Amit’s e-world

Moving away from my factual weekly descriptions, I am taking some time today to write about some of my learnings about being in a diverse group.

If I look back at my career at Accenture, I was surrounded by people who were pretty similar to me in terms of their career goals, their understanding of situations within projects, etc. Not to say that there weren’t any differences, but above the underlying individualistic differences, there was a commonality that led most of us to assume a certain ‘obvious’ element during our interactions, that did not need to be stated. However, the same does not work when people in a team are so diverse that there can be no “assumed unsaid” element. If I am sounding like “diversity  is a recipe for disaster”, that’s not really what I want to convey. The point that I want to drive home is that in a diverse setting, rules & facts need to be clearly defined.

One of the real benefits of diversity is that it gives you an opportunity to discover your strengths. If people around you are very differently skilled, they will do even the most routine activities (”routine” for you) so differently that you will begin to notice & realise how you do the activity & what are the advantages of you doing the activity that way. This is when you realise your real strengths.. the hidden ones that you are so good at, that you have always exhibited them instinctively and you never realised that they were your strengths.

Diversity in a group will almost always stop you from making that grave mistake or missing that grave point in a group deliverable. In our ATK presentation, we (none of us, individually) never really realised that we needed to substantiate our arguments with numbers. The other teams did it, because they had people in their team who saw the need to so. The other teams also made a few mistakes in their presentations, but I could see that those were mistakes. Most of these mistakes could have been avoided if there was an additional different / diverse perspective within the groups.

Now, I will divert my attention from you for the moment. I will be back with another post next weekend - the Accounting WAC weekend.

We were occupied for the most of Monday and the early part of Tuesday managing our first WAC. The topic was fairly interesting - deciding on senior executive remuneration. I think that writing this blog has helped me to a certain extent in managing the WAC without a sleepless Monday night. I managed to get my 1500 words in the report before the clock struck 11 in the night. And then I spent Tuesday morning collating the team appendices and submitted my report by 12. The only real concern I have about my report that it doesn’t look like an economist’s report on senior executive remuneration. And, that is a big concern. WACs are meant to help us apply theoretical concepts to reports. Anyways, I will decide whether to change my writing style depending on the marks that I get in this one.

We also had a networking meet at L’Oreal London. There were quite a few alumni who had made it to global companies. It was quite a well-organised event and it was very useful and informative to meet everyone. The only pain point being that it was too long. We had at our disposal fiive hours to network. That’s a good amount of time to make connections, but bad for the legs. Amongst all this, I am really starting to admire Cranfield as a practical school. Just a day before the networking event, we had a briefing from the Careers team about how to network and we practised it LIVE, the very next day. On the one hand, there are B-schools that believe in getting the best companies on campus and getting students employed, and on the other hand, Cranfield not only believes in getting reputed companies on campus, but also equipping its students with necessary skills to keep finding the right jobs forever, through a focus on networking, career planning, stock-taking etc.

Friday was the day when the three ATK finalists went through the final challenge to decide who would be crowned the school winners. We (The Cinnamon Club) were scheduled first. We did a reasonable job in the presentation and Q&A; however somewhere in my gut I knew that one of the other teams was quite strong. More so, because three members of the other team (E3B) are in my learning team. Eventually, we won the runners-up prize a cool 250 euros. My biggest takeaway from this event was the opportunity to present in front of a high profile panel, as also the feedback that we received at the end of the competition. This competition has given all of us a real feel for consulting and I am sure everybody thoroughly enjoyed it.

The Cinnamon Club (my team) made it to the Top-3 list of Cranfield. We are now all set to present our plan to an elite panel comprising of members of faculty and an AT Kearney board that includes an AT Kearney principal. Wow!!!… We are now really close to fulfilling our goal of having a team lunch at the Cinnamon Club in London. Now you know where we get our name from. Its been a nice competition in more ways than one. First, it allowed us to get a sense of what consulting is all about. The simulation interviews held last week were very helpful to understand how should questions be phrased to get the information you need - and in quick time. Our selection to the Top-3 also accredits that we did a good job in our presentations. Now comes the experience of presenting a strategy to a group of seniors and justify your strategy. Second, it is a very good opportunity to think big and apply the concepts that we learnt in class, and in fact learn more. Through this competition, I am discovering what pieces within Management Consultancy I prefer more than others.

The Cinnamon Club is now pitted against Guanxi and E3B. Coincidentally, E3B has three members from my learning team. As an aside, I feel lucky that I am part of a very intelligent learning team. The results will be disclosed on the same day as presentations (Friday). I hope we clear the final hurdle to our goal - The Cinnamon Club.

Meanwhile, there is an Economics WAC (Written assessment of a case) to contend with, on Monday / Tuesday. And an Arthur De Little recruitment presentation on Tuesday. Boy… if ever there was a world that could be lived in without multi-tasking.