Team Work and Self-Awareness

During the last months, I joined a group of four other passionate fellows to compete in an Accenture case competition. Our goal was not to compete but to win.

And indeed, we were able to create an extraordinary innovative business case. Secretary is an AI-based virtual assistant which is able to take over most of your repetitive tasks while saving you 1,5 hours each day. With hard work and a lot of thinking, we reached the third place of all teams in Germany, Austria, and Switzerland.

We aimed for the first place not the third. So is this a reason to be disappointed? No. Because what I want to share with this short story is that the judgments of other people are irrelevant. You need to respect and correctly assess the work of yourself and your competition.

For me, it was more than obvious that a team from the University of Cologne – which we have beaten in the semi final – presented a better business case than what the jury awarded the first place.

I am 100% self-aware that we are sharing the first and the second place with a team from the RWTH Aachen. They presented the most realistic business case with the most realistic application. Our team, on the other hand, presented the most innovative business case. Both business cases were extraordinary good. But this does not make any other presented business case bad. Indeed there were many teams which could develop a profitable business out of their business cases.

What I want to express is that self-awareness is extremely important. You need to be self-aware of your skills and your achievements. Don’t let a jury, customer, teacher, parent drag you down. Assess your weaknesses and strengthens yourself. Be self-aware of what you are capable of. Have a growth mindset.

Furthermore, I want to say thank you to my amazing team. Thank you, Dennis Janzen, Lea Stark, Ralph Theodory, and Sophia Worbes. It was a pleasure to work with you. The team spirit was amazing. Without this amazing teamwork, we would not have achieved this. This case competition showed that everything is possible if you work in an amazing team. I wish you only the best for the future.