Team Professional Pirates, NITIE Mumbai shines as the Runner Up of J&J QUEST season 8

Winter breaks brought a new opportunity for us – J&J Quest. Being one of the most valuable companies, the announcement infused a wave of excitement in the B-School students. The case was challenging yet an interesting one to ‘Transform the manufacturing cost structure’. We formed a team of four with the outlook to work together and deliver the best. Here is a glimpse of our journey to becoming the Runner Up of J&J QUEST season 8.

Our winter breaks converted to J&J times, we would sit together, brainstorm, do a hell of research to propose 5 solutions in one slide. Each four of us felt complementary to each other and this perhaps kept the energy beaming throughout the journey of J&J QUEST season 8. A sense of being in the right direction came with announcements of 5 teams from each campus, with ours being one of them from NITIE Mumbai.

Four of us celebrated the 2:00 AM pizza party and prepared the plan to upscale the efforts in the next step. The computer club and library of NITIE were our constant companion along with BRU ki chai, NITIE’s cafeteria. Meticulous research, guidance from alumni, mid-night discussion with seniors, and advice of faculties were our substantial resources. Presenting 5 ideas in ten minutes such that the audience can comprehend each of them was a challenging task at hand. The collective contribution of each one of us as a team was our USP and we worked hard to deliver the best.

Campus round: The stepping stone to success 

Finally, the finale of the Campus round was right there, boards of each team were at the display in the entrance and we were overwhelmed even before the event commenced. The event started an hour late, which made each passing moment, filled with more anxiety, passion, and excitement. To decide the presentation sequence, chits were drawn. And guess which team stood first in the sequence? Well, it was us, ‘Professional Pirates’.

Being the first presenting team on the stage, we started the show of J&J QUEST Campus Finale and pitched our ideas within the stipulated time. “Great presentation!!! Extensive work and beautiful team-effort”, remarked the judges. They seemed happy with our response in the Q&A round following the idea pitch. We left the room and the next team followed in, meanwhile, all four of us discussed, thought, or for that matter over thought about the actions of all the judges, of what could be the results. All five teams finished the presentation and the judges left the room to make the decision, meanwhile, our colleagues in the audience greeted us for delivering a good presentation.

The most awaited moment arrived, and we were announced as the Runner Up of the J&J QUEST season 8 Campus round with the opportunity to work as Project-Intern in J&J, along with the winning team. Customary to the results announcement, four of us went out for dinner.

And we are the champions...

Amid the uncertainty, J&J continued its promise and invited us to the next stage of ideation to implementation. Corona had now, kept each of us at our homes, Microsoft Teams, WhatsApp, and Zoom were the new normal to bring us to work together. Our next aim was to quantify the outcome of our ideas to implement in J&J.

Our industry mentors helped us understand the AS-IS in J&J and we improvised our solution to suit the requirements. We learned about the cost structure of various production lines, departmental functions, and their cost management practices through meetings with J&J professionals. Our improvised solution now demonstrated how we would implement the solution and its impact in terms of reducing fixed cost or transforming the cost. 

Notwithstanding corona restraints, we got permission to visit the Mulund plant. Our doubts were addressed to a great extent through the visit and it helped us improvise the Solar idea, one that would be soon implemented in J&J. Along with us, NITIEMINATI was the other team that worked on the live project. We had a pleasant experience working with our peers. Amongst the two teams, we were announced as the Campus Champions aka National Finalists of J&J QUEST season 8.

The last lap of J&J QUEST season 8

In the J&J QUEST season 8 Grand Finale, we competed with 13 other B-Schools. We prioritized three ideas and gave them the utmost focus. Our preparations were at its peak and we were filled with excitement.  A WhatsApp group of all the finalists gave us the chance to interact with others and break the ice. Dummy presentation and practice sessions organized by the J&J HR team also greased the wheels of the Grand finale.

Finally, the Final show set off the dawn of 17th September 2020 at 7:30 AM. The esteemed judges, HR, and all the teams were ready to witness this much-awaited day. It was the first time since the journey of J&J QUEST started, we got the chance to see the presentations of other teams. This time, we were the second last team to present our solution. At 11:50 AM, to be precise, all four of us presented our solution to the jury, giving the best shot possible. And the moment arrived, half a year-long journey ended with a beautiful victory.

Yes! Our team was declared as the Runner Up of J&J QUEST season 8 Grand Finale!