4 benefits of engaging in a Competition

Written by Kaustubh Shinde PGPB class of 2018

When I finalized my Business school admission, I was curious about what Business School students end up doing during first few months of business school life. I headed to MISB Bocconi to find out how my new classmates are.
The novelty week was just about finding my feet, but discovered that getting acquainted with new classmates in a relatively relaxed atmosphere is a great way to start building your network! You never know who might be instrumental to your post-MBA career. This networking got me in touch with two of the talented classmates from the crop of my peers. Studying together & hanging out post classroom sessions became an ordeal.

We won competition named KHS Opstrax 2016 at IIM Ahmedabad a Operations Case Study competition (Part of confluence 2016) and IIT Kanpur Sanchalan 2016 Operations Case Study Competition to name a few.

Suddenly during our Club sessions (MISB Bocconi has 7 fully functional clubs), we came across a Case Study Competition which could test our learnings in the domain of Operations & Consulting combined.

Today after winning 4 national level case study competitions across 4 distinct Business schools, including the likes of IIMs I could summarize 4 key takeaways that keep us motivated about competitions & classroom based learning alike.


1. Exhibit Talent – Competitions give us a platform to not only exhibit our talent but also showcase our learning & application based knowledge we gain at MISB Bocconi.

2. Showcase the ‘Winner’ tag on our CV’s – I believe that Star Performers are instantly recognizable not only because they are not afraid to show off their skills & talents but also embrace who they are. My team enters each and every competition to make a mark so that we can claim our own ‘star statuses’ within the talent recruitment community.

3. Test ideas – Competitions allow us to test our ideas to see how viable they are. We get this to test in a risk-free environment where we are able to collect and incorporate constructive feedback from peers and professionals.

4. Setting & achieving benchmarks – The first time we stepped in shoes of winners, we set a benchmark at the location we won the competition, ‘ next we are doing competition X’ For next one month we trained ourselves academically as well as on interpersonal skills & made it as winners of completion X. This taught us perseverance & preparation go hand in hand.

Just to summarize I would like to mention a quote I live by
“I am, as I’ve said, merely competent. But in an age of incompetence, that makes me extraordinary.” 
― Billy Joel