How To Win Amazon ACE Challenge 2022 - By Team Pulsars (ISB)

Amazon Customer Excellence (ACE) Challenge 2022 came back for its 12th edition in July 2022, with the competition coming to a culmination in the first week of September. The B-School case study competition gave 1st and 2nd-year MBA students from select universities an opportunity to strategize, innovate and build impactful solutions for the multinational technology giant- Amazon. The competition, conducted on a huge scale was a roaring success with 22,465 registrations and 11,61,371 impressions. In the end, Team Pulsars from the Indian School of Business walked away with the winning title and exciting prizes. Here’s taking a peek into the competition journey through the winners’ point of view. 

Amazon ACE Challenge is one of the most exciting competitions around and we were eager to be a part of it. As soon as the announcements for registrations were made, we formed a team of four members, as stipulated by the guidelines. Our team comprised- Atley George, Ashutosh Prakarsh Pandey, Latika Sarna, and Radhika Chokani; and we decided to call ourselves Team Pulsars.

The competition was filled with many amazing memorable moments.  And one of these special moments happened during the hour-long journey we took to Hyderabad airport to fly to Bangalore for the competition. It was early in the morning, the sun was just rising and the four of us shared this mutual sense of profound joy. It was almost like winning was immaterial and at that point, we felt like we had given our best to this competition thus far. And we decided that we were going to take the competition as a fun learning experience thereon out. The competition was definitely everything we hoped for, and more as we got the podium finish. In this article, we’d like to share a few insights we were able to capture through this journey.

The Competition Structure

The competition was open for first and second-year students from 53 B-Schools across the nation. Fortunately, we are a part of one of these premier institutions- the Indian School of Business (ISB) and were hence eligible for the competition. The ACE Challenge 2022 was split into 5 rounds as follows:

1. The Preliminary Round
2. Campus Round: Case Submission
3. Campus Round: Presentations
4. Grand Finale: Case Submissions
5. Grand Finale

We were one of the 16 teams in the finale and had the amazing opportunity of presenting our idea in front of the level 10 business leaders across Amazon. The structure, organization, management, and judgment for Amazon ACE 2022 were all excellent. It was evident that Amazon had made significant investments in making this event a huge success.

Understanding the Problem Statement

Our strategy was very linear in nature. We started by breaking down and fully absorbing the problem statement. Something we noticed from the other case competitions we were a part of, is that in focusing on the solution we would at times lose sight of what the problem was in the first place. We kept this in mind and proceeded accordingly.

We started by first dissecting the problem statement and went on to conduct in-depth primary research to understand the market. A thorough understanding of the problem statement and the current context helped us formulate relevant solutions that resonated with the judges. We were also proactive in leveraging the knowledge and experience of our network and peers. We spoke to some industry experts to start zeroing in on a solution. These were the primary approaches that led us to victory.  

Overcoming Challenges

One of the biggest challenges we faced was the time crunch. Getting high-quality output within the given time was tough, but the challenge made things all the more interesting. Additionally, the amazon document writing format is quite unique, and getting used to that was tough as well. But we did not give up and consistently tried to give our best during the competition. In the end, it paid off when one of the judges asked us "who among you is from amazon" - since they loved the document formatting. So it is safe to say, that we believe consistency is key to making the most of such competitions.

Diversity and Teamwork are Essential

With a 50-50 gender ratio, our team consisted of people from a variety of backgrounds. Amongst the four of us, we had an e-commerce expert, a hard-headed analyst, a dev-ops architect, and even a brand strategist. And it was this team diversity that helped ensure that we looked at the problem statement from a variety of different angles.

Another thing that we found is extremely important is- teamwork and camaraderie. Our team was on the same page from day 1 in terms of what we wanted from the outcome. Conflicts were welcome and even advocated as they always helped us to play the devil's advocate and make the solution more robust. In the end, we were a bunch of hardworking individuals who did not mind bouncing ideas off each other and taking criticism constructively. We were open to each other's viewpoints and deliberated the problem statement from each of our own lenses.

Learning from the Competition

In addition to bagging the National Winner title and getting exciting prizes, we also walked away with a lot of rewarding lessons from this unique experience. The Amazon ACE Challenge 2022 journey taught us a lot about the importance of clarity and concision in one's ideas and solutions. And also how to back ideas with a robust data-driven approach. 

Our journey made it evident to us that thorough research for preparation and confidence while delivering your solution are what makes or breaks it for you. It was great being a part of this competition; it will definitely be something that we look back on and cherish for a long time to come. 

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