IIMPact - Who started with the thought of winning it!! The truth is we started because we thought that as MBAs we should participate in business plan competitions. Many others thought the same and hence emerged 5 teams from NUS, participating in IIMPact.
IIMPact is a Business Plan Challenge organized by the Singapore chapter of the alumni committee of the India Institute of Management (IIM). The competition is open to all Asian B-schools and the theme for our year was –
Suggest a business idea for an entrepreneurial venture that can justify social & economic returns on an investment of 5 million USD.
Below is my experience of the journey from starting to winning this competition -
The event started with its first round of synopsis submission in August, 07. After forming the team, we changed our business idea for the competition 7 times during the first 6 days. Ideas came from either our best friend Google or our own knowledge. Once an idea was decided and some search was done - the idea looked impossible to implement… hence, we switched to next idea. Three days left for the first round…no hopes of even submitting for it. Forced into a corner, we returned to our very first idea – make biodiesel from waste cooking oil… Team Eco-D was born!!
In the first round we had to send a 5 slide deck – capturing the business idea, social value and financial returns. We decided to implement the idea in India, because 3 of the 4 team members were Indians☺. Forecasting revenues was the hardest task. For 3 days we researched on a range of issues from the current land prices in Rewari to cost of oil from a nukkar wala halwai and Taj Hotels. You must be wondering how: One of my tenants back home was a relationship manger in Taj Hotels – when else could she be helpful ;)... A poor sister of one of the teammates went to Agarwal sweets and asked for the waste oil prices. All in all – we made our families work for us. Thus we finalized our revenue estimates (though we ourselves were not confident of them) To add to the chaos, we changed 2 slides in the last hour and sent out our presentation at midnight – One round was over, without a hope of making it to the next one.
- Neha Gupta
Class of 2009
Sunday, September 21, 2008
IIMPact - Road to the finals
A month later the results were announced. To our surprise, we made it – one amongst 92 teams. 3 out of 5 NUS teams had made it to the 2nd round, so our first thought was that they would have selected almost everyone. Also, we knew that competition even from within NUS was not easy. Infact, we had seen other teams having stronger foundation than us.
The chances of us winning seemed bleak. But we wanted to put our best foot forward and fulfill our duty of sending the completed business plan. We adopted a better approach this time – we made division heads – Chief Financial Officer, Chief Technology Officer, Marketing Head, and yours truly – Head of Strategy. Only 2 short and sweet meetings for the round – work was divided according to the divisions. Everyone did his/her best for the respective division. Since it was December – no one wanted to take much pains. So no one questioned each other’s work too much. Though some changes were made in the end but broadly the final deck was pretty much a compilation of everyone’s individual work.
In the last week of March, 08 – I got a call from the IIMPact organizer – “Hi Neha, congrats – your team has been selected for the final round of IIMPact. The final event is on 19th April and I’ll send out to you more details”
Honestly, the first feeling was – wow! But so what! Many other teams would have made it this time also. After an hour, we got to know that only 2 teams have been selected from NUS and a total of 3 teams have been selected overall. Now this was serious! Damn Serious!
I was happy but serious - something big had happened. For a while, it was unbelievable but it was a big responsibility also. Two of our team members had already left on exchange – both in the US. It was expected that the time difference would make co-ordination almost impossible. So the entire onus was on the 2 of us – 2 girls. Thank God, I had secured an internship by this time as after the final round news, I forgot everything else – even stopped trying for any other internship. We had exams on the week following 19th of April, but that was 2nd priority now.
- Neha Gupta
Class of 2009
The chances of us winning seemed bleak. But we wanted to put our best foot forward and fulfill our duty of sending the completed business plan. We adopted a better approach this time – we made division heads – Chief Financial Officer, Chief Technology Officer, Marketing Head, and yours truly – Head of Strategy. Only 2 short and sweet meetings for the round – work was divided according to the divisions. Everyone did his/her best for the respective division. Since it was December – no one wanted to take much pains. So no one questioned each other’s work too much. Though some changes were made in the end but broadly the final deck was pretty much a compilation of everyone’s individual work.
In the last week of March, 08 – I got a call from the IIMPact organizer – “Hi Neha, congrats – your team has been selected for the final round of IIMPact. The final event is on 19th April and I’ll send out to you more details”
Honestly, the first feeling was – wow! But so what! Many other teams would have made it this time also. After an hour, we got to know that only 2 teams have been selected from NUS and a total of 3 teams have been selected overall. Now this was serious! Damn Serious!
