L.I.M.E. – Kick-off and First Half!

‘Red, Blue & Black’. Not a conventional team name, one would say. Afterall we all have been more accustomed to seeing teams being named ‘The Invincibles’ or the likes. On the other hand, our team wanted to keep it simple and different. We wanted the team name to speak what our team stands for. Our team consisted of two hardcore football fans, one being a true ‘Red Devil’ (Manchester United fan), one being a ‘Blue’ to the core (Chelsea fan), and black being the favorite color of the third person. Fierce competitors and yet best friends! The team came together when we started working on another competition and soon it was clear that there was more that we wanted to do, we wanted to catch the big fish. What better than LIME, we thought.

The case study provided to us was about BIG 92.7 FM. The private radio industry in India is witnessing rapid growth since the phase II licensing rules were implemented. However, the share of radio in the advertising spend across mediums has remained stagnant or experienced slow growth. Moreover, due to regulations in the industry, the private radio stations were finding it very difficult to differentiate through content, and hence competition for listeners (and therefore, advertisers) was heating up. A price war situation had developed.

The challenges at hand for our team were pretty complex, we needed to represent BIG 92.7 FM and devise strategies to: increase market share in the category, grow category and increase penetration to keep audience engaged, build greater relevance in the eyes of advertisers to move up the value chain in the eyes of the clients and increase the revenues through advertisements.

And so the work began. The next few days saw a lot of brainstorming, secondary research, discussions about the objectives of primary research, designing the tools for the research to be conducted, and analyzing the ideas and their possible impact. After burning the midnight oil for several nights, we were able to put across a crisp one page executive summary to be submitted to the Head of Department – Marketing at IIM Indore, Prof. Sabita Mahapatra. To be honest, we were quite satisfied with the kind and amount of work we had put in for the report. And yet we were extremely nervous. The nervousness grew as the time for results drew closer.

Good news was delivered through the placement office when it was announced that we were amongst the two teams shortlisted by Prof. Mahapatra for the campus round of LIME. The relief on our faces could be noticed from a distance! We were happy to be amongst the top two, an achievement in itself keeping in mind the high level of competition at IIM Indore. As the happiness seeped in, so did the realization, the realization that the battle was ON! We definitely did not want to be the losing finalists, the team that came so close and yet remained so far. We fastened our seat belts and got ready for the tasks ahead, for we knew it would be a long drawn battle and raising the white flag wasn’t an option.

More work followed in the following days. We worked tirelessly towards increasing the depth of the suggested ideas, trying to work them out to ground level implementation; refining the research we conducted; trying to ensure we had built a comprehensive package come Nov 12. Classes, one end-term, three quizzes and numerous submissions went a long way in making our life that much tougher.

Time is a very funny concept! When you are trying to meet a deadline, it seems to be in a great rush. No sooner that we started working on improving our deliverables on the case and improvising on the ideas we realized that the time was nearly up! Nov 11 had arrived, and it brought with itself the arrival of the CNBC crew on campus to shoot a few bytes, in the time that the teams could take out in between the jam-packed academic session and looking at finalizing the presentation which would prove to be very crucial. Packing all the ideas along with reasoning and implementation into a 3 minute presentation was always going to be an extremely challenging task. We decided that with the amount of data we needed to talk about, there wasn’t going to be room for us to change speakers in the middle of the presentation, and hence only one presenter would be needed.

The other team was shot first as we had our exams. When told about the logic behind our team name, the CNBC team wanted to do a something different with the shoot of our team. It was decided that we would be playing a game footsie during the shoot. All excited about the television shoot, we were just about beginning to get ready to move to the venue when the rain gods intervened! Heavy rains at IIM Indore meant that the shoot could not take place that night. We would now need to shoot the next day, the BIG day for both the teams on campus. To be honest, given a choice we wouldn’t have agreed to shooting on the day of the presentation, but then things don’t always work your way!

After the much ado and wait, the D day did come along. While the previous night ended very late, the day started very early for us, as we had to meet the CNBC TV 18 crew for our shoot. But nonetheless the excitement amongst the three of us prevailed and we got all ready to face the camera for the first time in our lives. The first shoot went on very smoothly. It was fun shooting the same sequence from multiple angles, and what added to the fun quotient was the curious look on the passerby’s faces (most of whom were our batchmates and juniors) when they saw us playing footsie and being followed closely by a camera. The mantra was simple, don’t look into the camera and try to be natural! Honestly, we have no idea about how natural we looked infront of the camera, as we haven’t seen the footage yet! We gave it our best and the CNBC team was satisfied with the bytes they got out from us.  We were later called in for the toss. And by toss, they didn’t mean a simple flip of a coin. It was rather a ‘fatal-triples-table tennis match’. Best of 3 points, simple! The table was set; both the teams were ready as we started playing table tennis. Our team lost the toss and was asked to be the last team to present.

Just after the shoot we again got back to our preparations. We knew that not even a minute could be wasted that day as we were packed with classes and two quizzes too. We tried to use our time judiciously and made sure that we had all the facts, inferences and arguments on our minds. As evening approached, the anxiety within us soared higher and higher. While our palms and feet turned cold, we were still confident about our presentation because of the efforts and toil that went into making it.

The coveted hour soon came along and we were in the auditorium all suited up, ready to present before the esteemed jury. The auditorium was abuzz with people from both the batches and also some of our professors. The first look at the stage did frankly take us aback. The CNBC crew had done magnificent work in the auditorium to make it look as splendid a set as there could be! So much so that for a minute, we were unable to recognize our own auditorium! We all boosted each other’s morale and that is where we feel we were the strongest. The team spirit was at an all time high, though we were certainly under pressure to complete the huge presentation in a span of just 3 minutes.

After the morning Table Tennis match it was decided that the competing team would go in first, so while they made their presentation we were again infront of the camera sharing how we felt then and about our preparation level and also discussed our strategy for those 3 minutes and for the QnA round. Soon we were on the stage, with all eyes fixed on us. The stopwatch started and so did our presentation. Presenting infront of a live audience and knowing that there were multiple cameras shooting us was an enthralling experience. The nervousness stayed on for a few seconds, but once we hit second gear, it was all gone. We felt as if we belonged there, testing our acumen against the other team, trying to prove our mettle infront of the esteemed jury and live audience, battling it out for supremacy in the campus!

At the end of it, we were happy with our performance, and while we waited for the result, we found ourselves infront of the camera yet again! By now, we had grown comfortable enough with the camera to start enjoying facing it. We just about completed describing our on stage experience when we were called in for the results. It was finally going to be the time that time for which we had waited all these days, the time that was to bring in the fruits for the seeds we sowed. As the beautiful anchor announced ‘.. And the winning team is Team Red, Blue & Black’, the three of us jumped with joy. We were very happy that the esteemed jury liked our presentation and that they appreciated our research and the attention to every detail that we gave.

Without a doubt the three of us were on cloud nine that moment. Our hard work did pay off. Our friends, families and professors were all proud of us. With the photo shoot and the customary congratulation wishes that followed we indeed felt like celebrities that day.

But we know that this was not the end, we know that this was just the beginning, the beginning to an experience of a lifetime. We know that the onus of bringing glory to our institute is now in our hands, and we are all geared to face the challenge once again. The battle was won, but the war has just begun! As Robert Frost once wrote:

“The woods are lovely, dark and deep.
But I have promises to keep,
And miles to go before I sleep,
And miles to go before I sleep.”

(post also available at www.limeonline.in)

Advertisement