BCG & Opera Case Study competitions-alternate shortlisting procedure!

Earlier, I'd blogged about how companies are increasingly using competitions/games/contests as a way to gauge the interest levels and quality of students on campus, while spending relatively little(for the amount of information they gather) money/resources. Read this earlier post for some background(http://iimaexperiences.blogspot.com/2011/02/how-corporates-are-using-contestsgames.html). Recently, I'd the privilege of participating in the BCG case study competition on campus, where one works on a past BCG client problem (suitably annoynmized) and proposes solutions to the same. Among the initial entries, some teams(10 in this year) were shortlisted for presenting their case to a Partner and a Project Leader of BCG, who travel to campus for that purpose.While my team did not win that competition, there were many interesting lessons from that competition.

While working on the problem, I learnt a lot about my interest and tolerance level for typical issues faced during consulting such as contradictory data, data mining, ambiguity, multiple facets of a problem etc. While the avowed aim of having fun was not truly achieved, I did learn a lot about the sector by arranging expert interviews, conducting secondary research etc. While BCG thankfully mandated keeping the use of outside data to the minimum(thus giving premium to analytics), the same was still needed to form a perspective on the industry, and help those new to the industry.

The final interview shortlists did reflect a slight bias towards those participating and getting shortlisted for the finals of those competitions. The conventional CV based shortlisting model(using academics/extra currics etc) was supplemented by using that competition as a tool. Even Opera Consulting had conducted a competition based on their work profile of 'Big Data', and gave a shortlist to some participants who would otherwise have not received a shortlist based on their CVs alone.

If we define the Moneyball approach as creatively using alternate metrics to analyze, then these firms deserve an A+. Participation(and doing well) in these competitions ensures students self select themselves for the roles, and give the firm a small work sample of how they would perform on the job. Hence, one must admire that. Other companies are also doing the same as evident in the large number of competitions by Pepsi/LearnwithFlip/Tata Business Leadership Competitions etc which offer preplacement interviews/interview shortlists to those performing well in those competitions. While campuses like IIM Ahmedabad do not permit contest based PPIs/PPOs to the winners, nothing stops those companies from coming down to campus and anyway doing the same.

Plans are useless, but planning is indispensable

Be it business plan competitions, consulting case competitions, interviews, exam preparation or otherwise, I've seen the best laid plans fail. For instance, during the interviews for 2011 summer internships, the batch of 2010-12 largely saw HR based questions, stumping a few who had overly focused on technical questions. During business plan competitions, juries routinely focus on just those parts of the plan(such as organizational structure, hiring) which teams have missed out. Interviews for Bschool may go on a tangent discussing hobbies/current affairs etc instead of the candidate's stellar work experience/academic grades. And of course, entrepreneurs would know that even the best laid plans have to be frequently revised. So what is the value of planning if anyway it will fail? During the Ideafest(conducted at IIM-A by the student bodies Entrepreneurship Club and Public Policy SIG), one of the venture capitalists said that 'Plans are useless, but planning is indispensable', in the context that while he did not give undue importance to the business plans which tend to be positively biased anyways, that is evidence that the entrepreneurs have given some thought to their plan and addressed the obvious issues atleast.

In my view, the advantage of background work and planning is that it

1. Gives the person confidence to face any level of grilling, and that confidence comes across while evaluation on the 'softer aspects'
2. Makes the person learn a lot about the idea/subject, and may even make him drop the plan/modify it
3. Separates those who can execute from those who merely dream. 

I do not say that planning is just about making nice excel models and verbose business plans. It is not. Doing your own market research/ground work/talking to people/field testing prototype-all these 'real world' activities constitute planning and are viewed much more favorably than planning totally based on secondary research. The above was what I saw in IIM-A as well, where professors from industry gave top grades to projects demonstrating real industry insights, while most academics could not care less.

The power of simplicity-oft ignored during MBA

Jack Trout wrote a book 'The Power of Simplicity'(http://www.amazon.com/Power-Simplicity-Jack-Trout/dp/0070653623) in which he implored managers to keep things as simple as possible. The message is not new-we must have heard about KISS(Keep it short/simple), Occman's razor(look for the simplest explanation possible) and the dictum of simplifying to the extent possible but not further. Yet, MBA with its stress on analytics and presentation skills lays an apparent premium on making things complicated. Those with the most animated slides, longest frameworks and the gift of the gab win in terms of class participation, grades in Organizational Behaviour/Marketing courses and (sometimes) peer admiration. And this carries in the second year.

There are many competitions which ultimately boil down to the contestants having to make presentations to a jury. Judges of the numerous bschool competitions around are often so underprepared that they rarely take time to understand the case/topic statement and instead go by their assessment of the efforts/understanding of the candidate. Few try to reward output instead of inputs. While those working in industry often demand short slides/sticking to the point, academics just love tonnes of references/exotic frameworks and making things as complicated as possible.

