“Case Competitions Kickstart your Career” - By The B-Team from IIM Bangalore, Runners-up, Flipkart WiRED 5.0

Case competitions are a very good way to apply and test your understanding of real-world business issues. We were sure that a coveted competition like Flipkart Wired 5.0 would provide a very challenging, unparalleled learning experience, and it indeed turned out to be true.

Flipkart Wired 5.0 was one of the smoothest events that we have participated in so far. From registrations to creating an extremely interactive interface for the final presentations, everything was perfectly executed. The judges and our mentor, all were extremely cordial and the depth of their questions really showed us that they had years of experience in this domain. They were very warm and cordial and gave us a fair chance to respond to their queries while listening with an open mind. Their feedback was spot on and the suggestions really helped the team strengthen and pressure test the implementation of our ideas. 

Challenges are the Bridge to Your Success

Since the problem was open-ended, we knew that it was crucial to do a good amount of research and identify some root causes/key drivers. That took a major portion of the entire exercise but once we were clear, generating ideas, brainstorming, validating, and finally presenting everything through a presentation, became much easier. That said, every round involved many sleepless nights, given the hectic schedule of MBA during the day.

Also, just like everyone else, we too had conflicts. But we were able to resolve mostly through mutual discussions. Once or twice, we also relied on the opinions of our friends. When we think back, those conflicts helped make our ideas more full-proof and teamwork more enjoyable. 

Since our campus has been open since January we did not face major challenges catering to the pandemic-induced lockdown. We definitely benefitted by sitting and working together. Each member complimented the skills and abilities of the other (also coincidentally, there was a good sense of humor). We complimented each other in business understanding of operations, technology, financial modeling, presentation skills, and most importantly, playing the devil's advocate in each and every step.

A journey filled with never-ending learnings!

The experience gave us more than a few learnings. It gave us an insight into how Flipsters really think and the process behind launching so many successful products and initiatives. The way we learned about how Indian E-commerce functions on the ground rather than the bird's eye view, made us understand the issues faced by multiple stakeholders including the marketplace itself. 

It gave us a chance to learn about how well does Flipkart manages and operates in a large country like India. We also learned about the different business success metrics and obstacles in the way that Flipkart needs to plan for before any new venture and develop an understanding of how would the customers respond to any new launch or engagement initiative.

The journey in itself was as memorable as the final results. We did have lots of ups and downs, skepticism about how good our report was, how underprepared or confident we were for the presentation, the adrenaline rushes while opening the results of each round right until the results were finally declared. 

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