The Urge To Explore And Learn Made Team Girahaks And Team Lakshaya Leave A Mark At TATA FNB Challenge 2021

“Creativity is the flagpole of innovation"- Ratan Tata

With an objective to engage the bright minds to solve critical and real problems with innovative solutions, last year Tata Consumer Products introduced the first edition of The FNB Challenge for B-School students. The competition saw participation from students across India. We spoke to the two finalist teams of the challenge- Team Girahaks and Team Lakshaya, to know their experiences of competing with the top creative ideas of the country. But first let’s take a quick review of the competition. 

Competition Round-Up

TATA FNB Challenge 2021 was meant for first-year full-time MBA students from a select list of B-Schools irrespective of their specializations. The competition included the following rounds: 

While the winners got a cash prize of INR 2,00,000 Lakhs from Tata Consumer Products along with PPOs, national finalist teams got a chance for mentorship with Tata Consumer Products Leaders.

Two of the top 3 teams, Team Girahaks included Shivam Doda, Ammar Lightwala and Ritika Goyal from Narsee Monjee Institute of Management Studies (NMIMS), Mumbai while Team Lakshaya included Neha Malwani, Bhavesh Acharya and Akash Gupta from Symbiosis Centre for Management and Human Resource Development (SCMHRD), Pune.

Ammar Lightwala and Neha Malwani from these teams shared some exciting experiences from their TATA FNB journey. 

An opportunity for the tinkering ideas!

TATA FNB Challenge 2021 was an exciting platform for B School students to shape their creative ideas. It brought teams from the top B schools of the country onto a single stage. For Ammar, who believes that big competitions are great learning sources, TATA FNB was yet another learning opportunity. He said,

“The competition revolved around user experience, logistics as well as marketing and it all seemed extremely interesting to me due to me.”

And for Neha, FNB offered an opportunity to explore her potential and also get exposed to the Unstop (formerly Dare2Compete)platform. She said,

What makes a strong team!

TATA FNB was a team based competition which demanded good coordination between the team members. So how did they get a strong team together and what worked in their favor? To this Ammar said,

“ We all had our niche areas. I was involved with researching and creating a model for us to follow. On the other hand,  my teammate Shivam Doda is extremely good with people and collected a lot of information from discussions with various people like distributors. Then our third teammate Ritika always had a unique perspective. She didn't think along the same lines as us and hence was a powerful Devil's advocate for our team.” 

While for Neha, it was the unity in diversity that worked in their favor. She said,

“We were the only team with 2 people from HR background and 1 person from a sales and marketing background. This proved beneficial for us as there were times when we could leverage our HR knowledge in our solution and bring out something new. It was like the best of both worlds as these days every business wants a multi-skilled workforce. And our team had it.” 

Becoming the 'jack of all trades'!

When we asked Neha from Team Lakshaya about the preparation strategy of her team, she rightly said that it takes preparation even to prepare! As the case given to them in the competition was related to marketing and strategy, it was an unfamiliar domain for them as 2 members of the team were from the HR background. She said,

“We all were a little clueless at the start. But we knew that corporate professionals should be ‘jack of all trades’. Hence, we considered it as an opportunity rather than an obstacle. We consulted our colleagues and seniors, and as per their advice read and understood the case thoroughly to know the actual problem and work up a solution. Then there were sleepless nights, a lot of hard work and self belief that helped us give our best.”  

As per Ammar, Team Girahaks took up the step by step approach.

So how did Team Girahaks resolve their conflicts? Ammar said that they came up with a unique solution for this as well. He said,

“Whenever we had a difference of opinion, we would put across our points as to why we are suggesting the particular solution. Then each one of us would give scores in favor as well as against the suggested alternate idea. And the solution with the highest score made it to the final list !”

Any take home message?

Both the teams found the experience at FNB Challenge very enriching and inspiring. Ammar from Team Girahaks said,

“We learnt that every idea needs to be backed with solid research. The panel was not looking for fancy ideas but for ideas that can practically be implemented in real life. So taking the ‘customer first’ approach is a good way to shape any idea.”

When we asked Neha from Team Lakshaya about her learning experience she said,

“One learning that would stand out for me is the power of feedback. After the semifinal round, we were given feedback about our presentations and what the organization was expecting, which really gave us the direction and guidance we needed. It helped us to deliver to the best of our abilities.”

Finally Neha had a tip for the future participants. 

“Be creative with your solutions, give due importance to the feedback and know your presentation at the back of your hands.”  Now this is something that the future participants will certainly heed to. 

We congratulate the two teams for their excellent performance.