First place in the First case

I remember this case for various reasons - first time working all night with a bunch of 5 strangers (who later became best buddies!), first time getting a case competition and understanding how to works, first time I got to present in my formal suit, etc.

As this was the first case competition, we were randomly assigned team mates. I got an European, 2 Americans and 2 Asians (not Indians, Asians in US are non-Indian folks from Asia :)

The first problem statement was shared, and we came up with thoughts, slides and numbers. I gladly don't remember any of it. What I can vividly recall is the fun we had while coming up what we thought would be the best course of action for us ... 

I loved working hard without sleeping all through the night and preparing the deck. We finally divided the slides and I rehearsed round the clock to perfect my talk.

The person who opened for us had a British accent and I have never seen anyone present so professionally, I was left dumbstruck with the style and I couldn't even focus on the content. I had to follow this, and was looking for a hole to crawl into.

Thankfully, I was the only female and stood out (read no way to hide). I walked to the front and smiled at everyone - later someone commented that put everyone at ease which was good... as it did really put me at ease!

After our presentation and questions/ answers, we quickly exited the room and decided we would share feedback like a retro session on how it all went. I hardly knew what to say, other than everyone did great and hoping everyone would say the same about me.

To my surprise, I had my team mates calling me out for bringing the team together and keeping up the energy. I was left wondering when I managed to do all that. 

In fact, there was one particular feedback that I still remember as it told me something I didn't know about myself. Apparently I have the knack to give feedback to people, directly and nicely without offending them.. I walked out of this case competition having learnt so much about myself...

And did I mention? We won the first place and it kind of set the tone for the rest of my MBA class! Well in terms of giving me the much needed boost of confidence


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