Being the responsible student that I am, I’ve opted to sort out my IBC pics instead of attempting to catch up on all the work I’ve fallen behind on. Ah well…here it goes:
Sightseeing
On our first night we headed over to find the brisket place. We stopped in at the coop and one of our observations was how big the parking spots in Austin were! Finally, a pic of Ruby’s famous brisket 
Bento and I went jogging the 2nd morning and we were shocked at the size of the university stadium! The last picture is a real stock ticker that was there on Black Thursday when the 1929 stock market crash began.
The “War Room”
The case was about Ford and their strategy for the next 3 years. It was incredible because this was a live case and we would be presenting it to actual Ford employees. On the first night we all agreed on the problem, the objective and the key issues. We prioritized the key issues and began to work. You can see how the room got progressively messier as we got more and more research.
Looks like I’m fixing up the Indian map for our recommended expansion into India. I believe Bento and I were discussing which Ford plants to shutdown in the second pic. The last one was when we retured to the hotel after finding out we had made the final round.
The Pool Party
According to the organizers, every year people say they’ll jump into the pool and no one does it. I’m telling Bento that Blue and I are considering it. I decide against it, but Blue and these 2 girls say they’ll do it. Blue jumped in and guess what? The girls didn’t!
Blue grabs the girl from Queen’s and throws her in! 
Look at his smile! LOL Luckily our friend Ameet got footage of the whole incident. We want a copy of that!!
The Competition
First pic is the team from Florida who sat with us at the awards ceremony. Middle is JMSB with Hong Kong University of Science and Technology and finally we have the Harvard boy band (as their coach called them! LOL) and the ladies from Hong Kong University.
There were a few big names like Harvard, Georgetown, Purdue, SFU, Queen’s, Hong Kong U, etc. The great thing about JMSB is that because we’re so friendly with everyone at competitions, whenever we make the finals all the other schools end up rooting for us. I wasn’t surprised when we got the student’s choice award.
Getting Some Sleep
Don’t ask me how he did it, but Blue only slept for about 5 or 6 hours throughout the entire 60 hour prep!! The rest of us got at least 12-15 hours I would say.
The Final Round
Our whole team felt great after the final presentation. The judges seemed very impressed and we told ourselves: “Win or lose, we did the best we could and put on a good show!”
Awards Ceremony
Needless to say, we were extremely excited when we won. Bento spoke on behalf of the team and when Elissa got the mic she said something along the lines of: “This is my first competition and I’ve learned so much from these guys. I really love you guys!”. We all looked at her and then she says: “No, really I do!” LOL!!! We had to get a picture with the legendary Prof. Doggett who seems to scare everybody when they watch the past competitor videos! We got back to the hotel and got ready to party…
The Party
After the competition was over, the command center turned into the party center! We went out to a bar afterwards but I think most of us were too exhausted to really party. That’s Donald in the middle pic. The girl on my right is from UBC (University of British Columbia) and the other one is from HKUST (Hong Kong Univerisity of Science and Technology).
Last, but Not Least…
A very special thanks to the organizers who put on an amazing event that ran very smoothly! Christine, Donald, Jessica, Pranshu, Ameet, Jen, Teresa, Steph and Ben thanks for everything Y’ALL are great! Thanks to our lovely ambassador Geeta for all her help as well!
My JMSB Team
Elissa, Bento and Blue, you guys were amazing to work with! We did an awesome job!! Of course, this wouldn’t have been possible without the help of our great coaches Prof. Haber and Cam. Thanks again to everyone!