Story Of Flipkart WiRED 6.0 Runner-up From IIM Kashipur (Business Track)

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Béla Károlyi, the Hungarian Romanian-American gymnastics coach rightly said- "No competition means no progress!"

In a bid to give B-School students the right platform to compete, progress, and grow, e-commerce giant Flipkart came back for the 6th season of its PAN India case study competition Flipkart WiRED 6.0. The competition was grander than ever before. It received 35,806 registrations and 51,35,265 impressions, with PPI opportunities, and a pool prize of INR 10 lakh up for grabs. The aim of the challenge was to invite students to come face-to-face with the problems in the e-commerce ecosystem and provide viable solutions for the same. And we, i.e. Deeksha Gaur, Faraz Kotwal, and Hitesh Godiyal, students of IIM Kashipur were super excited to be a part of this year’s challenge. 

There were four tracks in Flipkart WiRED 6.0, namely, Business, Product, Supply Chain, and Human Resources tracks. We chose the Business track, and called ourselves Team NewGen Leaders. We are ecstatic to have won the runner-up title on such a huge national platform. In this article, we would like to give you a peek into our competition story and also share a few key takeaways from this journey.

Flipkart WiRED 6.0 Structure

This year the competition was held offline rather than in the online setting which had become the norm for the past few years. It was amazing to be a part of something that was bigger than us and aimed to tackle the problems facing the e-commerce industry. The quality of the competition was great with the entire organizing team focusing all their energy on ensuring that everything was perfect. The flow of the competition was as follows:

Round 1 (Qualifier): Online Quiz
Round 2: Case Study Challenge
Round 3: Semi Finale
Round 4: Down to the WiRED (Grand Finale)

The rounds were well thought out and everything went on without a hitch. A total of 16 teams made it to the finals, with 4 teams for each of the four tracks. The teams had diverse backgrounds, with students from some of the most prestigious management colleges in the country competing against each other. We were part of the business domain with three other really good teams, all of whom were tough competitors and everyone had put in a lot of work to qualify for the finals. The atmosphere of the competition was such that it pushed us to give our best and stay focused on our strengths rather than get bogged down by what others were doing. We made the most of this opportunity and had loads of fun along the way.

Our Strategy

We started out with a simple thought in mind, “If you can’t explain it to a 6-year-old, you don’t understand it yourself.” In other words, our strategy was to keep our ideas relevant to the business problem and to present them in a simple yet comprehensible manner. Here’s how we went about prepping our solution and final presentation:

• We started brainstorming the day we qualified for the quiz round. We were buzzing with energy and wanted to get everything done right.
• The excitement to do our best led us to list and discuss multiple exciting possibilities and ideas. By the end of our session, we had so many ideas, that selecting one was a challenge. This is where our mantra of ‘keeping it simple’ helped us narrow down our options.  
• It was a long and arduous journey to get down to the final three ideas. But we did it and proceeded to prepare our solution presentation. The key to a good presentation according to us is to keep it crisp and to the point. 

The competition had an open platform, that is, all the final teams were in the audience for each presentation. This gave everyone a chance to observe and learn from their competitors. WiRED 6.0 had a diverse jury panel with three judges from different backgrounds and years of experience in their respective domains. The judgment was convincing and definitely on point. 

Key Learnings From Flipkart WiRED 6.0

The competition was nothing like we had experienced before. We learned a lot about ourselves as well as the e-commerce industry throughout the process. Here are a few lessons that are forever etched into our minds:

• Keep it simple: Simplicity in presenting your ideas is very important because it directly affects how the jury receives your ideas and can hence make or break the final judgment.
• Be confident: You must have heard that confidence is key, so be confident when giving your presentation. Even if there is a hiccup or a mess up during the presentation or at any stage- improvise and carry on.
• Give your best: Give everything you do your best shot and always double-check everything. Try out everything you think is good so you don't end up regretting anything later.
• Have fun: Last but not the least, it is important to have fun and live every moment of the journey to the fullest. We sure did!

In keeping with this line of thought, we'd like to mention that one of the most memorable moments for us was not the win, even though it has a special spot of its own in our hearts. The night before the finale when we were preparing our final presentation takes the cake away for us. It was so much fun to discuss the small rhetoric punches that we were putting in our presentation and we laughed heartily throughout our final session. These moments were special and we realized that even though we had limited time, we were enjoying every bit of it, which made the journey all the more memorable. 

Also read: Challenge Yourself With These B-school Competitions

Importance of Team Diversity

We had a diverse team with each one of us hailing from different regions in India. We also have different pre-MBA work experiences varying in both specializations as well as duration. This diversity in backgrounds gave us a huge advantage and helped us gain a better perspective of the problem and come up with out-of-the-box ideas. 

We anticipated disputes when it came to fine-tuning the details of our solution since our team included three of the most innovative people in the college. But over time, we understood that we had the same goal, i.e. to win the competition. As a result, any disagreements we had only made our solution more holistic and led to a submission that was commensurate with the level of competitiveness and quality anticipated at WiRED 6.0.

Cherishing the Journey

Even though there was a lot of pressure, we all knew how to maintain our cool. We faced all the challenges with a smile on our faces and have come out stronger and smarter from this experience.

Working on Flipkart WiRED 6.0, the case study competition gave us some amazing memories to hold onto. Not only that, but it also helped us realize how crucial it is to have faith in one another's abilities, work methodology, and skills. It was beyond great to be a part of this journey with numerous other brilliant minds in the nation. We will always cherish the memories we made and the lessons we learned here.

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