This Is Why Strategic Planning Is Crucial To Winning Any Competition! Meet The National Winners of Myntra Stylbiz 2021 From IIM Indore

The moment we won Myntra Stylbiz 2021 was surreal. We remember attending webinars of past winners and our jokes about how we would be on the other side one day. Fondly calling these chit-chats as our own ‘Sapne Suhane Ladakpan key.’ Actually, it is always special whenever you go on stage to grab any kind of reward for doing something remarkable. We felt humbled that our hard work paid off and are now excited to see what the future holds for us. Here is a brief of our entire journey of becoming the national winners of Myntra Stylbiz 2021.

The competition was very well structured. The case brief was succinct but ensured there was enough breadth and depth to facilitate critical thinking. It was clear and well-directed towards the problems at hand in Myntra and clearly defined the scope of the work. The submission guidelines were well written and were non-ambiguous. All the rounds were smoothly planned on D2C, and the team was flexible and accommodating around clashes, which helped ensure that we were at our best while performing. 

But the highlight that stood out for us was the Mentorship Round. We found a really great Mentor in Mr. Ashish Gupta, who helped us look at the problem from a business perspective. Before this round, we were excited MBA students with bubbling innovative ideas, but we were closer to thinking like a professional after the round. We were much more clearer on the implementation and how to weave our research and ideas into a coherent story that does justice to the real potential of the idea.

Why Myntra Stylbiz?

The fashion industry is one where the products have a lifecycle lesser than 3-4 months. This means that market players need to be on their feet to judge the next disruptive innovation around the corner. As all of us were inquisitive and fashion enthusiasts, this industry interested us, and Myntra being amongst the market leaders in this segment was a natural choice for us. So when we got to know that they had launched a case competition, we knew exactly what we wanted to do.

Good strategies lead to great wins

Our preparation for the competition started around a day or two after the registrations for the first round opened. We tried reaching out to past finalists/semi-finalists, had interactions with around 10 customers and 3 fashion influencers, post which we found which problem statement was best suited for us. Then we went forward with the second part of our primary research, which involved quantitative market research. 

For secondary research, we used market intelligence reports from library resources, and finally, we interacted with professionals working in the industry to verify hypotheses and check we weren’t assuming anything. All in all, this entire exercise took close to 300+ hours cumulatively from our end. 

And in all of this, the three of us brought something different but complementary to the team. Marul’s expertise was in handling data and extracting actionable insights, which combined with Urvi’s ability to create a logical structure and visualize solutions. Moreover, Utkarsh’s expertise around slide writing and product mockups played an integral role in formulating our solution. Most importantly, all of us had a firm belief in empathy and user centrism.

During the entire journey, it was important that we were persistent enough to look at a solution that has the potential to shift consumer behavior. With the vision we had for Myntra, we also wanted to keep a healthy balance between a futuristic, innovative solution and at the same time, its implementation.  With our learnings, we wanted to contribute to the success story of Myntra and help it maintain the competitive position it does today in fashion, even in the future. We are glad that the panel, our fellow participants, and respondents felt the same. 

Difficulties are meant to rouse and not discourage!

The journey to becoming the national winners of Myntra Stylbiz 2021 was not a cake wake! 

The most challenging part was putting everything together. We had a lot of ideas and research but weaving it into a coherent and persuasive story was the critical element.

Another challenge was the inability to meet physically. But we found our way to work together. We used to stay together on call for tens of hours - eating, drinking, and even taking snack breaks in between. Kudos to Google meet for being such an excellent app. To improve efficiency, we would give each other small task deadlines and then take follow-ups.

We also had a couple of heated discussions while brainstorming ideas and deciding how to present them. Sometimes, the anger was fueled by a lack of sleep or hunger too. However, each team member knew that the other was trying to bring in a different perspective and wanted the best for the team. Hence, all arguments ended up in a mutual agreement.

Learnings for life

Our key learning was that empathy is the key to solving any major product problem. It is crucial to understand the exact problem one is solving and know why exactly it is big enough. Much more than jumping to solutions, it is essential to adopt a hypothesis-based approach to see that we aren’t assuming anything.

A memory close to our hearts...

The fondest, as well as scariest memory for all three of us, is when the judges announced the runners-up during the Finale. As soon as the result declaration had started, our heartbeats were touching the roof. We were hopeful of being one of the position holders but were not sure of being winners. When the first runners-up team name was declared, we almost thought we had lost and were in tears, as we were not able to imagine that we would win. In the next moment, when the judges announced our team name as the overall winners, we still could not control our tears, but it was a moment full of gratefulness & wonder.

For more such inspiring competition stories, click here.