BLoC Boardroom Challenge 2018 National Winner Jinal’s Story

We were standing there holding our breath, never being over-confident about winning the title yet never underestimating our spirits and hard work. They said it was us who were the winners to BLoC Boardroom Challenge 2018. It took us a moment to sink this in. The sudden feeling of joyous blast overwhelmed all of us. We felt ecstatic that the hours of hard work finally paid off.

Working on problems that would really make a difference to the world has always excited me and when I finally got this big opportunity to work on a comprehensive, real-life business problem in BLoC Boardroom Challenge 2018 competition, I knew I had to take this challenge. More than proving to the world, I wanted to prove to myself that I can do anything that I set my mind to. I believed that this opportunity holds a lot of potential that can change my life for the better.

Reading the case thoroughly was just the initial step. After that, we researched online, reached out to friends who were aware of the industry to gain insight. We ensured that the financials were well thought through and backed by data. When we got into these intricacies, we found out that the problem statement had multiple layers which we couldn’t identify initially. Most challenging aspect was to know when to stick to case facts and focus on the numbers and when to concentrate on market trends and industry analysis. This, I feel, was the factor that differentiated us from other participants and gave judges a strong reason to choose us as the winners.

The team was highly cohesive. Ideas coming from different brains sometimes tend to generate arguments but this wasn’t the case with us. There were no conflicts. It seemed our minds were in sync and we were all on the same page. One strong point of the team was that each member had expertise in a different aspect of the case such as marketing, operations, analytics, and finance. It helped us in covering each aspect of the problem thoroughly instead of having a myopic view.

In the finale, there were 7 competing teams. While all teams had good ideas, I felt our closest competitor was the team from ISB Hyderabad Campus. I think the BLoC Boardroom Challenge 2018 was organized and framed beautifully in a well-structured manner. The judges were proficient and I felt extremely confident from the very beginning that they would choose the best of the lot.

Read more about BLoC Boardroom Challenge 2018 and the organizers Business Line on Campus (BLoC).

Jinal Shah - ISB Hyderabad

(Batch of 2018-20)

Jinal Shah, an MBA student from Indian School of Business (ISB), is very passionate and hard working and has proved that if you think you can do it, no one can stop you from doing it.