How to win Colgate Inner Circle HR Case Study Competition? -By Team SIBM from SIBM

5 mins read

Colgate Inner Circle HR Case Study Competition is a competition that prepares and tests the skills, making participants industry-ready. The competition was immense and we could understand that the predicted future of the workforce is already here.

Teamwork begins by Building trust

One fine day we got a clarion-call from the Placement Team stating that the ‘last’ HR Case Study Competition of the season before placements has been launched by Colgate-Palmolive India Limited only for a handful of top B-Schools across the nation. For a case study competition freak like me, grabbing the opportunity at the earliest was a no-brainer. Yet, I was a little apprehensive about the fact that whether I will be able to put in my 100% in it, as I was already pre-occupied with umpteen things at the same time. Still, I went for the registration as my teammate Shantanu Chakraborty seemed eager to end the competition on a high note.

Teams are always a place where different thoughts confluence. And conflicts are inevitable in such setups. As long as the discussions are relevant, and the outcomes are positive from the conflicts that arose, we were always ready to accommodate as many of them as possible. The team comprised of me and Shantanu Chakraborty. As a team, we complemented each other's skills and way of thinking. While we have different sets of skills, our purpose always intersected. Shantanu has very strong research skills and I know quite a bit about designing ppts and presentations. More or less, these two form the foundation of the edifice of a strong business solution.

The competition was framed keeping in mind the changing landscape of the workforce. The uncertainty of the lay of the land for the future workforce as well as the workplace was the theme of the challenge. Colgate-Palmolive ensured that we focus on every aspect of this paradigm shift in the workspace.

We made it to the end

6 teams made it to the finale of Colgate Inner Circle HR Case Study Competition and all of them were finalists for a reason. The reason was that they are the best. XLRI Jamshedpur, SIBM Pune, SCMHRD, TISS Mumbai, IIMK and IIMC.

Now, the final stage awaits us! We were again given a few days before we were to pitch the final deck to the esteemed jury. We decided to use this time to brainstorm a bit more to come up with ideas that can be a bit unconventional yet impactful for the future. 6th December, 2019- The D-day arrives! The day we have been waiting for. Colgate-Palmolive India took good care of our logistics and also ensured that we get a good 45 minutes session before our presentation with Mr. Ajay MK, Executive Vice President, Head HR, South Asia, Colgate-Palmolive, where he enlightened us with his valuable thoughts on the changing landscape of HR as a business function.

Fore and back-strokes of our brush

The strategy was simple. We decided to use this time to brainstorm a bit more to come up with ideas that can be a bit unconventional yet impactful for the future. The days were kept for extensive primary research and the nights were reserved for detailed secondary research. We divided the work and tried to play according to our strengths. We also fixed some intermittent deadlines to meet shorter targets. After the completion of each target, we racked our brains for fine-tuning them. If we can draw the iceberg analogy here, the final 3-slider presentation was like the tip of the iceberg, and the long-stretched bottom part was all about those all-nighters! When we thought that we were done and our presentation was ready-to-serve, we would show it to our professors and fellow batch mates only to discover the omission of some great pointers that needed to be incorporated. Finally, after a lot of fore and back-strokes of our paintbrush, our white canvas looked quite colorful and we were eager to find out whether those colors made sense in the business reality.

Jury of happy times

Each team was supposed to present for 15 minutes followed by a Q&A session with the jury. Fortunately, we did have a good time with the jury who were keen to understand our thought process behind the presentation and had a good conversation regarding the lay of the land for the future workforce. After the show, we waited patiently for the results. Result-time! Well, to be honest, we never really expected to be declared as the national winners of this competition. Even finishing somewhere at the top gave us a jittery feeling. But when we fathomed the reality, we were ecstatic. The feeling of emerging as the National Winner of a Corporate Competition for the first time and that too in the last one of the season, WILL NEVER SINK IN!

Undoubtedly the moment of truth- the moment when we were declared the national winners was our special moment.