Tuesday, February 12, 2013

Columbia's Odyssey Global MBA Competition




This past weekend, I had the honor of competing alongside some of NYU Stern's finest MBA1s in Odyssey Global MBA Competition hosted by Columbia.

The event pitted 8 schools - that managed to overcome the travel chaos associated with Nemo - against each other. After hearing from a phenomenal set of C-level executives, each school kicked off the competition by giving an entrepreneurial pitch that centered around reverse innovation. Our team opted to introduce a Vitamin A product that helped to treat Vitamin A deficiency in the developing world and served as an anti-aging product in developed markets.

During the second round, we had our hands full as we went head to head against London Business School in negotiations. Playing the role of "Lo-Mart", we managed to drive the discussion in our favor and finished with the highest score out of all competing teams.

After frantically pulling together a deck with recommendations for Walmart's entry into the India market in a little under 2.5 hours, we were happy to learn that we came in 3rd place overall! Definitely some room for improvement there, but I was very much pleased with the team's effort! And I most certainly have a newfound respect for all of my consulting friends that frequently compete in casing competitions.

Big shout out to Crystal Ung, Jonathan Pan (our fearless leader), Elizabeth Neary and Joshua Trott! Couldn't have asked for a better team.

To learn more about the competition, check here

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