“Discourse on the Method”

I pinged someone on gtalk just like that and came to know of a case study competition at DMS, IITD Discourse on the method. In fact it was the only competition whose end date has not expired. I decided to go ahead with it. My only team member was busy with some larger issues of life. I had only 32 hours to respond, but it was determined to send atleast something. So there I was flipping the pages of the case study, in the background enlightening lecture was going on and someone was least bothered about it.

Night passed away and now only 20 hours were left. Till now I just knew vaguely about the case, and nothing about ERP and change management, the theme of the case. I sat down and started with something. That something was almost nothing. But they say nothing is impossible. Hence I decided to hang on, Googling in a hope to come out with something meaningful.

One fine moment, destiny took its turn, and one found someone who was compassionate enough to share my passion. He was nothing less than “manna from heaven” for me. Leveraging the synergy we two started to come out with something meaningful. Another 6 hours of effort and we were half way through. But now only 2 hours were left and our hopes to produce a winning doc were fading away. In no way we could have done justice to the case study in 2 hours.

I had a hope that deadline for the submission will be extended, so I kept checking the website. Finally I was proved vindictive. Now we had 17 more hours.

By 2 AM we were able to produce first draft of the doc. We needed more time. But our eyes and mind were not with us anymore, we had to go for a sleep.

Next day my team mate (manna from heaven) took the pain to review and format the document. It took him 3 hours to give shape to the same but I must admit that he did a fantastic job. I pressed the send button exactly at 5.01 PM, just 1 minute late.

I had a strong intuition that we will make it and again I was proved vindictive. But the real story begins now. We had 120 hours to draft our response to the second set of question. But the catch was that we had HRM exam in 48 hours and with meager prior preparation, I needed those 48 hours for the preparation. Out of 72 hours 32 hours were reserved for travel by train. So we effectively had 2 day to prepare our response.

This prompted me to take help of some eminent personalities. Luckily I got help from one of the research scholar and our MIS Professor. They both gave us some real thought provoking ideas and practical insights on change management. As a result our response was very much practical and did not include any theoretical model on change management, which infact proved to be a blessing in disguise.

Before leaving for Delhi we had a rough idea of the presentation. At the same time, the 32 hour journey in sleeper class only added to our woes. But determined we were to utilize that time. During the course of the journey my partner (larger issue) came up with the winning idea. The idea was to put a 1 minute video showing history and culture. We were pleased with the idea but had little idea of how to go about it.

We reached Delhi at 8 AM and were suppose to meet at my partners place after 12 hours. During these 12 hours we were suppose to meet our near and dear one to recharge our batteries.

I took me 2 hours to reach to my partners place. After sumptuous dinner we sat to work on the presentation. By 3.30 AM we were able to make a nice PPT and good video, which was infact the hallmark of our presentation. I woke up at 9.30 AM and by 9.35 AM, was again on the PPT. My partner joined me at 10.30 AM and we had our first rehearsal, which made us realize that we still are half way through and lots of effort is still required.

At 12.30 AM we started for IITD. During the entire 90 minutes journey we rehearsed and discussed about the presentation. I must admit there were some butterflies in my stomach. At 3 PM the event started. As always, our presentation was the second last one. Judges were top echelons of TCS. They played heavy with the psychology of the contestants. I was more like a stress view, where the interview is ruthless. Every team received a cool thrashing from the Judges.

We started our presentation on a good note but soon received the same ruthless (purposeful) treatment. But something had already happened in the train that had already sealed our fate. THE VIDEO. We got it for our video and for the concept we used for the video. It happened all of a sudden when one the Judge announced that we are winners. Joy of winning was clearing trickling down from our faces. Next 15 minutes were even more exiting when one of the Judges shared some of his experiences of change management. His two stories turned everybody speechless and numb.

We came out of DMS, had a cup of tea (my partner will die without it) and went back to our places. But the music of victory was still playing in our minds, our hearts.

32 hours journey back and an exam was awaiting us…

JUICE WAS WORTH THE SQUEEZE