How to win Piramal Tangram 2019? -By Team Winds Of Change from IMT Ghaziabad
The competition had 4 rounds and each round had different requirements that gave us a different kind of exposure and experience. Each round gave us enough time to conduct our primary and secondary research and for preparing our submission. The structured guidelines provided at each round through the Tangram interface helped us to dive deep into the concept of Design Thinking and its application.
Ethics and coordination formed the basis of our team strategy
From the beginning of Piramal Tangram 2019, our strategy was very simple. We decided to keep changing our strategies at every subsequent round pertaining to the requirements of that round. A fixed hardbound strategy for every round might not have worked for us. Some of the basic strategies were:
- We worked on our individual roles depending upon our skills but everyone worked in close coordination with each other and nothing was taken in silos.
- We decided to shun all our previous notions about rural India and immerse ourselves in understanding the lives of rural women by conducting an in-depth Primary Research. We visited the Bagar village in Jhunjhunu district in Rajasthan twice and spent 6 days in the village at Piramal's VFS Centre where 70 rural women are digitally trained and worked virtually in ways we could never have dreamed of if we had not visited there.
- After formulating the solutions, we built prototypes and did a 2-day Pilot project with them simulating the real work environment to see if they can actually work if given that employment work. All of this was done to put ourselves exactly in their shoes so that our final solutions are not just a piece of paper and are actually meeting the purpose of women empowerment by working out in realms of their lives.
- We were always high on ethics and did not compromise on it in any situation. For us getting rejected was an acceptable situation but would not have presented the fake data.
- Since conflicts are an essential part of any group, we resolve them in a controlled and healthy way.
Clash of the classes
Our challenge was about developing 3-digital entrepreneurial solutions for providing employment to 10,000 rural women across 13 rural districts of our country where Piramal Foundation has already done some phenomenal work for their skill development in their village districts through Piramal VFS (Virtual Field Support) centers.
We worked day in and day out till the very last day when we were on stage to give our Final presentation to the esteemed judges and jury. We don’t even have a count of the sleepless nights for the duration of those two months. Talking about the challenges that we faced during the whole journey were:
- The biggest one was the comprehension of the Case. The case talked about how Piramal Foundation is excellently working towards the social and economic upliftment of the rural women by providing them basic computer knowledge and a job opportunity to work upon through their VFS center. Coming from an urban background none of our team members have witnessed what exactly it is to live in a rural area, and how these women are working in the VFS centers.
- Another challenge was the clash of our classes, submission, projects, quizzes and the end term examinations. At times it became extremely difficult for us to carry out our research and hence the journey.
- Although the conflicts between the team members were healthy, sometimes it was a challenge for us to handle every member of the team in a righteous way as it was pertinent for us to tread our path to victory.
Finale was a dream come true
A total of 15 teams from all 3 tracks made it to the Finale. Although all teams gave a great presentation the team from XIMB and TAPMI seemed to be our toughest competitors. Apart from that, the facilitation and support by Piramal Tangram 2019 organizers throughout the competition at all times of the day (even at 1 a.m. in night) enabled us to deliver for the good cause. Visit to the rural interiors of the country and all the countless telephonic interviews from Jhunjhunu, Rajasthan to Katihar, Bihar to Dhubri, Assam for understanding the ground realities could never have been possible without their support.
We also admired the quality of judgment and the panel of judges and jury of Piramal Tangram 2019. Starting from 1800+ teams, the judges did a great job at each round thus promoting the best teams forward. Having an esteemed panel of judges for the Finale and presenting in front of the top leadership of Piramal was a dream come true for all of us.
A journey close to our hearts
Due to this competition, we gained certain insights and learning that are valuable for our personal as well as career growth. This competition, after our first visit to Jhunjhunu for Primary research became a journey close to our hearts and hence the will to work upon it intensified day by day. The key learnings that we can shout out loud are:
- Basic human survival with meager resources at disposal. We have learned that money and the related sophistication can be one of the parameters of living a happy life but being with people who support us through every situation is very necessary.
- One has to get out of the comfort zones and get closer to the target audience if you really want to serve their needs.
- We can always do mutual value generation and make it a win-win situation. In Piramal Tangram, our service-based solutions generated value for different sectors including corporate and education as well as served the cause of rural women at hand as well.
- Design Thinking - a one-stop solution to every problem. Another big learning that we gained is that getting results by directly jumping to the solution of the problem can be a sheer fluke. Every problem in this world can be solved effectively if we first understand who the stakeholders of the problem are and how it is affecting them. Devising the solutions after deep-diving into the problem will surely give us some better results.
Memorable moments
One such moment for us was during our first visit to Jhunjhunu, Rajasthan for the Primary research. Starting early in the morning we were still in doubt that we were really going to do this. But after a long tiring journey of 7-8 hours when we reached Piramal School of Leadership we saw something unbelievable! It was highly coincidental and overwhelming that our team name - Winds of Change was written in one of the posters at the main entry gate of PSL. That was a completely awestruck moment for us. We felt a connection with Piramal Tangram 2019. It was a sign that we should win and we did!
Another moment was when we made plans to first evaluate the digital skills of women by giving them some simple and then medium level computer exercises as a task and then plan our entrepreneurial solutions for them as per their performance. But when we interacted with them and saw them working on their computer workstations, we were like 'Wow!', it was this moment when we decided to erase all our preconceived rural notions and start fresh. They were working as a thorough IT professional and knew all the advanced nuances of working digitally and virtually.
Reading between the lines
Our team was a perfect mix of members mastering different skills. All of us worked hard in a close-knit group. Coming from different backgrounds we always had a range of ideas to ponder upon. Above everything, the sense of empathy in all the members was the factor that played a vital role in our success throughout the competition. The team's forte was to read between the lines and carry out insights from extensive Primary research. Every team member excelled at something.
- Paramjeet - He was the Think-tank of our team. With a wide array of knowledge and his stupendous ideas we cleared each and every round and won the challenge.
- Chirag - The Financial expert of our team. His in-depth knowledge of Finance and its concepts helped us at various stages during the competition.
- Abhiskek - The Analyst of our team. With his analysis, we prepared some very diligent reports and presentations.
- Siddharth - The Technology enabler of our team. He helped us to conduct certain interviews and other back-end work.
- Sourabh - The Designer and the Interview expert of the team. He used his best knowledge and designing skills to bring out an informative and eye-catchy business presentation in every round that helped us to succeed and ultimately win.
It was a very pleasant experience given the fact that we all were objective in our approach and derived a sense of belongingness due to our shared beliefs of working for the bigger good and not just the competition. Our objectivity while evaluating diverse approaches towards the different problems and the mutual respect we shared for each other helped us in overcoming all the conflicts. Overall, it was a golden opportunity for us to learn from each other and to broaden our skill sets.