Project Firenze : Tuck

"I saw a delicate art in the business", says Yoko Warita - Tuck MBA 2010 about her Firenze|USA experience

Pradeep U.N. — Tue, 13 Jan 2009 02:13:00 GMT

Microsoft is still real to me – looking back on the experience over the holiday break.

I jad joined Microsoft Japan as a new graduate in 2003. I had worked there for 5 years before coming to Tuck. I loved the people, and the work was very interesting. I never thought my relationship with Microsoft would be this close. But because I enjoyed working at Microsoft Japan, I decided to compete in Firenze|USA - Microsoft Case competition 2008.

The case was very interesting. It was in the field I never knew before, so my experience of working at Microsoft didn’t help me much. But it allowed me to see another perspective and another business within the organization. There is a real customer behind the case, there can be real impact to the partners with our decision, and it had a potential for Microsoft to take action based on our ideas. I saw a delicate art in the business which connected customers, partners, and Microsoft. It is a real business problem – like everyone says – and discussion with the Microsoft executives challenged our mind and stretched our expectations, their commitment was amazing.

Was it different than what I had done in Microsoft before? Of course yes. I was in finance looking at the numbers, wasn’t able to get a feel about who Microsoft the customer really was.

Was it different from what we are learning in school? Yes and No. Theory can be applied and used, but it needs to be feasible, and needs to be executed at the end.

But was the people solving issues different? Maybe not.

They are friendly, intelligent, smart, but fun. Nice people to work with, and nice people to spend time with.

So in all, the case competition itself was tough, everything was on top of all the work we had to do in school. But this opportunity gave me a great chance to get to know my teammates more, meet some great people from different MBAs, and also get to know Microsoft more. I also got a chance to know myself more in a new working environment with a new people, which I will be facing throughout my career, yet you don’t usually get feedback on.

Your passion has brought out our potential – Your potential, Our passionJ

Thank you to Hareesh, Prashant, and Eric for the great team!

And, thank you to the Microsoft team for making it happen.

Yoko Warita - Tuck MBA 2010

2008 Tuck Champions of Firenze USA

Pradeep U.N. — Mon, 24 Nov 2008 13:41:00 GMT

Tuck's Finalists named....

Pradeep U.N. — Wed, 19 Nov 2008 00:20:00 GMT

The judges from the Microsoft Services - Dynamics Team came back and announced the 4 finalists that they believed should go on to the next round..

Congratulations - Team 4,6,8, and 14 !!!

The consolidated feedback for all teams are being created as I type this. "The students did a good job and met our expectations based on the complexity, information provided, and time available." was the comment the judges had to share.

Tepper does 100% yield for 3rd year in a row.

Pradeep U.N. — Fri, 14 Nov 2008 03:15:00 GMT

Each year over the last 3 years, Firenze has had a few casualities measured in the yield which is the difference between # of teams signed up to participate and # of teams eventually submitting their strategy presentation. Tepper for the 3rd year in a row kept their clean slate 100% yield rate with zero drop outs. This is a great achievement.

Here are details:

School	Class Size	# of students participating	# of students submitted solution
Tepper	211	56 (27%)	56 (27%)
Tuck	255	56 (22%)	48 (18%)
Cornell	260	48 (17%)	40 (15%)
Yale	190	68 (36%)	40 (21%)

Student Update: Tuck's "Team 9" wants their part of the Firenze blog!

Pradeep U.N. — Thu, 13 Nov 2008 00:05:00 GMT

Adam K Carson writes that this pic of his team is a little preview to their strategy. I suck at guessing games, but here are my guesses:

"Head in clouds" strategy
"Blue Sky" Methodology
"Up in the air" implementation
"All smoke no fire" marketing

I told you I suck at guessing games, didnt I :)

Tuck firenze participants excited at their campus

Pradeep U.N. — Sat, 08 Nov 2008 10:42:00 GMT

Student Update: Drink n Drive? Maybenot. Drink n Strategize? Why not - as "We are a PC" team fromTuck send us their photos

Pradeep U.N. — Sat, 08 Nov 2008 10:12:00 GMT

Only 35% Tuck teams take opportunity to brand themselves.

Pradeep U.N. — Mon, 03 Nov 2008 09:47:00 GMT

In sharp contrast to the Yale teams where 100% of the teams showed they had quite a bit of fun thinking creatively while branding themselves and made us spend time to think about why they named themselves like they did - only 35% of the Tuck teams even bothered to even have name for their teams. I found this rather interesting considering this is a marketing/business competition. Of the 14 teams participating, 5 teams had names which were:

Team 2: Uh they were listed 2nd on the spreadsheet. So I guess they are team 2.
We're A PC: Ha! A take on our new ad campaign. Clever. But I was curious if they wanted to name themselves "We are All PCs" or if they meant they all work together to be considered "We're A PC". the capitalization of the letter A is what made me think like this. Cool
Five Horses: Absolutely clueless on why a 4 member team is called the 5 horses. Couldnt think of cultural references either. Am curious, very curious.
4 M's: Possibly bcos this 4 member team is an all Male team? 4-Ms ?
T++: A possible take on Tuck++?? A little C++ inference?

Branding aside - Tuck maintained the high standards set by Yale in terms of diversity on some dimensions. Of the 56 participants from Tuck - they do represent 15 countries: Brazil,Canada,Croatia,France,India,Israel,Japan,Kenya,Korea,Oman,Pakistan,Poland,Romania,UK,USA. About 16% are Female participants.

