This is in continuation to the Learning, and talks about all of our efforts leading uptill the final presentation and announcement of the results.
In my Organisational Behaviour class, I had learnt the 4 phases of team building – Forming, Storming, Norming, and Performing. Some of these would be valid here as I was entrusted the responsibility of forming the perfect team to carry forward the legend-wait for it-ary run of Team Perfect Score. The seniors expected us to bring home the trophy again, and validate their choice of picking us to carry forward their name.
Stage 1: Team Formation
According to me, the biggest achievement for MP was to ensure that the juniors in TPS stuck together and wanted to be one team. This made my job as the new Team Lead a lot easier, as MP had already assembled a star studded team. I just needed to fill a few gaps, and trim the team a little. It was obvious that getting the right team was imperative to our ambition of winning. And doing that meant a good analysis of the team we had.
Knowing that 3 people would be away for the crucial term made the choice of choosing 10 from 12 members a little easier. Still, I opted for one of those guys, purely on the basis of his work ethic, and the ability to bind the team together.
I also did an intensive Gap Analysis – Comparing what we had as the seniors this year, to the team that led us to victory in INDEX 07. We had most things in place, thanks to MP. Still, I felt we were all cool dudes, more inclined towards fun and partying (which is a HUGE part of Index) rather than academics, hard work and art of impressing professors.
This meant, we needed some new people – some with specific credentials and solid work man like ethics to help pull the star studded Real Madrid through. Just to give a feeler of the Stars, we had the President of the Students Council (who would later go on to be the Best All rounder of the batch too), the mess secy, people from committees like Manfest, AlCom, and people who had interned with, and some who also had bagged PPOs from the top notch FMCGs. It was clear that on paper, we were the best team, at least in our minds.
Still, to prove it to the others, we were the First, Fastest and Leanest movers too. We almost had a complete team ready, and made offers to the new additions – VTG, who was a great team player, IT guy, and a friend, and DC – The IIT Fin Genius, who got the highest paying summer internship, and who many believe, was responsible for sinking a MAJOR i-bank :D. With this, all the important bases in the second year were covered. How was I sure? I knew the game, and what it took to win.
Now was the turn to recruit the juniors. Being Champs should have attracted people to us like bees to honey, but this batch was different. Our seniors were serious planners, thinkers and Bonds. We were the masti-makers, who would be great at prop making etc. We were mostly freshers, and those were a rare breed in the junior batch of intellectuals, whose enthusiasm seemed to be lowered by maturity and working in IT.
Still, we managed the best lot, the ones who would later intern at the biggies - a McK guy, a GS guy, an o3 Capital chick, ABG lady, RBS gurl, people in Nokia, Marico etc. The CGPA of two of them was among the highest in their batch, and possibly, more than all the seniors combined. Lastly, we had 4 girls out of 10 juniors. In IIM L lingo, we had the king size share of the cake, both in terms of quality and quantity.
Why this was awesome has 2 reasons – (1) Having girls around means more creativity, diligence, well behaved guys, better team bonding and groupings, and (2) It announces to everyone who the champs in the pre match acquisitions were. This fact alone, would have made many enemies for us, though we played down our well thought out and worked out strategy, which involved as many as 5-6 guys pitching the ladies.
Hence, we now had a complete team, and had to reject some real good talent too. And this meant we achieved our target. Find a great junior team, and party with the complete team before anyone else does. Again, I can’t emphasise the importance of parties and celebrations enough. We had a dedicated party planner too – Ms. MV. End Result: Pre-Game Round – TPS.
Stage 2: The Proposals
Even though most of the team would have liked these to be the kind of proposals we all like (and some get on the INDEX fair), this was the boring, troublesome part. Last year, we had the best team, and still won the last project. Where could there be a flaw then? The system, the evaluations, INDEX Core. My grudges against INDEX core were well known, and were also something I inherited from MP. Btw, INDEX Core is the team that is responsible for conduct of the entire event, managing clients, Market Research Teams, sponsorships, crowd turnouts etc etc. Yet, for me, they were mostly a set of guys who erected tents, and senseless obstacles for MR teams :)
Just to give another insight on how much of a casting coup we had achieved by hiring 4 girls in our juniors, INDEX Core had sent out a mail to all Team Leads. They asked the Team Leads to not tell any of the juniors (read girls) anything bad about INDEX. Basically, they expected us to lie or not speak at all, as I can’t see how INDEX Core is anything else than an Operation or Sales task, where no one would end up learning anything worthwhile in Marketing.
Coming down to the proposals now: The first one was MF- An NBFC, who wanted us to do a lot. We did a lot. Lot of research, lot of Actual consumer interaction, loads of differentiators. We came 5th, and anything beyond first means you lost. A similar trend continued, though we always improved, but a Podium finish (top 3, who are named openly) didn’t fall through for us till CB- a looser credit card company. The project was interesting and really looked LIVE (most INDEX projects are time pass, though are labelled as LIVE PROJECTS). We came in second, and BJ came first.
Now we knew we were doing something right. Still, at least for me, VTG, CD, VA, and even MP, every loss (2nd was also a loss.. always) meant tons of introspection. By this time, lots of unexpected teams had projects, or at least podium finishes. We kept working, understanding what others were doing. Some did only googling (read secondary research in MBA speak), some copied stuff, and all this while, we were doing actual work, the way it was supposed to be. Soon, we realized what seemed to matter, and that Professors weren’t evaluating our proposals so the theoretical correctness we had, would count for I guess, nothing. Aesthetics, being concise, and avoiding the high sounding was our goal now.