I'm sure that I lost atleast 2 competitions this year only because there was little work done on decorating the slides. While I do not deny the importance of that(indeed thats an important takeaway), it sometimes make me wonder whether form trumps substance. When judges must make decisions based on short periods of 15-20min presentations, their gut feeling may often be suppressed by their urge to seem fair and reward those teams who put the most visible efforts(as evident from the slide artwork/complexity), even if the final output in terms of analytic rigour/novelty was not as good. But lest anyone misunderstand, I refer to simplicity in presentation, not in background work/analytical rigour.

Ironically, the real world rewards simplicity. For example

1. VCs/PEs follow the approach of backing the team behind the idea rather than spreadsheet based investing approach
2. Charlie Munger is famous for using a few time tested heuristics to invest, rather than use complicated DCF models
3. Even for apparently complex investment banking models,there are a host of simplifying assumptions listed on a spreadsheet, which flow through the model and permit easy modification.
4. Corporate Finance trends are that dashboards(with those vital few stats) are being generated, and the number of MIS reports sent are being slashed, with expert DSS allowing on-demand analysis.
5. Unilever recently moved to the '3+1' performance system model with everyone from the CEO downwards having just 3 business goals and 1 development goal. This allows for better focus.

College festivals/competitions-win/win for all parties involved

Till I was involved in the organizing of a national level financial competition open to select Bschools, I used to wonder what is it in for anyone to organize events? I was taking the rather naive view of people not apparently getting anything out of taking part in it, sponsoring it or organizing it. But after my own experience, and after watching other events at close range, I have got some insights about what each participant gets from everyone.

1. Sponsors(private sector) see their sponsorship as campus relations and building the brand as attractive career destination. Hence, pitching to them demands hard nosed ROI.
2. Sponsors(public sector) see this more as CSR than an activity demanding marketing ROI. Hence, they are a bit more easier to convince.
3. Organizers:-These are typically student run clubs, which want to hold these events to get CV points, and build their club prominence. 
4. Participants:-Besides getting prize money, participation certificates etc, the participants get to usually travel to a new campus(expense partly paid), gauge their competition of other bschools and network with others. 
5. Judges:-These may be faculty, industry experts or businessmen. Especially for business plan contests, VCs may consent to judge those of premier bschools, so that they can get new ideas. Corporates may agree so that they can gauge the relative quality of Bschools from their teams.

Hence, the next time you are organizing an event, don't be despondent. The business case looks harder than what it is. Having a good brand like IIM-A helps for all the above, but otherwise also doable.

Non elite colleges winning bschool competions-top bschools losing their mojo?

Recently, while thinking about the results of various Bschool competitions held this year(and where IIMA teams also participated), it struck me that teams from lesser known colleges(other than IIM Ahmedabad, Bangalore, Calcutta and Lucknow) are increasingly winning more events, For instance,

1. ISB and IIM Indore were the only 2 Indian teams(out of 6 global teams) to qualify for the NUS Global case study competition
2. Teams from these 2 colleges,also won the IIM-A organized finance competition covering 4 domains of corporate banking, derivatives, private equity.  MDI Gurgaon came third, competing against IIMA/C/L/S and JBIMS.
3. IIFT won the CFA Investment Research Challenge(National round and North round). Even the other zonal finalists were IFMR, IIM Shillong and SJSOM(IIT Bombay).
4. Winners of events at business festivals at the IIMs, are typically from the lesser known colleges like NMIMS, SP Jain, FMS, IBS
5. Team from MDI(Gurgaon) won the Airtel Challenge(a marketing case study competition open to select bschools)

The saving grace was that true to their name, IIM Ahmedabad teams won a Spanish bschool marketing case,  Cognizant Challenge and M&M War Room, all premier national/international level strategy case study competitions. An IIM-Calcutta team won the BNP Paribas global level finance simulation game at the Paris Finals earlier this year. And I'm sure IIM Bangalore/Lucknow would also have some accolades to their names.So maybe we can conclude that the big ticket awards would go to the IIMSs?

But these exceptions are fewer each year. A classmate who participates in these events more actively than I do, tells me that this trend is pretty much live and kicking-that the lesser known bschools emerge from nowhere to take away the prizes. Now, the reasons for this could be

1. Self Selection:-Those who value CV points/money will enter these events, while those who have earned enough from summer internships(like many IIM students) won't.
2. Need to prove themselves-Because they are 2nd they try harder:-I would say this is a major point.
3. Not busy/overworked unlike IIMABC/(some extent L):-This is true for participation by first year students, not so for second year students so much, but the fact remains that atleast at IIM-A, one does not get academic leave for taking part in competitions elsewhere.
4. Biased Judging by organizers/prejudice against IIMs-a leading Bschool(some say the least expensive in India) selected 1/3rd of the 50 finalists from an online simulation game from its college, and the winner was also from that college(based on subjective criteria). Need I say more?
5. Career Choice of students-these events are biased towards those with a marketing/general management orientation, of which there are fewer in the top 4 bschools-many opt for Consult/Finance roles.

Whatever the reasons be, one should factor that in before concluding that the top bschools are losing their mojo. At the same time, it is also an object lesson not to underrate those from other bschools.