I was selected as one of 60 top engineering female students in South Africa hosted in Cape Town for Women in Engineering's Fellowship Week 2016. This year as fellows the theme entailed hacking the supply chain to develop revolutionary business ideas.
As a fellow, fellowship week is a chance to network with 59 other amazing student leaders in the engineering field, potential employers like Unilever, the incredible WomEng founders and directors, WomEng peer mentors, entrepreneurs and the movers and shakers in various fields
Technovation Challenge
But the main highlight is the technovation challenge, which as fellows basically involves getting into a group of about 6 ladies from different disciplines (making up 10 teams in total) and coming up with a viable business idea that goes with the week's theme (in our case "Hack the Chain", a supply chain theme) to be presented....no, not presented, to be pitched in 3days to a panel of judges/’investors’.
Sounds easy right? Form a team of complete strangers minutes within meeting (ensuring you are from different disciplines and schools ofcourse) come up with and agree on an idea in 3days, fix it up, pitch it to a room full of people and surprise judges/’investors’ with years of experience in any and every subject matter imaginable and convince them to take out their cheque books after your brilliant 3 minute pitch and the obviously not completely petrifying 5minute Q&A session that dissects cause your idea is worth millions! I mean really, could it get an simpler?
Weeeell, I’ll be the first to admit that for the first time in all my years of being a student, I missed having a STUDY GUIDE/SYLLABUS. That silly little booklet that gives you a general overview of what to do coupled with past papers that give you a good idea of what to expect, you know to atleast get a pass for the course . But luckily, this was anticipated.
Introducing the calvary:
- Mentors and business coaches
- Entrepreneurs
- Life coaches
- WomEng peer mentors
- The Women at the Helm of the organisation
Some of the Mentors and Coaches
Craig Wing is a future strategist of Future World, an organisation that is igniting the minds of many. He hosted a communications and innovation workshop.
Brainstorming sessions
Robotics, can we incorporate them in the evolving Supply Chain world?
One of the highlights of this session was seeing how drones are being used all around the world in different industries in revolutionary ways from agriculture to architecture.
Ideanation - inspiration is everywhere
Did you know how many social and business ideas you could generate juuust by going over one newspaper? Well I didn't until this exercise. It's interesting how inspiration is literally all around us.
The Pitch
I have a new found respect for people who go on shows like Dragon's Den or Shark Tank SA...they are heroes!👏👏👏 We had 3 minutes to make a pitch then 5minutes for Q&A. This was by far the shortest 3minutes of our lives (we wanted more time ofcourse) and the looooongest 5minutes ever (5seconds would have beven more bearable). We felt the sweetest feeling of relief when that '5minutes is over' bell rang.
There are very few things in this world that can push a model A student out of their comfort zone quite like investors mainly concerned with "the bottom line". We didn'the get any compliments for our kick-ass animation, our cute outfits and story telling abilities😢 The investors wanted to know was (and I will probably never forget this question as long as I live) "How much do you want?"
We had problems and disagreements as a group all the way through to minutes before the presentation, the judges dissected every portion of our pitch....and yet I would do it all over again in a heartbeat!!!😀😀😀 It was an invaluable learning experience to say the least.
There are very few things in this world that can push a model A student out of their comfort zone quite like investors mainly concerned with "the bottom line". We didn'the get any compliments for our kick-ass animation, our cute outfits and story telling abilities😢 The investors wanted to know was (and I will probably never forget this question as long as I live) "How much do you want?"
We had problems and disagreements as a group all the way through to minutes before the presentation, the judges dissected every portion of our pitch....and yet I would do it all over again in a heartbeat!!!😀😀😀 It was an invaluable learning experience to say the least.
Unilever Evening and the Supply Chain game
Unilever, one of the main sponsors of the event, came to speak to us and inform us of the opportunities they offer to us as graduates. We had former WomEng alumni speak about their transitions from graduates to young professionals and we had a candid discussion about the challenges and opportunities we anticipate to face once we ourselves become professionals.
So our company produced a perfume sample that picked up well with test groups so naturally we decided to mass produce😎 (Like the game told us to😅) So we tactfully sourced suppliers for components - everything from valves, to tanks, to pumps, to pipes (beakers, syringes and drip tubes rather). We hired over-priced contractors, suffered fines by the safety inspector, bought the most expensive detail design instructions to build the plant and after we delivered a 1st class marketing pitch to the investors to invest in our great plant...... we simply couldn't get it to work😒
But on the bright side, it photographed well (so did we ofcourse😎) and although we still cry 'sabotage' (probably from competing brands😞) it was a great, fun and enlightening experience.
But on the bright side, it photographed well (so did we ofcourse😎) and although we still cry 'sabotage' (probably from competing brands😞) it was a great, fun and enlightening experience.
Mentorship sessions with the women behind WomEng
When I envision my idea of a superwoman, the CVs and public profiles of these women fill that mould. And I'm sure every other fellow would say the same. As we were discussing mentorship, one of the fellows asked Hema "Do you feel you have reached that stage where you can say 'I have achieved'? That 'Mama I made it!' moment? (Okay, I made up that last sentence but that's how I heard it :p). But to my surprise this started off the sobering revelation that the 'superwoman' image we see is only a small fraction of the story.
I have been fortunate to have interacted with these ladies for the past 2years with WomEng and the Passionate Professional. I could recite to you their accolades backwards but to say I knew them, as a mentee, before this week would have been a blatant lie.
To hear their everyday struggles, their insecurities, failures and fears ... to be honest it was quite refreshing and somewhat of a relief. When all is said and done, they bleed and breathe just like you and me. What has made them great isn't the mere fact that they seat on boards with presidents and world leaders or that they continue to impact the lives of young girls aspiring to be in STEM...what makes them great is the fact that they impetuously chase their dreams and when they fall, they get back up and try, try and try again. And when all is said and done, they are not afraid to ask for help or to admit that they are only human. And for me, that is pretty cool.
One of my absolute highlights!
I have been fortunate to have interacted with these ladies for the past 2years with WomEng and the Passionate Professional. I could recite to you their accolades backwards but to say I knew them, as a mentee, before this week would have been a blatant lie.
To hear their everyday struggles, their insecurities, failures and fears ... to be honest it was quite refreshing and somewhat of a relief. When all is said and done, they bleed and breathe just like you and me. What has made them great isn't the mere fact that they seat on boards with presidents and world leaders or that they continue to impact the lives of young girls aspiring to be in STEM...what makes them great is the fact that they impetuously chase their dreams and when they fall, they get back up and try, try and try again. And when all is said and done, they are not afraid to ask for help or to admit that they are only human. And for me, that is pretty cool.
One of my absolute highlights!
All in all, it was an incredible week with some incredible people. The knowledge and opportunities we were introduced to were empowering, invaluable and life-changing and we hope to utilise it effectively as female revolutionaries in STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Math).