How I won the IT Business Challenge 2019 by P&G.

ITBC 2019 is a unique competition created by Procter and Gamble to select the top 24 European students out of 1500 applications and gather them to solve real problems. After all selection processes that involved online stage and assessment center in Frankfurt, I ended up being one of the lucky selected people that went to Budapest to represent the DACH region.

It all started at the Hungarian Academy of Science, where we were getting to know each other with the game of naming all people before you in the order. I went last and to look more impressive, named everyone without looking. The people with whom I was sitting at the table during our first night in Budapest, ended up being my team for this competition. We became "Magic Blue Bears". The person on the right was our mentor Burak Ayoz.

What were we doing there?

From Monday to Thursday we have been solving real-life business cases for the real product of Procter and Gamble. The actual content was very diverse, ranging from marketing strategies to the development of IT features and infrastructures. The most memorable and challenging task was to come up with very detailed cloud architecture, connecting every department of P&G, because it felt like our solution could really be implemented in the real world and positively influence the company.

What did our team do right?

From Day 1, there are many tasks to fulfill with a very limited amount of time. Without assigning clear roles and establishing communication it is impossible to make any progress and while it sounds simplistic, it was a real challenge to dedicate time at the beginning of tasks to assign responsibilities because everyone was eager to start and show what they can do. It led to some overlaps in our work, but by Day 3 we were able to overcome it by creating time intervals when we update each other on the status of every task and ask for the help. We also assigned different leaders every day, depending on the type of task.

Presenting our solutions was a really new experience. Experienced P&Gers role-played the members of the executive board and they were sure to make it as realistic as possible. Public speaking has always been my strongest skill and it was put to a real test in this environment.

I believe that the victory and overall success of our team can be summarized in 3 points:

1. Solid relationships we have built from Day 1 by being open with each other and even going out on the first night half asleep to get to know each other better.
2. Willingness to receive feedback that was promoted a lot by our mentor. Being nice to each other creates certain issues not normally experienced by other teams. For example, we completely ignored the storming stage of the team formation but I feel like this unusual pattern made our way even more unique.
3. Flexibility and reliability was the most important factor when it came to actually solve business cases. From Day 1, even though we didn't know yet the best way to communicate, we always understood one thing - we can count on each other.

What did I learn about P&G as a company?

Diversity is a very important direction for P&G to pursue. During the seminars, we were not only able to learn amazing IT solutions P&G implements, but also meet inspiring female IT leaders. Magda Grzelak is an Associate Director of Master Data and she gave us a deep dive into the way P&G deals with its huge amount of data and what purpose it serves. It was also very pleasant for me to know how much collaboration is actually happening with the entrepreneurs for Industry 4.0 and the rising interest to switch the infrastructure to the cloud.

In the end, it was an incredibly meaningful experience that helped me to understand that the IT industry is the direction I want to pursue. IT is the life of learning that always requires you to expand your knowledge and stay on top of your game. Such a highly competitive environment that needs a deep understanding of both technology and business is exactly the world, where people with fitting attitudes can strive.

We will see what the new day brings.

You can find more information on my website!