Sometime in the month of January, when the e-mail for participation in Reliance - The Ultimate Pitch 3.0 was floated, I filled the form thinking it would be a good learning experience. For those unaware, TUP - as it is commonly called - is a B-Plan competition wherein the campus winners from 25 premier B-Schools fight it out in the national round to be crowned TUP winners. Apart from the exciting prize, each team takes home memories that last a lifetime and priceless knowledge. I teamed up with Riddhi, Ayaz, and Vikramjeet (all of us were first year students back then).
Early on in the competition, we decided that we would break down our bigger aim of winning the campus round into smaller daily objectives. We put our heart and soul into making the video, taking inputs from our peers, seniors and faculty members who entertained us gladly. When we qualified as one of the only thirteen teams from among all the teams to apply in TUP to present to an eminent panel from Reliance, we knew that the journey had just begun and we would need to put in more efforts, time, and thought into refining our B-Plan.
In the campus round, we kept the presentation very simple and tried to get the judges and the audience to see the rationale in our idea. We were honest, simple, and before we knew it, our presentation was over.
We were satisfied with our effort and expected nothing more. We were elated (and surprised) when we were announced Campus Winners! After the winners were announced, Mr. Harjeet Khanduja and Mr. Saurabh Agarwal came up to us and told us that there was immense potential in our idea, and advised us to not be bound by traditional way of thinking. We could not have asked for better advice.
Now, it was time to compete in the Nationals round, and this time we were determined to win it. Keeping the panellists' advice in the back of our minds, we again sought guidance from our faculty members, peers, seniors, took appointments and met with industry experts and started gathering knowledge from wherever we could. We were determined to win TUP or at the very least give the winners a run for their money.
Reliance, being the gracious hosts that they are, had arranged a pickup car for us and we were to stay at Beverley Park for two nights. We had not even gotten over how beautiful Beverley was when we were showered with Gift Hampers, Food Packets and a TUP t-shirt, which I still wear to college with pride. Reliance had arranged for us to visit their Corporate Park RCP for an entire day as part of the Reliance Immersion Program, where we witnessed the magnanimity of Reliance first hand. It was so huge; we had to traverse around the park in a bus! They showed us the data centers that they have, their workspace, numerous canteens, the Boardroom, etc. I was most excited to hear the senior leaders come and speak to us about various topics and answer our queries in detail. We were even encouraged to approach them during tea breaks and it was then that I really understood the meaning of a truly open and approachable culture. We also shook a leg with a few employees of Reliance!
On the next day, the day of the presentation, we were all nervous. The auditorium was easily thrice the size of an auditorium that I have ever been in. We were all made to sit team wise and the panellists, few of the senior most leaders at Reliance, were seated in the front row. We were getting more and more nervous with every presentation because we thought all of them were absolutely brilliant. The memory of our presentation is still hazy. Our 3-minute video was played, after which we there was a Q&A round. Since we were carrying a prototype of our product, the judges inspected it too. The presentation went better than I had expected it to go. The panellists must have seen credit in our idea, for we were awarded a specially instituted prize! Originally, there were supposed to be only two prizes, but the panellists seemed to be divided between two ideas. So, they decided to award a prize to both the ideas, and we were over the moon! More than winning, we were excited that the panellists recognized the effort that we had put in and more so because it reinforced the validity of our idea.
The undisputed highlight of the entire trip was meeting and interacting with Mr. Mukesh Ambani himself. Our team was among the very few teams that were given the opportunity to present to Mr. Ambani. Not only did he have knowledge about our idea, he also had knowledge about all the other ideas and he gave his undivided attention and invaluable feedback to further develop our ideas. He also shared his experiences and narrated anecdotes about his father Late Shri Dhirubhai Ambani. He told us India's progress and welfare was, is, and will always be at the heart of any decision, or action that they take. I learnt from him what it means to stay connected to your roots. He taught me in the little time that I spent in his presence, how important it is to be humble and that learning is a life-long process. Interacting with Mr. Ambani was an experience that words just cannot do justice to.
Apart from handsome prize money, we were also given the opportunity to visit the world's largest and greenest refinery at Jamnagar in Reliance's chartered plane! The township at Jamnagar is a world in itself and it would take a whole new article to describe my experience there!
Standing runners up in a competition as big as Reliance - The Ultimate Pitch 3.0 was definitely the highlight of my First Year MBA, and definitely a memory that I will cherish for the rest of my life. Years from now, when I reflect back on my MBA days, this is for sure the first memory that will come to mind.