Uma in the middle of her finals week sent an email thanking us for her RLE experience which I thought i could share on the blog. She might have more to say in a subsequent blog post... 

A whirlwind, amazing experience—that how I’ll remember last weekend. I arrived in Seattle late Saturday night for the next day’s RLE. I wasn’t certain what to expect—I had read the blog and had some ideas, but what awaited my team was a different story.

Instead of the usual case competiton styles, this was different and we were assigned to senior managers who coached us as we broke down a live Microsoft business issue.  It was a marathon session of working within new team dynamics, interviewing Microsoft Subject Matter experts, determining which angle to take, and then presenting the case. 

 Before the presentation, I was a little worried about the point we made on pricing and my Cornell teammate, Christian Duncan, who remained on my team,  said, “Don’t worry, I’ll take care of it.” Sure enough, at the lengthy Q&A, pricing came up and Christian’s answer brought it home.

We capped the night with drinks, food and video games. I know, video games!!! but hey, we were at Microsoft.

The biggest takeaway was the unparalleled access to senior managers and their feedback on each person’s leadership style. As Cornell’s Team Zero Footprints hopped the redeye back to Ithaca and onward into a Finance final exam, I reflected back at what an exceptional trip the RLE was.

Uma is shown here on the pic armed with an ExPo Blue whiteboard marker owning that whiteboard - and looking quite pensively at her team for the next big idea. Their team did famously at RLE with a great presentation.