Rafif Iqbal Shaputra: Finding the “Clique” in Your Team
This article is written for SICOMAS publication. SICOMAS stands for SISTEM Competition Material Supplies where you can find competition proposals and materials from those who already experienced in the corresponding fields. Rafif shared some of his business plan competition proposals, which you can find here: https://s.id/SICOMAS2020
Rafif Iqbal Shaputra was a college student of Information System in Fasilkom UI. He was a high-achieving student and participated in many Business Plan competitions. Not only participated, but he also won many competitions that he participated in. So it is no surprise that he got The Most Oustanding Student in the Faculty of Computer Science University of Indonesia Category Entrepreneurship title in 2020. The main reasons why he used to participate in competitions were for self-improvement and to prepare for his post-graduate application. In this writing, we’re going to dive more deeply into why Rafif decided to join competitions and how he found team members and maintained his team’s performance.
First, why did Rafif joined many competitions?
By participating in competitions such as a business plan, you can get very interesting experiences and also insights from new people. During the competition, you will gain useful networks from different universities and even from companies that might help you in the future.
In a career, competition can also help you experience early experience for real product experiences such as market research, market validation, partnerships, and most importantly, significantly improved presentation skills and networking.
For academics endeavors, winning competitions can strengthen your branding, especially when you want to continue to post-graduate school related to business school.
Tips and Tricks in Finding Team Members
Joining competitions had given Rafif the opportunity to learn how to find the right team members
First, if you’re new in the circuit, look for a team that you are most comfortable with, it can be with your closest friends in college. A team that you are comfortable with can help you build your confidence in joining competitions.
Second, vision. Look for a team that has the same vision and mission as you in joining competitions. People’s motives in joining competition can be different, some want titles, others want continuous self-improvement. Rafif himself is the type of person who joined competitions for sharpening his business knowledge and self-improvement, so he did search for team members who are on the same page as him.
Third, it is totally okay in changing your team if you realized that you and your team are not on the same page. One time, Rafif realized that he and his team were not on the same page on the purpose of joining competitions. So he talked about it with the team and they decided to have separate ways.
It’s better to separate at the beginning than to have team problem while working on the proposal.
Fourth, find a mentor. Even though mentors are not directly involved in the competition but mentors are still part of the team. Mentors can give you directions and great insights. It will increase your chances in having a great business proposal, and of course, to win.
Fifth, it is not that easy to find team members, so it is very normal if you have difficulties in finding team members. Fasilkom life is such a busy life, so it is hard to find team members. Once, he chatted many people from his batch to find teams to join a competition. So do not easily give up in finding teams.
Strategy
Rafif changed his team members often. The next question is, how did he succeed to adapt to each of his team and won the competitions. Turned out, Rafif has his own strategy.
Rafif’s strategy is not changing the business idea even when he’s changing his team. Explain your idea to your team, make sure that they fully understand and owns the idea.
Like startups, the men behind the curtain are always changing through time but the core idea of the startup is still the same.
However, you can’t use the exact same idea for competitions. The trick is, do not write all the features in one business proposal, separate the features in different competitions. For example, your big idea is about Trash Bank Application, an application that helps connect trash banks and users. In one competition, you can write about the mechanism of the transaction. Then, in the next one, you can add a dashboard feature to the application so it is not exactly the same.
Last but not least….
A great team is a team that is solid. In real-world settings, one fundamental reason why investors are willing to invest in a company is not only about the ideas, but the people behind the company too. So make sure you have a solid team 😉.