I was happy but serious - something big had happened. For a while, it was unbelievable but it was a big responsibility also. Two of our team members had already left on exchange – both in the US. It was expected that the time difference would make co-ordination almost impossible. So the entire onus was on the 2 of us – 2 girls. Thank God, I had secured an internship by this time as after the final round news, I forgot everything else – even stopped trying for any other internship. We had exams on the week following 19th of April, but that was 2nd priority now.
- Neha Gupta
Class of 2009
Saturday, September 20, 2008
IIMPact - The Triumph
We had two major problems-
1) The deck that we had sent in the 2nd round was not presentable for the final round. Therefore, the entire presentation needed to be reworked.
2) Initially, the work had been divided between 4 and none of us had a clue about each other’s work. Now that we were two, we had to understand and re-work the entire presentation.
It was tough to figure out where to start from but time was running out. We had a week to make the new deck – again the best strategy – divide the work. While my teammate devoted herself to making the presentation, I took the onus of justifying the financial and social returns – for which we had to be damn confident this time. We contacted a lot of people all this while – a businessman from biodiesel industry – to gain industry knowledge, a Venture Capitalist – to understand a judge’s perspective, a PE professional – for guidance in valuation, and friends – for the much needed moral support. A normal day during that week was – meeting someone around 1 pm, coming back at 4 PM, working on the presentation till 4 AM, sleeping till 8:30 AM and entering Professor Pangarkar’s class at 9:30 AM – ofcourse, with cold feet!!
IIMPact was 3 day event this time and to meet the deadline we sent our presentation a week in advance
17th April – Press Release in Raffles Hotel – Damn excited!! – First time (umm….actually, second time) press was waiting to interview me. We met the other 2 teams on that day – one team was ofcourse from NUS and the other from XLRI – very surprising that not even a single team from IIM could reach the finals of IIMPact. Good exposure to the IIMPact alumni team in Singapore. Overall it was a good and tiring day but one bad thing happened– somehow, our confidence was shattered after meeting the other two teams – for no concrete reason☹
18th April – Dry run at Mckinsey Office in Singapore – the name itself scared us - the best consultants were going to review our work. God! For last 3 days, both of us had been practicing our presentation almost 20 times a day – So much to speak and that too in 7 minutes!! Each team presented individually to the top executives at Mckinsey. There were people from diverse backgrounds –marketing, finance, consulting, and logistics background. I think our presentation was not upto the mark that day but their feedback boosted our confidence a lot. Moreover they made us think on certain important points which later on helped us during the final event.
19th April – the D Day: IIMPact 07-08 final @ The Stamford, Swiss Hotel –
Our day started quite early. We had around 5 rounds of practices at our home and another 2 rounds in the Hotel before the final go. We reached the hotel at 10 AM and for a moment took a step back – it was a grand corporate event in a big ball room at Swiss Hotel. We weren’t expecting that. And I tell you very secretly, one of the other teams came to me & said “yaar, ye dekh kar thodi fat nahi gayi hai!” (Buddy! Aint you scared seeing this grandeur!). And he wasn’t wrong☺. Everything seemed to be organized utmost lavishly. We had another dry run – which team is going when, where to stand, how much time to spend in reaching the stage, where to put the controller and what not!!
The time came to dress up for the actual. When we came out of the washroom, the press was waiting for us – full modeling session –
- then the interview with Channel News Asia. A networking session and the event started.
Kudos to the competitors, they all presented brilliant ideas – one of them providing artificial limbs at no cost and another one bringing in innovative ideas for co-operatives for Indian farmers.
Eco-D was the last team to present. Few things changed on stage – we had earlier practiced a lot for time management and after all these practices we managed it well. But somehow, our individual expected time limits exceeded and I had to shorten my content so as to not exceed the overall time limit. And after presentation, we felt good. The judges hardly had any questions and we were well prepared for the ones they did.
After a long wait, the results:
Audience Prize – Team Eco- D, NUS
First Runners Up – Artificial Limbs, NUS
Champions – Team Eco – D, NUS
Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaah…………………..We could not stop hugging each other. One of the most memorable moments in Singapore –
It is a great feeling when people are coming to you by themselves just to have a 2- minute chat. The next 2 hours made me experience that and I just didn’t feel like leaving that place. WOW☺
On a serious note, it’s amazing to see how NUS has been leaving its impression in this competition for last 2 years. NUS was the champion both last year (06-07) and this year (07-08). School is the only platform to give us such opportunities. Job and studies are essential but they are a regular part of life. Opportunities like this are rare to come and when they do, it makes sense to grab them. Because for me it has been - one of the most rewarding efforts put in. Cheers to Eco-D ☺
- Neha Gupta
Class of 2009
1) The deck that we had sent in the 2nd round was not presentable for the final round. Therefore, the entire presentation needed to be reworked.
