Know How Team HR Crew (XIMB) ‘Stole’ The Winner Trophy For Tata Steel-a-thon Season 9 (People Track)

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Tata Steel-a-thon is the annual business challenge conducted by Tata Steel to offer students the opportunity to get insight into the working of the industry. This year they conducted the ninth season of the challenge, which was open for first and second-year students pursuing full-time 2-year PGP programs from 28 premier B-Schools in India. This competition was a golden opportunity to be mentored by the senior leaders at Tata Steel, and we the Team HR Crew from Xavier Institute of Management Bhubaneshwar (XIMB) grabbed this opportunity with both hands.

Our team comprised- Tushar Kanti, Hridaya Ramanarayanan, and Vedansh Dubey, and we were all super excited to be a part of this competition conducted by one of the leading conglomerates of India. The whole experience from preparing for the challenge, to presenting in front of a live audience, to being declared the winner of the People Track for Tata Steelathon season 9, was extremely memorable. And now we’d like to share this experience with you. So let’s get started.

About the Competition

The competition was well designed with clear instructions and that made it smooth in terms of the deliverables. There were 4 rounds- an executive summary round, a detailed presentation round, a virtual presentation with senior management, and the grand finale with the senior leadership. A total of 16 teams made it to the finale, however for the People Track(HR), there were 5 teams and all of them were equally amazing competitors.

The top leaders across businesses and verticals who were a part of the competition ensured that the level of judgment was beyond exceptional. They picked up the right questions and made us explore the problem statement and our suggestions with a keener eye. They also helped us understand the purview of various stakeholders.

Also read: Challenge Yourself With These B-school Competitions

A Simple Strategy

Our strategy was straightforward. We focused on simple aspects which were implementable without disturbing the ecosystem of the organization. The focus was more to ensure that any level of intervention in policy should enhance the overall organizational performance and improve the employee experience. And we tried to accomplish it by conducting in-depth research on everything. It is safe to say that this research was critical in our victory. 

The solution came to us almost instantly but creating a framework of implementation took more time, as it involved extensive research and brainstorming. The case competition spanned over a month so there were continuous deliberation and discussions on what should be done and what needed more research work. 

Support and Accept Your Team Members

The experience of working was very fulfilling for all 3 of us. There were conflicts but those were clearly to establish a thought process in terms of the case. We always questioned each other on how implementable or feasible an idea is, which is what helped us polish and filter out the best solution. We all think that is best to speak your mind and accept your teammates as they are when participating with a team. Managing the college schedule along with multiple deadlines, exams and quizzes were also at times overwhelming but we were always there to support each other.

The Advantage of Diversity 

Our team comprised members who had been a part of and won multiple case competitions. In addition, we all come from diverse backgrounds and have various life experiences. The fact that we all had worked for diverse industries meant we had a lot to learn from each other. And it also made out solutions and approaches to the competition more exhaustive. We come from different parts of the country namely Bihar, Madhya Pradesh, and Maharashtra, and even this diversity in our backgrounds helped us during brainstorming sessions. We are a group of realists with a shared passion for good food and sad jokes, brought together by this competition.

An Immense Learning Experience

The learning here was immense. When we started working on the case and conducting research we got to know about what several organizations are doing in order to ensure employee well-being. This led us to acquire a lot of interesting and new information. Through the panel sessions, we got to learn from the best minds in the country and understand their thought process. The input from these industry leaders who were mentoring us, helped us understand the intricacies of the ideas in terms of their implementation. And also gave us an insight into the various other perspectives as well.

What made this learning more special was the experience of standing in front of such industry leaders and pitching our ideas. We realized the importance of preparing for Q&A and learned to foster a culture of speaking up, and brainstorming till we reach the best solution

The Final Word of Advice

In our team, we focused on ensuring that every one of us is working on something specific. Hridaya was focused on content and feasibility, Vedansh would look at the technical aspects and designing whereas Tushar would focus on implementation and making the presentation.

However, that should not deter members from looking at and working on the bigger picture. Considering the competitions as a whole, we all did everything at some point in time. Vedansh had some brilliant ideas which we presented in the finals, Hridaya worked in the technical part of video editing as well and Tushar worked on content as well. We feel that's what a team does, be there for each other.

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