Behind the Scenes at innovateCHINA 2008 [Q: WHAT DO YOU GET WHEN YOU COMBINE SLEEP DEPRIVED, JETLAGGED CONTESTANTS WITH A GRUELLING 48-HOUR COMPETITION THAT PITS SOME OF THE GLOBE'S BEST B-SCHOOLS AGAINST EACH OTHER?
A: THE SUCCESSFUL STAGING OF CEIBS' FIRST-EVER INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS SCHOOL COMPETITION: THE INNOVATECHINA GLOBAL CHALLENGE.]
By Charmaine N. Clarke
Nervous excitement filled the CEIBS auditorium on the afternoon of June 8 as the audience, eyes fixed on the stage, waited to hear who would walk away with the top prize of the first-ever innovateCHINA Global Challenge competition.
At that moment, the exhausted competitors from the seven teams, the panel of demanding VIP judges and experts, the teams' supporters (especially the large cheering section that had come out to support the CEIBS team), and even the TV crew busy filming the competition, all appeared to hold their breaths.
This was the culmination of 48 gruelling hours of hard work for the 19 contestants from among the globe's best b-schools who had been given the formidable task of coming up with the best game plan for a real-life CSR-related problem presented by a real-life company. Each team struggled to create the most impressive strategy for EVOC Intelligent Technology Company to establish a sustainable and measurable CSR programme using a fund of RMB100 million.
With the exception of the CEIBS home team, all the other six teams making it through to the June 8 Grand Challenge Round had travelled to Shanghai from outside mainland China. Journeying across time zones played havoc with many team members' internal clocks. Coping with the time differences also meant that two UCLA team members had to take online exams at 2 a.m. on the crucial second day of the Grand Challenge Round. Other contestants juggled the competition against internships. It all added up to a four-day period with very few hours for sleep.
What drove contestants to sign on for such a challenging undertaking? A chance to make history as one of the participants of China's very first international MBA competition. The fact that the contest was being held in Shanghai, China - the financial hub of one of the fastest growing economies in the world - was also a contributing factor for many of the b-school students.
The competition, a long-time dream of previous CEIBS MBA classes, was skilfully executed by a core team of 13 determined MBA 2007 students who surprised school officials by successfully pulling off the event. The team that, in true b-school style, transformed a vague concept into a concrete plan and ran with it were: Roy Cheung, Amy Cheung, Victor Lim, Yan Lee, Rhoda Hu, Rachel Jiang, Vincent Zhu, Sher Le Chua, Emily Tai, Wavey Hu, Hanna Meergans, Amy Wang and Guduru Siva.
"We had two goals in mind," explains innovateCHINA President Victor Lim. "We wanted to bring CEIBS its first international business competition, and we wanted a theme that was truly fresh." Seeking to differentiate themselves from hundreds of existing b-school competitions, the organizers developed a concept that would attract competitors and attract attention. Their plan: focus the competition on a business problem set in China and require the winning team to develop innovative solutions to CSR problems. The result was the innovateCHINA concept (see box, Grand Challenge Question).
THE RUSH OF COMPETITION
To those watching the competition, the event may have appeared flawlessly executed. Behind the scenes, though, the mood of the organizers swung from panic to elation to exhaustion.
One of the biggest difficulties was a simple lack of time. The concept for the competition was only finalized in late February, leaving just five weeks to begin execution. "It all came together in the last few weeks," admits Lim. " During April and May, it was scary!" While balancing a full load of classes at CEIBS, he and the other competition planners undertook a vast range of tasks, most of which they had never attempted before - such as seeking corporate sponsors, attracting judges, contacting media, writing press releases, and organizing the event logistics. Many of the final details were determined in the final weeks before the Grand Challenge.
One of the key lessons learned is that word-of-mouth really works, Lim said. While the team tried to publicize the competition to other schools by email at first, the real key to encouraging peer schools to sign on was through informal channels such as contacting friends at other b-schools or asking exchange students to reach their home schools.
The other lesson, says organizer Amy Cheung, is to seek help from many sources. She says some of the best ideas and best promotional channels came for free. The organizers are particularly grateful to
ICS TV for its support in creating a full documentary on the competition, free of charge. The show aired on June 15,
17 and 18 and is now viewable on the CEIBS website at
http://www.ceibs.edu/media/archive/28970.shtml.
RULES OF THE GAME
innovateCHINA began with a March 15 invitation to all 149 global b-schools registered as GMAC members. Teams had until April 18 to apply. To the surprise of the CEIBS organizers, 82 schools signed up from top schools worldwide. (Victor Lim says the group's original goal was 30 teams.)
