Earlier today, I judged the IMC finals on Citibank Clear Card. It felt strange to be on the other side of the coin, this time being the evaluator and throwing the comments/ questions to the presentors. Given that it will be one of my major assignments next year, the client side of me really wanted to get good ideas for Clear. On the other hand, the alumni part of me understood that the students were most likely lacking in sleep and were running on empty. So I was compassionate and quite nice with my questioning. In fact, in some questions that Dr K threw, I even helped them along in the answering...
The SDL presentation was really the best one, objectively speaking. Dr K kept teasing me that they were my favorite, because I myself was an SDL-er. But, really, I honestly think they had a very good deck-- in fact, I want to show it to Citibankers on Monday. They had good research data to back up their strategy, and they defended their plan well. There was a solid link between different parts of their plan, and the budget they worked with was also very realistic. Even how they handled Q&A was impressive. :)
That wasn't the most interesting part though. What really caught me offguard was the team spirit in both blocks. During my time (yuck, that was 3 years ago), our block was united, but when it came to these presentations, it was each team for itself. Some of your close friends may come and attend your session, but mostly, each group just sort of fended for itself when time came to face the panel.
This batch is very different, though. In both presentations, the blockmates were all in attendance to show support and, in most cases, to serve as the cheering squad. Every praise given by the judges were met with an enthusiastic round of cheers and applause. Take note that today is a Saturday. Those other blockmates had no other reason to be in school today but to pull for their respective teams.
Also, the team spirit was very strongly felt in that they regarded team victory or defeat as block victory or defeat. When the SDL Citibank team was pronounced the winner of today's presentations, as well as the overall winner of the finals, the entire block jumped up and down and some were even crying with joy! Haha! I found it so funny! It may have been OA from an outsider's point of view, but considering the amount of stress and pressure the last few weeks must have been, along with the immense pressure to finally win 1 of the pitches (out of the 4 brands this sem, SDL only won one, which is the presentation today. But, sweet, they also won overall.), I think it was just normal, if not expected. It was also cute how those that lost their own presentation cheered and celebrated their blockmates' victory. You rarely see that kind of unity these days, especially in corporate settings.
Hehe. Needless to say, I had a lot of fun today. At times, I found myself reminiscing and recounting some presentations I had myself. But on the overall, nah, I think I like being client better =P
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