Mix of East meets West captures best International Team award

The mix of East and West proved too colourful and powerful a combination in the Singaporean-Kenyan-American team, as shown in their win at the Intaglio Business challenge organised by the Indian Institute of Management- Calcutta. Team member An Li Shin (MBA, Year 2) shares on his team's winning formula.

We flew off from Singapore on 20 December, excited and very much looking forward to our first visit to India’s second most populous city Kolkata; the country’s best MBA school, the Indian Institute of Management Calcutta (IIMC); the prestigious Intaglio MBA competition; and a chance to experience Christmas in the Hindu country.

Kolkata was very much alive even at 11 in the evening; the roads were filled with India’s ubiquitous yellow taxicabs, horns blaring and throngs of people moving about in the streets. The Kolkata university was established as India’s first national institute for Post-Graduate Studies and Research in Management by the Government of India in November 1961 in collaboration with Alfred P. Sloan School of Management (MIT), the Government of West Bengal, The Ford Foundation and Indian industry.

The opening ceremony of the competition commenced on our second day there, and we got our first chance to meet our fellow competitors, many coming from India’s 25 prestigious postgraduate universities as well as other international teams from Harvard, Wharton and Kellogg. This was truly an international field and the standard was certainly going to be very high.

Given the prestige and interest of the competition, we were interviewed on Indian television. That evening, IIMC spared no expense and hosted us to a corporate dinner at the exclusive 5-star Taj Bengal Hotel. That dinner also served as a recruiter’s night as we met guests from firms such as UBS and Morgan Stanley. Incidentally, all of IIMC 2005 MBA students have already been placed; the average foreign salary was above US$90,000. That night we made many new friends, and wined and dined like kings, but at the back of our minds was the challenge we’ll face the following day.

Gruelling process
Competitions on Day 3 began as early as 9am and the day’s program lasting till half past midnight. Competitions typically started with an elimination round followed by a final presentation round for the best eight teams. Each competition was based on a field taught in MBA, such as operations, economics and finance, marketing, strategy and human resource. A total of 12 competitions were held over the two days.

We had earlier been selected out of over 160 contesting groups for the finals of “Philips: Sound of Music”, which was the second most prestigious event. Present to judge the event were Philips’ Marketing Director for India as well as their General Manager for Engineering. The seven other finalists were all very current and impressive in their presentation. However, the judges liked our presentation and commented that our business proposal was both very practical and similar to what they had in mind.
Hooray! We had won our first event!!!

Between competitions, we attended seminars, workshops and discussions led by senior officers from firms such as Mckinsey, Bank of America, Wipro and Morgan Stanley. The organizing committee had certainly made Intaglio to be more than a competition, but also a place of learning and networking, with ample opportunities to engage with prominent industry leaders, plus the night party, dance performance and even a rock performance.

Charm offensive
Day four was truly special for us. We met Ms Susan Abraham from Kellogg School of Management, and as she was without a team. Ryan and I teamed up with her to contest for the most prestigious event in Intaglio, the “Mckinsey Consulting Knights” challenge. When only the top MBA graduates get placed with investment banking and consulting firms, this was truly an event for the best. We sat down late in the morning to go through over 50 pages of data in preparation for our presentation to be held later that evening. Imagine our horror when we found out that the event was brought forward to 2pm!

With splitting headaches and empty stomachs, we put together a pretty decent presentation and headed to the event. One by one the various teams gave impressive presentations filled with numbers and ideas, and we knew that we were up against some very sharp minds. As this was an interactive presentation intended to replicate a true consulting environment, the judges gave piercing comments and were relentlessly driving contestants up the wall with seemingly impossible situations and requests.

When our turn came, undaunted, Susan gave what I considered an outstanding performance, with her charm and humility shining through in clear and eloquent speeches. Ryan softened the judge’s stand by inquiring to understand better the reasons behind their requests and I closed the session by offering solutions that best met their requirements. In the end, the judges were impressed with Susan’s grace, Ryan’s gentle approach and my thoughtfulness—the mix of East meets West proved too colourful and potent to deny, and the Singaporean-Kenyan-American team came out tops!

At the closing ceremony, we did NUS proud and were given a plaque for our special performance as the Best International Team, especially for winning the top 2 Intaglio events sponsored by Mckinsey and Philips, a first in Intaglio history, which together accounted for more than 15 per cent of the total prize money.

Although our flight was scheduled at 10pm, remembering the distinctively krazy and khaotic Kolkata traffic, we left early with heavy hearts and warm goodbyes, forever cherishing our moment in India.

In December 2005, Ryan Mbagaya, An Li Shin and Masano Kazuhiko set off for India to represent NUS in the Intaglio Business challenge organized by the Indian Institute of Management-Calcutta (IIM-C). They won the best International Team award by capturing the first place in both the Philips Sound of Music contest and the McKinsey Consulting Knights contest.

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