right! The MBA program is turning out to be a really exciting time to learn, experience, and implement. 'Learning' through a mix of people - professors, classmates, and project partners, 'experience' by actually interacting with CEO's, CMO's, Directors of top notch Fortune 500 companies, and 'implement' in real business problems through various opportunities such as case competitions.
Just a couple of weeks back we participated in the P&G Case Competition where we implemented our classroom learnings and professional experiences to help P&G address one of their key business issues. With Managers coming in and interacting on a personal level to explain about their problems and at the same time listen to what concerns we had was an experience in itself. Let me tell you three things which made the experience appear like an actual business premise.
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1. Time Frame: Having a serious case competition pertaining to a real business challenge for a client as huge as P&G barely one month into the program was a huge advantage to us. We didn't have as much to worry about as the second year students. Moreover, the case was required to be submitted and presented in just over 24 hours. We could participate without actually missing any of our classes or other commitments.
2. Battleground: The battleground was neither the library nor the internet. And guess what, it wasn't P&G's financial statements either. It was a 10 feet by 12 feet room with a board and 4 minds in it. The time for coming up with a feasible solution was 4 hours. This actually fostered creative business thinking and working our minds rather than crunching numbers or 'googling'. Advantages - learning in an innovative setting rather than sinking under a huge pile of data.
3. The Reward: What better way to celebrate the completion of the case competition than by hanging around with the trio - Professor Gray, Professor Campbell, and Professor Matta - over beer at The Varsity Club.
With the P&G factor and the M factor (Professor Matta) working in tandem, the entire experience was a great learning experience as well as a lot of fun. It was not only me, who found out the competitiveness of my peers, but also the P&G team who acknowledged that our batch turned out to be the most competitive and creative batch in the history of this competition.
Next milestones - Michigan State University Supply Chain Case Competition, National MBA Human Capital Case Competition, and Internal Case Competition.