"Countless Zoom Calls, Sleepless Nights And Hours of Brainstorming Led Us To Success", - Team Boulevard, Flipkart WiRED 5.0 Winners

Flipkart WiRED, one of the best known competitions for MBA students, came back with a bang in its 5th season, providing an opportunity to the participating students to gain PPIs.

When Team Boulevard was announced as the National Winners, I was elated! We had been working hard for days on end, and all our sleepless nights had finally paid off. During the presentations, we saw some wonderful ideas and realised we had tough competition, hence we were lost of words when our names were announced as winners of the competition.

"We Prepared to Win"

We definitely had participated to win an esteemed B-School competition like that of Flipkart WiRED. To register for Flipkart WiRED, we formed a team of close friends, with each person excelling in a different domain. After receiving the case, we ensured to read it thoroughly and focus on the exact deliverables required from us. We researched online and checked previous submissions, along with interviewing a few Flipsters, in order to gain a holistic overview of the problem statement. Hours of brainstorming led us to multiple ideas which we maximised over countless zoom calls and sleepless nights.

The Three Musketeers!

The team consisted of three members from extremely diverse backgrounds -

Aman Siddiqui, an engineer having worked with Banking and Finance clients in TCS.
Rohan Agrawal, an engineer with work experience in the technical domain with Microsoft.
Sana Borgave, an architect with work experience in planning for Government of India projects.

Our team's forte apart from having a great rapport on account of being good friends was the fact that all three of us came from diverse professional backgrounds and varied interests. Rohan Agrawal being an engineer with work experience in Microsoft, provided a highly analytical approach to the problem statement which helped us break down the issues in and reach a comprehensive result. Rohan's public speaking skills too were a huge asset during the Finals of the competition.

On the other hand, Aman Siddiqui, having worked with Banking and Finance clients in TCS, was able to help turn our ideas into realistic solutions that could be implemented in Flipkart's ecosystem. Aman's logical thinking and planning also helped us manage our time well and reach expected deadlines.

I, Sana Borgave, being an architect and having worked with the Smart City Mission, focused on creative solutions backed by secondary research. I also managed the meetings with Flipsters, teachers and batch-mates that helped in primary research and gaining an outside perspective. This helped innovative ideas arrive as concrete and realistic solutions for Flipkart.

A Wise Conflict Management

All three of us were extremely passionate about the entire work and with extreme enthusiasm, conflict was expected when sharing ideas. However, each team member was truly motivated and believed the ideas they suggested were the winning ideas. To avoid creating a problem and bringing down team morale, we followed the policy of always trusting our teammate, checking on each other's progress, and always providing honest feedback. Apart from following these policies we constantly took advice from our seniors and batch-mates and trusted their opinion too. This is what worked wonders for our team and helped us become National Winners.

The Phase Of Challenges

A big challenge was not being on campus. It produced multiple challenges for us which were not faced by participants in the previous years and overcoming them was a huge learning in itself. But we ensured that we found the solution to almost every little problem and we succeeded. For example, we could not meet and work in person as we did not live in the same cities, and hence online video calls came to our rescue. Sharing ideas and discussing our research became a bit more difficult on these calls but I am grateful to have had patient and motivated team members who did not let this obstacle become a hindrance during work.

Another challenge of not being at campus was not being able to discuss ideas and get suggestions from peers and faculty members. Our team realised the importance of getting inputs from the outside perspective, and made sure to schedule meetings with teachers, batch-mates and even seniors from time and again, so we could improve on our solutions.

The Semi-Finals

The most challenging phase was when we got selected for Semi-Finals and had to pick the top 3 ideas out of the multiple ideas we had shared earlier. Instead of picking ideas at random, we decided to deep dive into the current processes followed by Flipkart and chose the ideas that would best align with the company's workings, values and vision for the future.

The Grand Finale

The competition was extremely well designed in terms of judgment quality, organisation, as well as framing. The number of slides and time allotted at each round were apt. We were able to explain our ideas well without losing the judges' attention.

A total of 5 teams competed in the finale for HR track. The organisers also ensured to explain the format and timeline of the final day multiple times and even conducted dry runs. They assisted us through multiple channels and were available when we had doubts or questions. This helped keep us at ease and not let any external factors prevent us from giving our best. However, I must confess that Team Threetards from XLRI Jamshedpur were our biggest competition. Their presentation offered great ideas that would also be feasible in Flipkart's context.

Key Takeaways

It taught us patience and trust-building among team members.
We also learnt interpersonal and intrapersonal skills, which is a huge learning.
Besides everything, we learnt to stick to the deadlines and plans.

Working for such a renowned case competition in the online mode was no easy job. It taught me to be patient, to trust my teammates and to communicate efficiently to reach desired results. Being in such a competitive environment through the entire span of Flipkart WiRED was a task in itself. I had to learn to not let anxiety get the best of me, realign my focus and also to make smart decisions all while keeping a calm head. Another skill I garnered through working for WiRED that would be beneficial for me was to be able to plan out my time in order to meet short deadlines. Apart from the academic learnings I gained while conducting primary and secondary research and brainstorming for solutions, I also learnt interpersonal and intrapersonal skills that would help me in my future growth. I am extremely grateful to Flipkart for providing us students this platform to not only develop hard skills but also to polish and improve on our soft skills.

For more inspirational stories, read:

Sana Raju Borgave

Team Boulevard

She is an architect with work experience in planning for Government of India projects like Smart City Mission.