Shifting the way the beauty industry operates; meet the Runners up of L’Oréal Sustainability Challenge 2021 from IIFT Delhi

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Even though we had been working hard since September 4th, when the case was released, we never expected to finish in the top 3. The moment was surreal when the results were announced and it is only now that the fact that we are the National Runners up of L’Oréal Sustainability Challenge 2021 has sunk in. Here is an account of our journey to lifting the trophy! 

As marketing enthusiasts, we wanted to apply our knowledge and come up with a solution to champion a cause which is important to the entire world. L’Oréal as a company gave us the best way to do that, due to the strides it has been taking for a sustainable future.

Turning strategy into results...

We had a very intense research phase where we spent the first few days reading about what our competitors were doing in the field of sustainability and green sciences. Our strategy was to have the main idea and then 2-3 complementing ideas to ensure scalability and practicality. Additionally, we also aimed at having an end-to-end solution by including trade engagement, media activation, and setting the financial aspects in place. 

... by overcoming challenges...

The entire process from registering and seeing the case to the grand finale took us almost a month and a half in which there were tweaks in our idea every day, till the very last day! The most challenging aspect was matching to each other’s routine and coming up with slots where all the teammates were free since online mode had all of us having a different routine. There were times when some members were traveling or caught up in other things and hence finding a common time slot for discussions became a challenge. 

We overcame these challenges by finding common ground in our disagreements and also consulting experienced people in the industry for insights.

…and leveraging our strengths!

I think we had a combination of talents where someone was good at doing research, another was good at the creative front and came up with the ideas while the other was as good at making the most impactful presentations. Being good friends previously helped us know what each other’s strengths and weaknesses were and helped the team overall. All the teams were equally amazing with an equal shot at winning so we were just glad to be competing against such great ideas.

Learnings from L’Oréal 

The biggest learning has been in terms of being consistent with the work that you do and keeping on reading and researching, this helps to find loopholes and rectify them. Also, we realized that the larger problems like climate change and pervasive plastic pollution will only be solved by people like us when we work together as a team.

Read more such winning stories:

• This is How Team Strikers from SCMHRD Pune (Second Runners-up, Tata Steel-a-thon 2021) Paved its Trajectory to Strike the Right Target!
• We Are the Champions: Meet the National Winners of Flipkart WiRED 5.0 (HR Track) from MDI Gurgaon
• This is How MECE Approach Helped Team Flipinstein from NITIE Mumbai Bag the Title of National Winners of Flipkart WiRED 5.0 (Supply Chain track)
• “Case Competitions Kickstart your Career” - By The B-Team from IIM Bangalore, Runners-up, Flipkart WiRED 5.0
• "Countless Zoom Calls, Sleepless Nights And Hours of Brainstorming Led Us To Success", - Team Boulevard, Flipkart WiRED 5.0 Winners