Then, we had a long hiatus. No results came for a long while. People grew tired of the wait. Not many wanted to work. But luckily, the initial complacency we had was shaken off. Earlier, everyone thought someone else would do the work, except some true heroes – CD, VTG, DC, and VA, most others were fly by sorts. Work a little for a proposal, rest for two. But frankly, having 5 people working on every proposal was much better than the rest of the teams, and we were sure the hard work, continuous improvement and all the things our moms told us to do, would finally someday bear fruit.
Then, we had a day with results for 4 proposals, and we were on the podium on all 4, and had won a project- with a CSD major which I won’t name :). This was when we heard the first applause and when we finally got some relief after tonnes of disappointment. We also had an offer for swapping CB project with the CSD one we got. Clearly, CSD was a core competency, and also meant more higher chances of winning than a routine, mundane project, in spite of the fact that we knew our project was a LIVE one, and our recommendations most probably, won’t ever be auctioned upon.
This belief was later vindicated, as our contact in the company called me up on the INDEX Fair, and rather than inquiring about the project, he was more concerned with whether any competitor products were being sold in the ground or not. Clearly shows the efforts of INDEX Core in getting really LIVE projects :)
Stage 3: Questionnaire Design
This was going to be our forte, as we knew the most marketing among all the teams. There were very talented teams mind you, one led by AA, was also an All Stars team. But the TL didn’t get to see INDEX as their team was dissolved. In fact, going by performance, they could, and maybe should, have been eliminated this year too. Sadly, a good team, led by a maverick creative man SB, lost out. Luckily for us, it meant we acquire 2 people from that team, and VB, the IT guy, turned out to be a complete asset, and was a constant strength there on.
Other good teams would be the PComs (they could get the company to give them the questionnaire too.. power of contacts.. though we had, and used ours too). Other teams were also good, but we were sure they would do very well in some areas, and poor in the others. Our aim was to be consistently good, and win comprehensively. Most others, were playing for the fun of it, for the learning, and for everything else. We were in for just one thing – winning the Gold, and not being satisfied with the Silver, as someone said, you never win the Silver, you always lose the Gold. This I guess was the biggest difference, and it would have showed in the hours we put in.
This was done, and my internship helped a lot, as we made a 15 page questionnaire, which couldn’t ever be implemented fully in the game design. But when in INDEX, who bloody cares:). You just have to know the system to beat it. We knew it for sure.
Stage 4: Game Design
Possibly the most enjoyable phase of the process, where we collectively turned into story writers and directors. Juniors came to the fore here, and we landed on a great suspense thriller for our theme, which would fully disguise our research on CSDs. (INDEX stands for Information through Disguised Exchanges). This was where VB came to the fore, and frankly, he and VTG worked magic with the presentation, as everyone else contributed some bits to the story line. We were sure we would have rocked this one, as everyone heard and loved our story :D.. being story writers is very cool by the way :)
Stage 5: Prop Design and INDEX Fair
This was the most fun last year for us, as juniors. Sadly, this turned out to the most gruesome experience for me this year. All the fun was gone, all things that looked so good last year, appeared to be things and tasks and check lists, and work and work and more work. This was the time I had to push people to work, and juniors, exceptional as they were, weren’t quite as motivated as we were last year. This year, we never worked from 5 pm to 5 am, which was the norm with MP in charge last year.
For the first time, I knew we weren’t possibly working as hard as our competition. Still, we managed well, and I was hopeful everyone would at least enjoy this phase of creativity, acting and pure, unadulterated fun. Yet, I was the one ruining it for people most of the time, and that remains the biggest regret in the entire INDEX experience over the two years.
Still, we had our stall, we had our customs, our props, our decorations and most importantly, our actors. Some idiots were famous for sending shivers down the entire stall with their screams of. “aaaahh.. katta hua haath” :P.. But it was fun. Except for the time professors came for the inspection though. We knew, we hadn’t done too well here, but still, we had possibly the second highest appearances in the city newspapers, after Balika Vadhu of course. Pretty decent result in terms of popularity.
One more side track, was our own CD and the matters of the heart. He got an extra pair of French hands to help with the Prop Making, and what we got was some extra pairs of distracted eyes, and two constantly open mouths. And yes, we lost CD too :). But we sure did have some fun. Thanks CD :D. And yeah, don’t think CDs a bad self centered guy. He’s not. He sacrificed his personal target of getting 2 ladies numbers during INDEX for the team, and concentrated just on the French Connection. :)
Stage 6: Data Analysis, Presentation, Report and Final Results
This is the most interesting part, and where We were sure to have a BIG advantage as most teams were expected to slack off after the eventful INDEX Fair, which marks the end of INDEX for a majority of the team.
But I also realize this post is becoming LOOOOOONG. So no more torture for now. Would include it in the next post.
Concluding Lines
We always played to win. That’s why not winning hurt a lot more.
We always worked harder. That’s why others laughed at us a lot more.
We still held our chins up. That’s why we always partied together.
We partied together, celebrated together, that’s why we stayed together :)
Comments, as always, are welcome. You deserve to let off a little steam after working so hard to read this all :)
nice post.. in detail.
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