Can there be a recruiting process in which not only a company gets to assess candidates but also candidates get to look deep inside the company’s culture? Well, HPE has an answer for it!

On 11^th Jan, 2019, I witnessed the best recruiting process of my life. I was invited by HPE to their Houston base as part of an externship session. The externship involved a case competition among teams consisting of MBA and BBA students from Texas A&M, Rice, UT and Baylor. It was mainly aimed to assess candidates for summer internship on multiple fronts such as critical thinking, collaboration, leadership, communication, and of course – cultural fit!

Before going to the event, we were just given the basic premise of case competition and not many details beforehand. I thought it would be just another “rock the stage” with public speaking and presentation kind of a contest. However, it turned out to be quite different.

On reaching the office, Jay Reyna, Finance Leadership Development Program Manager and Marc Faulkenberry, VP - Finance, started the event by briefing about the format of the competition. Each team was given a couple of hosts from HPE who would facilitate us while we dig deep in the case. We also had 4 rounds of meetings with different panels of domain experts where we were supposed to ask questions and gather as much information as we can pertaining to the case.

 

Meeting with domain experts. 

Finally, we were required to analyze the case, review all the insights, and give a presentation to the company’s top management on a “whiteboard”.

“Whiteboard – What???” – This was my 1^st reaction. I had never used whiteboard prior to starting my MBA. So, that aspect made me nervous. I had PowerPoint in my mind before reaching the venue. Moreover, we were told that data analysis would have the highest weightage in judging criteria. Since the case prompt also had an excel sheet that contained lots of data, I was further puzzled - how can we present this level of data analysis on a whiteboard.

But as we started, we quickly got into discussing all the relevant angles and then into analysis. We went to panel of experts and were amazed to see their response to our questions. They not only helped us move forward with the case, but also shared what aspects they consider while doing their day-to-day jobs.

At the end, we all started working on our final presentation. It was splendid to see that despite coming from different universities, how well we gelled together and shared our unique perspectives. It was crazy in the last hour to quickly wrap-up all our detailed analysis into a short 6-minute presentation.

We couldn’t win the case competition but got great feedback from the company representatives. The post-competition feedback and interaction was delightful.

Apart from experiencing the wonderful event, there were plenty of things to learn from it:

1. Team-work is pivotal: Whenever competing in a case competition, “teamwork” matters more than “data analysis”. There were so many occasions where I wanted to drown myself in my computer. But I didn’t and paid more attention to interact and discuss with team-members. Our interaction and discussion brought out way more ideas than any individual analysis would have. In time intense situation, you will need to make a trade-off between doing a deep analysis individually and focusing more on developing ideas with teammates. I often feel the latter gives better results in case competitions.
2. Lead, lead, lead: Try to show direction to your team members all the time. Use all your experience to bring diverse perspectives. More the depth and breadth a team covers, better the recommendations. If given an opportunity to meet or talk to experts, prepare thoroughly to ask good questions that can reveal substantial information. Even if you can’t siphon relevant information to the case, you will definitely have a wide variety of points to mention during your presentation. Also, always think what useful aspect can you bring in the discussion from your previous experience or knowledge. Check that thinking with other team members.
3. Communicate your ideas but don’t be stubborn: If majority of team members disagree with your opinion, let go! Even if you feel you have a great idea and way more grip on a concept, it’s better to be consultative or facilitative in such a situation. I had one moment where I outlined a traditional way of presenting – explain case facts, a bit of our thought process, and then present recommendations. However, my teammates thought the Bottom Line Up Front (BLUF) strategy would be more pertinent and we quickly decided to go with the BLUF!
4. Identify the strength of diversity: Our team consisted of two MBAs and a BBA student. It was so great to see the diverse thoughts rolled out on the table. I felt it was the BBA student’s creativity and design thinking that brought all the differentiation we needed (No matter how different MBAs might be, they all tend to think in a same structured way). Having more diverse members in your team can help you carve more “out of the box” ideas. Utilize “Theory of Comparative Advantage” in teams. Work on your best strengths and just guide the team on other aspects where you might feel other members are better.
5. Use whiteboards: Last and the most important one that transformed my mind. Trivial things such as working on whiteboard make your mind to think creatively. We had to nudge ourselves to present our recommendations in as simplistic manner as possible since we just had a whiteboard.

In many years of my Indian education, I had never used whiteboard and didn’t consider it important either. However, now I believe all students and executives should practice working on a whiteboard in a team-setting sometimes. First, it naturally builds leadership skills as you have to get up and present in front of a group, unlike working on your computer and then showing your work. Second, it stimulates your right side of the brain as you have to craft words and numbers efficiently in a limited space. I was fortunate to have learned this from my MBA team-mates at Mays and also during the competition.

Perhaps working on whiteboard (or rather blackboard) helped Kurt Vonnegus develop his simple and effective thesis on “Shapes of Stories” - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oP3c1h8v2ZQ

--- Jay Jani
Jay Jani is a Masters student attending Mays Business School