What getting crowned as the second runners-up of TATA Steel-a-thon feels like -By team Rhapsody from XIMB

Tata Steel-a-thon was only our second competition as a team, and we were wonderstruck when we were declared the second Runners-up of the competition. However, we were happy to note that our night-long efforts had paid off.

Tata Steel-a-thon is one of the most prestigious B-school competitions, and one of those which offer real-life case studies. Being part of a competition of this grandeur helped us broaden our perspectives to the business problems of the corporate world and also to gain skilful experience in solving them.

Understanding the case

Our preparation began with the challenge of understanding the case. This required us to read the case thoroughly to understand all the nuances of the business problem. We followed this up with noting down the different problems that were either blatantly stated or had to be inferred from the case study. 

Challenges and roadblocks

The understanding of the case study took us the longest duration, followed by the strategy and solutions we had to put in place for implementation and the least time was spent on creating a presentation.

The biggest challenge of not being on campus and having to work in virtual mode was to collaborate our understanding of the problem statement and to collate feedback on a continuous basis. Since we worked remotely, we had to connect at a specific time in a day and this constrained our ability to work at the normal pace.

The winning team

We didn't have conflicts per se, but the solutions and strategies proposed by each of us was open to scrutiny and criticism which helped us improve/change solutions through consensus and make them more robust.

As a team, we were dedicated and flexible and every member of the team was willing to sit for long-hours and make this competition our first priority. When it came to presenting our solutions, we had the perfect mix of the Initiator for the introduction - Subham Banerjee, the Co-ordinator for the crux of the presentation - Anoushka Das and the Finisher for the conclusion - Arjun D.

There were a total of 10 teams in the Grand Finale of TATA Steel-a-thon. We considered Team Butter Chicken to be our toughest competition. Team Butter Chicken had worked on the same case study as that of Team Rhapsody and had done an equally commendable job in terms of the scope of solutions and strategies proposed to address the problem statement. 

Learnings and special moments

We were satisfied with the terms of judgment quality, organization, and framing of the competition. The QnA session that followed our presentation was full of relevant doubts and clarifications which helped us understand the senior management's business perspective of the problem statement.

The business case study has helped us broaden our understanding of Diversity and Inclusion in organizations. The legal aspect that governs LGBTQ+ and PWD rights, the Recruitment, Compensation, Benefits, Talent management etc. that can be aligned with the normal functioning of corporate strategy to make businesses more inclusive.

The mentor session we had with Amrita Bharadwaj from TATA Steel helped us garner deeper insights into D&I and refine our strategies to make it more inclusive.