I still distinctly remember the tension and nervousness in the room. Participants were staring at each other, hoping that it would be their team that would clinch the title. It was the moment we were waiting for - announcement of the winners. The next thing I remember is my team screaming with joy.
The time between those two moments passed in a jiffy as if I became numb. For a few seconds, I couldn’t believe my ears! It was a moment of pure joy and elation. When our team of three had set out on the HeadstaRt journey around a month back, little did we know that it would culminate into something so fulfilling. Emotions have never gripped me so tightly ever before. It took me a few seconds to come back to my senses and head to the stage to collect our mantle!
We knew ABG HeadstaRt to be a premier corporate competition for HR domain and probably the biggest opportunity to test our skills as an aspiring HR professional. One other inspiration to choose HeadstaRt was that, the team from our senior batch at SIBM were the National Finalists in 2017. Since it was hosted within the first three months of our joining SIBM, we were even more enthusiastic and motivated, and wanted to give it our best shot.
We had to qualify two rounds of business simulation exercises before the final case study was revealed. The part that we found the most exciting was that, it was based on real-time business problems faced by the conglomerate. We were required to submit the solution within 4 days. Those 4 days seemed so challenging yet so enriching. We didn’t leave any stone unturned. As a part of our primary research, we collected relevant ideas by reaching out to a number of faculty members, friends, former colleagues, industry veterans, etc. We enclosed ourselves within the walls of numerous articles and research papers on similar topics for the secondary research.
The finale for HeadstaRt 2018 was held at Mumbai and there were 8 teams from premier B-schools in the country fighting for the title. The entire event was brilliantly organised by Aditya Birla Group and even though we were a bit tense, we enjoyed every single bit of it. The support and cheering which we received before the presentations from the star-studded panel of judges really propelled us to do our best. The chance to interact with such stalwarts face-to-face and hear their thoughts on the topic was an exciting opportunity in itself. The humility with which they spoke about their rich practical experiences over the years was beyond comparison. It showed us how important it was to be grounded to your roots irrespective of the heights one reaches in their lives.
All in all, HeadstaRt 2018 was an experience to cherish for a lifetime. I feel indebted to ABG for giving us this platform and I am eagerly looking forward to work on more such real-life problems and know more about the conglomerate during my internship.