2) Initially, the work had been divided between 4 and none of us had a clue about each other’s work. Now that we were two, we had to understand and re-work the entire presentation.
It was tough to figure out where to start from but time was running out. We had a week to make the new deck – again the best strategy – divide the work. While my teammate devoted herself to making the presentation, I took the onus of justifying the financial and social returns – for which we had to be damn confident this time. We contacted a lot of people all this while – a businessman from biodiesel industry – to gain industry knowledge, a Venture Capitalist – to understand a judge’s perspective, a PE professional – for guidance in valuation, and friends – for the much needed moral support. A normal day during that week was – meeting someone around 1 pm, coming back at 4 PM, working on the presentation till 4 AM, sleeping till 8:30 AM and entering Professor Pangarkar’s class at 9:30 AM – ofcourse, with cold feet!!
IIMPact was 3 day event this time and to meet the deadline we sent our presentation a week in advance
17th April – Press Release in Raffles Hotel – Damn excited!! – First time (umm….actually, second time) press was waiting to interview me. We met the other 2 teams on that day – one team was ofcourse from NUS and the other from XLRI – very surprising that not even a single team from IIM could reach the finals of IIMPact. Good exposure to the IIMPact alumni team in Singapore. Overall it was a good and tiring day but one bad thing happened– somehow, our confidence was shattered after meeting the other two teams – for no concrete reason☹
18th April – Dry run at Mckinsey Office in Singapore – the name itself scared us - the best consultants were going to review our work. God! For last 3 days, both of us had been practicing our presentation almost 20 times a day – So much to speak and that too in 7 minutes!! Each team presented individually to the top executives at Mckinsey. There were people from diverse backgrounds –marketing, finance, consulting, and logistics background. I think our presentation was not upto the mark that day but their feedback boosted our confidence a lot. Moreover they made us think on certain important points which later on helped us during the final event.
19th April – the D Day: IIMPact 07-08 final @ The Stamford, Swiss Hotel –
Our day started quite early. We had around 5 rounds of practices at our home and another 2 rounds in the Hotel before the final go. We reached the hotel at 10 AM and for a moment took a step back – it was a grand corporate event in a big ball room at Swiss Hotel. We weren’t expecting that. And I tell you very secretly, one of the other teams came to me & said “yaar, ye dekh kar thodi fat nahi gayi hai!” (Buddy! Aint you scared seeing this grandeur!). And he wasn’t wrong☺. Everything seemed to be organized utmost lavishly. We had another dry run – which team is going when, where to stand, how much time to spend in reaching the stage, where to put the controller and what not!!
The time came to dress up for the actual. When we came out of the washroom, the press was waiting for us – full modeling session –
- then the interview with Channel News Asia. A networking session and the event started.
Kudos to the competitors, they all presented brilliant ideas – one of them providing artificial limbs at no cost and another one bringing in innovative ideas for co-operatives for Indian farmers.
Eco-D was the last team to present. Few things changed on stage – we had earlier practiced a lot for time management and after all these practices we managed it well. But somehow, our individual expected time limits exceeded and I had to shorten my content so as to not exceed the overall time limit. And after presentation, we felt good. The judges hardly had any questions and we were well prepared for the ones they did.
After a long wait, the results:
Audience Prize – Team Eco- D, NUS
First Runners Up – Artificial Limbs, NUS
Champions – Team Eco – D, NUS
Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaah…………………..We could not stop hugging each other. One of the most memorable moments in Singapore –
It is a great feeling when people are coming to you by themselves just to have a 2- minute chat. The next 2 hours made me experience that and I just didn’t feel like leaving that place. WOW☺
On a serious note, it’s amazing to see how NUS has been leaving its impression in this competition for last 2 years. NUS was the champion both last year (06-07) and this year (07-08). School is the only platform to give us such opportunities. Job and studies are essential but they are a regular part of life. Opportunities like this are rare to come and when they do, it makes sense to grab them. Because for me it has been - one of the most rewarding efforts put in. Cheers to Eco-D ☺
- Neha Gupta
Class of 2009
Tuesday, September 16, 2008
Welcome lunch @ Kent Ridge Guild House
Being a fresher at NUS-MBA is a lot of fun. Well at least till the actual studies begin. After which no one gets time to breathe..let alone blog! And taking that as an excuse for the delay in this post, without further digression, I get back to the point....the before-studies fun part of MBA 1st year. Its true, the freshers batch gets so many different welcome parties that after a while you start feeling like the whole of Singapore [or at least NUS ] was living in the hope of welcoming you one day. Which is of course great, it flatters your vanity to no end and you feel all pumped to take on the curriculum. [Until classes begin and you along with your vanity fall face down..but I digress again, that story comes later...]