"We are Firenze-Ready" say Tuck Business School at Dartmouth

Pradeep U.N. — Thu, 30 Oct 2008 00:11:00 GMT

Sheldon Menezes, Vivek Raval (MS interns Summer 2008) and Curtis Gasser (Redmond native) were part of the winning Firenze team from Tuck last year. Having won the contest, they went on to start the Case Competition club at Tuck. As part of their charter running Firenze at Tuck falls right in the crosshairs of their club.

From what I have heard from various student leaders in many schools, the current economy is opening the eyes of many students. When the economy is in the toilet with a broken flush (howz that for a mental vision, you want worse? have a look at Wallstreet), many companies start cutting down on recruiting, which obviously reduces # of offers, and consequently adversely affect MBA salaries. Basic economics prevail as in a constant supply (of MBA talent) - if supply diminishes, competition goes UP!Needless to say, trying to find ways to differentiate oneself can be hard, especially for international students. Enter the case competition club and a new forum of differentiation surfaces.

Tuck this year will have 56 students participating at Firenze from its class size of 200+ making Firenze one of the BIGGEST events on campus, thanx to some great evangelism done by these guys. The students will be working on a case in the Biz Intelligence market space and Consulting. Way to mix to really tough problems in one.

Scott Finley, our videographer was on Tuck campus today filming the local scenary in snowing conditions (snow in Hanover is as rare as rain in Seattle).

Firenze starts all over these American campuses next wk.

Incomplete Retrospective or Coffee & Haiku

udayanp — Fri, 01 Aug 2008 23:31:00 GMT

With 2/3rds of the internship over, I feel that this is a good time to reflect back on what I expected coming into this, what I learnt here and …well… I have a month left to find out what I’ll leave with..

So the first reaction amongst my circle of contacts, personal and professional, was.. “ Florida!!?? I didn’t even know that Microsoft has an office over there! I mean, isn’t Redmond the center of the universe (if you discount a similar claim by the Yankees about a piece of real estate in Bronx..)..so are you out of your mind heading to a satellite instead of the planet!! “. My gut feel was that “I’ve never worked with the LATAM region before and it’s a role that I have never explored. So let’s do it!! It will be great!!.”

It was also the first time that an MBA intern program was being held in this office. But a very detailed talk with the GM, who outlined a large number of exciting projects that I could choose from, assuaged any concerns and doubts.. It truly was an opportunity for me to have a great summer (and not just because it was FloridaJ )..

The amazing team that I have been introduced to in this duration has confirmed my gut feeling. It is a group of bright people tackling some really tough problems. I’ve had real fun here and have had no problems in mixing with the team. I have seen a piece of a puzzle that I had no prior exposure to. Three months may be too less a time to grasp the intricacies of the task but is a good time frame to understand the importance and enormity of the puzzle.

Some of the obvious items missing are a structured intern program, the executive lunches and networking with the other MBA interns; but I have no doubt that I have a very exciting project that I am working on and probably wouldn’t have gotten this exposure had I been in Redmond. So it’s a balancing act which has been fairly easy till date.

Now my regular readers (all 5 of you), must be wondering..what’s up with this dude!! Why so serious? Where’s all the haiku and stuff!! You even got in a couple of italicized statements (though not at the beginning of the postJ)..Is it anything to do with the Dilbert cartoon where the PHB is banished (almost) to the dungeons as his blog has become an embarrassment to the company? J

Well..no. I actually just had too much coffee.. the caffeine jitters diminish my haiku-ing ability..

Time for some more cortadito J…

Hasta Luego.

Firenze haiku

udayanp — Tue, 29 Jul 2008 21:40:00 GMT

Taking advice from some master bloggers, here goes a haiku instead of a story..

big smile up in the sky

hanging on for dear life

what fun parasailing

Meet Firenze Blogger - Vivek Raval

Pradeep U.N. — Sun, 27 Jul 2008 23:21:00 GMT

Meet Firenze Blogger - Sheldon Menezes

Pradeep U.N. — Fri, 25 Jul 2008 04:23:00 GMT

Meet Firenze Blogger - Udayan Pandit

Pradeep U.N. — Wed, 23 Jul 2008 19:42:00 GMT

Responding to the plethora of invisible comments on this blog who have requested to help us put a face to our bloggers, the next series of posts will adhere to that :)

Why do we blog?

udayanp — Wed, 23 Jul 2008 04:16:00 GMT

What is that drives one to put random yet structured, public yet inner, profound yet fleeting thoughts on to a public forum for the world to see?

Social scientists are studying this phenomenon; Corporate world is exploring it as a means to recruit the next generation of employees ; Food critics use it to reach a wider discerning audience; News outlets use it to disseminate breaking news before the competition can get it onto a formal website…. The uses are as endless, varied and interesting as the people who take to it seriously…

I have always had a penchant for writing. Some of it has been trashed but I have mostly gotten decent feedback from my ever-growing fan following J… not that I write to please others. I have always felt that a blog should represent ideas that you would be comfortable discussing face-to-face with anyone.

So coming to this Firenze blog, my goal has been to provide a healthy and hopefully humorous look at the people, processes and thoughts which make up my experience at Microsoft and to shed light on the phenomenon called Firenze.

Of course the goal could be simply to see how large my name can actually get under the ‘Tags’ section with each blog that I add!