Graduate Studies Blog
Article by Narendra and Isabell
Nanyang MBA Class of 2017
Case competitions are an important add-on of the Nanyang MBA programme! There are various competitions throughout the year on regional and world-wide level.
Even though our schedules can be tight and we already have lots of activities also outside of class with Social and Business Clubs, for the Case Competitions are always numerous volunteers who love to represent our school! They spent hours and hours on preparation to show the best what they got during intense competition.
Here are some insights by current full-time Nanyang MBA (2016/2017) Participant Narendra Pingale from his experience at the Mahindra War Room:
It was the 9th season of the Mahindra War Room and it is one of the most competitive events for B-schools in India. This is the first time that Mahindra has reached out to 4 International colleges and they plan to include more international colleges in the coming years.
To give an overview, this competition stretches over a course of 3 months and ensures that students carry out intensive research and craft strategic plans for the many businesses Mahindra is involved in. Once the participants choose a case, they have to present the same case in both the local and final rounds.
During the 2 days in Mumbai, we met students from Indian and International B-schools. It was great to meet fellow MBAs and to understand the different perspectives they had to offer. Coincidentally, out of the 4 cases available, all 4 international schools chose the same case to present to the management of Mahindra. It was also interesting to see how the various ideas and strategies from the 4 schools were presented for the same case.
Apart from meeting people from other business schools and the learning we had therein, there were 2 particular experiences that would be memorable for all of us:
- Getting to meet Mr Anand Mahindra (CEO of Mahindra group)
- Getting to try a Formula-E simulator where you can get a feel of driving an actual Formula-E car.
Anand Mahindra (far left) and NTU Prof. Vijay Sethi (third from the right) with the Nanyang MBA Team (left to right): Narendra Pingale, Bohao Zou, Deeksha Bajaj, and Gregory Liew
Participating in such competitions provide us with a great learning opportunity as we get to present in front of top management of a conglomerate, research thoroughly on the topic chosen to the extent we develop very good understanding of the market and industry, and learn a lot from our peers.
From the judges asking challenging questions, we learnt that it is critical to back all our suggestions and proposals with solid facts and figures. They delve a lot into how we came up with our solutions and on what evidence we based our solutions on.
Overall, it was an invaluable learning journey which added depth and value to our overall MBA experience, and more importantly, all of us had a lot of fun as well.”
Group Picture at the competition
Look out for more blog posts on case competitions, as the Nanyang MBA themselves will be hosting two case competitions in Singapore in the coming months!
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