Know your idea well to be able to present it well: National Winners of Hero Campus Challenge from XLRI Jamshedpur

From the alleys of Hero MotoCorp Limited, comes a challenge that kindles the spirit of competitiveness amongst students. Hero Campus Challenge Season 5, curated to give students a glimpse into the life at Hero, was designed to give students an opportunity to witness change and work on real-life business problems. Open to the students of both Engineering and MBA, this competition featured two tracks - separate for E-Schools and B-Schools.

A series curated to give the incoming batch of students an idea of what the corporate realm holds for them, Unstop (formerly Dare2Compete)launched an all-new initiative - Winning Mantras, an endeavour to ignite the spirit of competitiveness. Unstop (formerly Dare2Compete)picked the winning teams of top 15 corporate competitions and interacted with them to capture the countless stories that have left an indelible mark on their lives. In this chapter of D2C Winning Mantras, we conversed with the National Winners of Hero Campus Challenge (B-Track) - Devagya Jha, Simran Kathuria and Sayan Sen from XLRI Jamshedpur to learn more about their secret mantra of winning!

Read on to hear from the winning team their success strategy and to know why Hero Campus Challenge is ranked amongst the best corporate competitions!

Structure of the competition

In Devagya’s words, Hero Campus Challenge Season 5 started off with a quiz, post which the participants were required to submit a one-slider presentation of their big idea. The third round was that of a virtual presentation and the final grand finale was held at Delhi. Precisely, the competition was divided into the following rounds -

Online Assessment
Idea Elevator Pitch Submission
Virtual Presentation (Create and submit)
Virtual Presentation (Present virtually in front of an esteemed panel of judges)
Mentorship Period
Grand Finale

The competition revolved around the shared mobility segment within two-wheelers. Team Sylvester’s big idea worked on the lines of cab services, incorporated within the ecosystem of Hero Motor vehicles.

Facing the Jury

The Jury consisted of industry experts as well as a couple of academicians. In other words, the judges tested the participants on grounds of their theoretical and industry knowledge, both. Essentially, the jury tested whether or not the idea presented by different teams was feasible in the real world. Along with this, the jury asked in-depth questions about the teams’ big idea to better understand their perspective.

Talking about the feasibility of the idea, Simran mentioned that the team took immense care about this one factor since the very start. They worked on this aspect even after submitting their idea to ensure that the idea, when presented in front of the jury, is well understood by the panel. This winning team left no stone unturned and also worked on the financial feasibility of their idea, ticking all the crucial boxes.

Formulating the big idea

Once the team worked through the quiz, it was time to think about the big idea in the automobile sector. The first step adopted by this winning team was to do research thoroughly on what other companies, operating in the automobile domain, have been currently working on, in order to understand the core around which they would want to curate their big idea. In addition to this, the team listed the failures of other companies and why their idea couldn’t come about as planned. And this was just the first step!

Over a period of three months of the competition, their idea evolved tremendously from the first round to the very last - the grand finale. In regard to the process, Sayan mentions that the team jotted down the relevant points - ones that should be considered and discussed each of them individually. On the basis of the merits or demerits of the countless ideas discussed, a few shortlisted ones paved their way into the final idea.

For the presentation of the idea, Devagya says “the clearer you will be about your idea, the better your presentation will turn out to be”. He points out that one should not clutter their slides with text. He also adds that strategizing how to place your slides in your presentation is another matter that must be dealt with care. Additionally, the team made sure that the Jury got enough time to view each slide so that they could go through every relevant point that the team wanted to emphasize on, in the presentation.

Another relevant point noted by Simran was the fact that the participants got only a few minutes to explain their big idea to the Jury. “So, I think, a very important part of the presentation would also be how you explain it to the Jury and how they understand it from scratch”, said Simran.

Importance of Corporate Competitions

When talking about Hero Campus Challenge and why it stands out for the winning team, Devagya mentions that it was primarily their collective interest in the Automobile sector that made the competition special for them. Based in a very interesting segment, Simran says that the competition ran in a time frame when recession had hit the country and the Automobile industry wasn’t performing well which gave the team an opportunity to explore multiple ideas that could work well in the industry.

When asked about the relevance of corporate competitions in the current situation, Devagya adds that the organizations, when conduct such competitions, look for feasible solutions from the participating teams. And due to the ongoing pandemic, the situations faced by the companies would have gone up considerably, and so, they’d be looking at conducting more such competitions to garner unique ideas and solutions from students. He also said that such corporate competitions give students an insight into what companies are actually looking for along with providing a steep learning curve.

Simran recalls that a crucial learning for her was the part where she understood the importance of visualizing things properly - a mental image of how to analyze a problem and work on it from scratch. In regard to the myth that first-year B-School students are generally averse to the idea of participating in corporate competitions, Simran points out that this might be because we don’t often see teams winning in their first year. She also advises the incoming batch of students to choose their competitions wisely because they do not have a lot of time on their hands. “Ultimately, if you don’t win it, you’ll to get to learn a lot about it”, said Simran.

Advice to the incoming batch

In regard to the advice for the incoming batch of students, Sayan, Simran and Devagya, shared a few words of wisdom. Sayan said that when choosing a competition, one must be very clear about the idea they would be working on as well as the team members they would be working with. He also mentions the importance of not giving up because the more they try, the better they will understand the hows of going about a competition.

Simran, on the other hand, says that after joining a B-School, students shouldn’t be very hard on themselves in respect to trying their hands at everything that comes their way. "Figure out what you want to do, think about it and only then make your decision", she said. Devagya adds to her points by stating that it is vital for students to identify where their interest lies. Once they have that sorted, their performance in competitions, as well as the other aspects of their B-School journey, will enhance considerably.

To know more about Hero Campus Challenge, watch the video above.