On November 11th, 2019, The Golden Eagles, representing Yonsei University GMBA, competed in the Grand Finale of the Mahindra War Room, Season 12 "Design to Disrupt" business case competition in Mumbai, India. The team, made up of exchange students to the GMBA program - Nicolò Franchini, Matteo Ravani, Layla Rohkohl, and Aycan Aslan, made GMBA history by placing 2nd Runner Up at the Grand Finale.
This year's competition marks the 12th "season" of the Mahindra War Room business case competition. The competitors this year battled fiercely through multiple rounds (including local "national" rounds) to get to the Grand Finale, held at the Sahara Sapphire, Hotel Sahara Star, in Mumbai, India. The theme of this year was "Design to Disrupt", challenging MBA students to come up with creative solutions to 14 possible cases.
Yonsei University was the only university from South Korea represented in this year's competition - one of four International Schools competing against 22 schools in India. At the local round, three teams (Golden Eagles, Revolution, & Createc) battled it out against each other in front of their peers and a panel of judges, including GMBA professors and business leaders from the Mahindra group. For weeks leading up to the local round, each team could be found ferociously going over their presentations in the Business Building's MBA study rooms - often times from the building's open to its closing hours!
Though each team presented wonderfully on the day of the national round, only one team could proceed to Mumbai to represent Yonsei - and that honor went to The Golden Eagles.
From winning the local round until competing in Mumbai there were only a short few weeks to revise and implement the judge's constructive feedback from the local round. In what must have felt like no time at all, The Golden Eagles were flying from Seoul to Mumbai in order to compete on a global stage. Despite traveling all the way to India, The Golden Eagles spent the days leading up to the competition in their hotel rooms - perfecting and tweaking their presentation. Their hard work was well rewarded as they ascended through the international round - making it all the way to the Grand Stage. The only surviving international team - The Golden Eagles came out triumphantly, winning 2nd Runner Up (which comes with a cash prize and hotel stay!).
Back at Yonsei, students and staff of GMBA were very proud of the accomplishments made by The Golden Eagles. A pizza party was held in their honor and the judges from the national round came by to congratulate The Golden Eagles in person. After eating pizza and hearing from the judges, it was time that the award winners share some insight into their Mahindra War Room journey & experience.
Nicolò : "At the beginning we didn’t know each other, but it's very, very important to work well in a team. You have to spend much time together and you will have many conflicts, and there will be many situations in which you would prefer to do something else, but you have to enjoy the time that you spend with each other." Regarding leadership and splitting of roles, "We didn't define a leader, there was no 'leader'. I consider all the guys really smart and valuable, so it was more like when you feel confident that you have the right point - the right solution, it was just about standing out and saying 'Guys, I'm sure about it. Just follow me,' and then everyone agreed on the point that this was the right decision."
Matteo: "I would like to say that regardless of the fact that we won - the greatest part was the journey, how we got there. Because at the beginning, we didn’t know each other. At the beginning it was somehow difficult to work together, but after a while, one or two months, we started to know how we worked with each other. At the end, the best part was the journey, the friendship - it’s the thing that I will remember forever - except for the fact that I went to India."
Aycan: "I think I’ve never been so comfortable so fast in a group, so it was a nice part of the journey and it was a key factor of our success at the end." Regarding research and accepting feedback, "You can do as much research as you want online but its still different than going to India, talking with Indian people and getting feedback on your solution. That’s what we did, we had the opportunity to talk to the guy who won before and he gave us valuable feedback and we actually incorporated that feedback into our solution and changed a crucial part of the solution the night before the grand finale. So I would say stay flexible and be humble enough to get that valuable feedback and change a crucial part of your solution, which isn’t an easy step but you should definitely do it. You shouldn’t be overconfident that you know more about the Indian market than you actually do.”
Layla: "At the beginning we didn’t even expect to win the first round, but at that point when we won the first round, we were very excited to go to India. It was a bit unbelievable for us, but afterwards, at this point we were at a stage where we said, 'Can we stay with the solution that we have right now? Or do we put in that much more work as we are competing with international teams.' There were some doubts in the group, because we didn’t know how much tougher the competition would be, but we pulled together and said, 'Yes we will (put in the extra work)'. It meant that we gave up some of our private lives, like some lunches or evenings in favor of extra work hours, but I think that’s what made a difference. Even when we arrived in India, we didn’t really visit India that much we prepared the presentation in our rooms and made it so that we could be satisfied with what we were presenting in the international round and the final round."
Yonsei GMBA is proud to have such talented and hard working exchange students to choose our school and program. Though they may only stay for a semester, The Golden Eagles have certainly left their mark on the school and have blazed the trail for GMBA students to return to Mumbai in next year's Mahindra War Room. Thank you Golden Eagles and congratulations once again!
#MBA, #Yonsei, #GlobalMBA, #Mahindra, #Casecompetition, #KoreaMBA, #MahindraWarRoom, #YonseiExchange
About the Winners:
Franchini Nicolò: Italy, Polytechnic University of Milan, MS in Management Engineering, Major area of study Digital Business and Market Innovation. When I am finished with my Masters I will apply for the big strategy consulting firms and hope for the best, maybe an experience in the US!
Ravani Matteo: Italy, Polytechnic University of Milan, MSc in Management Engineering, major in Finance. After graduation I'll probably apply for a position in Strategic Consulting. However, I have a great interest in everything regarding Innovation, so that I will try to move to the US to pursue my interests and work in the tech sector.
Rohkohl, Layla: Currently Master in International Business focusing on marketing, econometrics and business from the University of Tübingen, Germany. Next semester at Ewha, what comes after graduation is still up in the air.
Aycan Aslan: Germany, Georg-August Universtiy Göttingen, MSc in Global Business, Major in Information Systems. After my Master, I will either start to work as a Data Scientist or continue my work in academic research and pursue my Ph.D.
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