So there was the orientation week, an 8 day long all-for-freshers-fiesta with the OBS program. Then there was the freshers' party organized by the seniors. The third flavor was the Official Welcome Lunch organized by NUS for the MBA-2010 batch.
The venue was the Kent Ridge Guild House, time..err lunch time!?! :P Once inside, the magnitude of the event truly struck us. This lunch was not just another welcome, it was The Welcome Lunch! The hall was large, beautifully decorated with seating arrangements for nearly 200 people. Apart from the MBA 1st & 2nd year students, various distinguished faculty members, the Director of Graduate studies, Mr. Lim Yue Wen and the Dean of the NUS Business School, Bernard Yeung were present at the occasion.
The ceremony had welcome speeches by the Dean, the Director of Graduate Studies and the Student Council President, Adarsh Abhineet, among others. The speeches not only aimed at welcoming the new students but also outlined the various forthcoming events and developments.
After all the informative and thought provoking speeches, it was time for lunch! A sumptuous spread of food, all of it sinfully delectable! Over lunch, the students interacted with each other and with the 2nd years as the Dean went to each table for one-on-one introductions with each student!! If anything was a vanity booster, this was it! Lunch was all the more enjoyable as esteemed faculty members such as Prof. Kulwant Singh and Prof. Nitin Pangarkar gave valuable insights to the students in cordial, informal conversations.And a bit too soon, the lunch was over….and life got lost amidst projects, assignments and case studies...and though we’re still getting invites for welcome parties
By,
Shipra Gupta
Class of 2010
Tuesday, September 2, 2008
An adventure called OBS
Talking of NUS- MBA traditions, one of the earliest that every new batch encounters: The Outbound Singapore, commonly referred to as the OBS. It’s a 2 day team building program conducted by Outward Bound on the Pulau Ubin island of Singapore.We started early Friday morning from College in pre-arranged buses and reached the Punggol beach. From there we were ferried to the Pulau ubin where upon reaching we headed straight for food!!!
Immediately afterwards we all gathered in a huge hall and were given a brief introduction to the program. What followed immediately were games that reminded me of 5th grade…and reminded me how easy making new friends used to be with those simple games. Which was exactly what happened here..while a few minutes ago most of us were half asleep, now all of us were either laughing or smiling holding hands sitting in groups. The program was working already!!
The program then went on to splitting us into 4 (or was it 5?) groups, each assigned to its own physical trainer. The first session was a theoretical session of various personality types and taught us basics of MBIT. Far from usual classroom sessions, which so often work as sedatives, this one was fun, laughter and lots of interaction!
The rest of the day went entirely into learning Rock climbing. It was exciting, exhilarating and challenging! Not to mention amazing team spirit which usually shows itself only in sports, especially so in adventure sports. The evening was a hilarious skit-enactment session which totally wore off the fatigue borne during the day.
We woke up the next day in excitement and eagerness, not knowing what to expect. And voila! We were presented with a target to achieve????!!!!!!!!!
The task was that we had to sail into the sea to a certain point, hoist the NUS-MBA flag and come back. Oh and the rafts that we were to sail on…we had to build them!! And did I tell you there were no raw materials to do that!! And no money to buy them either!! Welcome to MBA!!!
So were presented with a 5 page draft which said we could involve in certain activities (read play some games ), earn money, buy raw material, build the rafts, sail on them, hoist the flag and come back. On the same rafts. Before 2 PM.
Quickly some of us fell into action by developing the business plan and timelines, one team formed itself into building the rafts, another into designing the flag and others split themselves into various teams playing various concurrent games. The entire batch worked in harmony and people moved from one team to another, playing..ahem I mean working as hard as possible to earn as much money as possible [ sounded like real life!! ] Finally, after a long morning’s work, it was all done. We had made the money, built the rafts and had a hearty lunch. We were now all set to sail. So the lightest 48 of us [ we had built the rafts ;) ] sailed to the destination, successfully hoisted the flag and returned jubilant.
If we had thought the day before was a display of team work..this activity surpassed that experience manifold.
Post lunch was a relaxed chit-chat session followed by delicious bar-be-queue. And then it was time to say goodbye. Not before we all got “OBS Successful Completion” certificates though!!
Back on mainland, all of us were tired but happy. Knowing that the last 2 days would be some of the most cherished memories of our MBA program
By,
Shipra Gupta
MBA class of 2010
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