“The Elite Team” that was the name my group in the 2nd Edition of the Unilever Idea Trophy 2013 chose with some help from my best friend Google.
We were a group of Bachelor of Commerce students in second year and we decided to wing it. I was the team leader and we participated the first phase during end of semester exams. It was tricky and involved some pretty late nights.
Luckily, we were shortlisted and made it to the semi finals and things got even tougher. We presented in front of a panel of judges at the Red Court Hotel and managed to reach the finals. Things got even tougher as I was working full time and studying for my upcoming CPA exams and my other team mates were equally engage with work and school. Meeting to discuss our strategy was even trickier at this stage.
We had been able to sample a few presentations while at the semi finals in what we called ourselves ‘the second panel of judges’. We knew that at the finals all the ideas had a fighting chance and tried to give ours an edge.
Fortunately, we were paired up with a mentor from Unilever, the head of talent acquisition and worked hard at perfecting the idea and its presentation.
Boot camp did beckon us at the and we were only too eager to attend where we got to interact with Unilever staff. It was a really good experience and the hotel services were quite exemplary. We had some team building activities and got to make fast friends. It was all culminating to the grand finale where we presented in front of the Leadership team.
This for me was the most challenging part of the experience; ask me why… it was in a compact modern board room. Many may give you pointers on presentation tips but honestly the real deal is when you actually put on the spot to deliver your thoughts. The even trickier part was the question & answer session where even if we tried our best I still felt that there was room for improvement.
All in all, I am open to the next edition promising to really bring it and that the experience gained by being a 2013 finalist will help me and the team I choose to win. It was a really fun and challenging experience and after seeing others win, I know more than ever I want that trophy.
So I’m pretty sure for any other finalists competing next year it will be a ‘this means war’ moment.
Congratulations to the top three (Team Nexus, Team Life and Team Synergy) but beware next year the school of business- Lower Kabete campus is bringing it!
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