After that, accepted applicant teams had just seven days to submit their solutions to make it into Round 1. The challenges fit into the broad categories of offering solutions for multinationals, small-to-medium enterprises, and non-profit organisations. Teams secured their spots by offering impressive solutions to three questions: 1) "How might an MNC like Fersa Energias Renovables, S.A. make renewable energy competitive against non-renewable energy in China's market?" 2) "How might a Chinese SME like Justonline Corporation differentiate itself by engaging other stakeholders in its value chain?" and 3) "How might community projects supported by Global Links Initiative be developed into social enterprises that can be sustainable and beneficial to the urban poor of China?"
All submissions were in by April 28. They were assessed by a panel of CEIBS professors (see box). By May 9, nine teams (see page 71) were deemed eligible to compete in the final round from June 5 to 8. (In the end, only seven teams were able to compete, due to visa problems.) Meanwhile, the organizers had secured a prize of RMB15,000 and a trophy for each of the three top teams making it to the Grand Challenge. For the grand prize, EVOC contributed RMB15,000 and a trophy. The company also generously picked up the tab for contest-related expenses of all the finalists during team members' stay in Shanghai.
After all 17 international competitors had flown in to Shanghai, the Grand Challenge round got off to an impressive start on June 5 with a Welcome Dinner during which the teams received their final assignments. As the Grand Challenge question was revealed with much fanfare, there were audible gasps when it was revealed that teams could base their solution on a RMB100 million budget. The catch to emerging the winner, though, was maximising the next 48 hours to come up with an innovative and effective answer to an actual CSR problem presented by EVOC.
Team scores were tallied according to the following weighting. High scoring plans must:
- match EVOC's goals, organisational structure and image (20%)
- define and address major implementation challenges (20%)
- be novel, imaginative and innovative both in its ability to meet the issue stated, and the means in which it is implemented (20%)
- have a thorough, informative presentation; (10%)
- include clearly identified target groups and trends; (10%)
- have clear and logical cost structure with clearly defined key performance indicators; (10%)
- and team members must show strong performance during the judges' Q&A; (10%)
As the afternoon zoomed ahead during the final day of presentations, tension mounted in the CEIBS Petrochemical Auditorium. Teams had spent the previous 48 hours rushing between visits to EVOC headquarters for a briefing followed by a private Q&A session with EVOC executives, then faced endless brainstorming and research sessions. On competition day, if the full auditorium did not make the presenters nervous, the judges' panel did. Each team faced 10 minutes of intense grilling by judges and experts including EVOC's Vice President Sun Wei; McKinsey & Company Asia Pacific Chairman Dominic Barton (who served as the competition's chief judge); President of NBA Enterprise Solutions to Poverty and former President of Women's World Banking Nancy Barry; Bayer China's Vice President and CSR Head William Valentino; Founder and CEO of CSR International Wayne Visser; Deputy Secretary General of Shanghai Technology Entrepreneurship Foundation Mr. David Zhang; as well as representatives from Roland Berger; the American Chamber of Commerce, LEK Consulting, Fersa, Justyle, Virgin Atlantic, Citadines Hotel and GLI.
After the last Q&A session ended, the judges' work began. "The depth and breadth of ideas was fantastic. They were all terrific presentations and we had very, very tough deliberations," said McKinsey & Company's Barton."
AND THE WINNER IS...
Despite the difficult deliberations, a winner was finally chosen. As the 19 participants waited anxiously, CEIBS President Zhu Xiaoming took the stage, opened a sealed envelope, and announced "And the winner is... UCLA!"
Obviously elated, the three members of Team California Enlight from the UCLA Anderson School of Management grinned broadly as they accepted the highly-coveted innovateCHINA Global Challenge trophy. A few minutes earlier they had also taken to the stage to receive the Fersa Energias Renovables Company Prize trophy and RMB15,000 in cash earned during round one.
Being one of the most sleep deprived teams (the students had to sit for exams online during the competition), the trio finished tired but very happy.
"Sometimes we just fell asleep sitting down. It was pretty exhausting but it was a great experience, all worth it," said team member Alexander Nouel a few minutes after the team snagged the winning trophy. Echoing the sentiment, fellow team member Julia Zhe Zhu revealed that she had to be "peeled" off the floor at 3 a.m. and forced to sleep for a few hours by Alexander and third team member Christopher Bishop on the morning of the final competition.
The UCLA team thought several key factors gave them the edge: leveraging their diverse backgrounds, working together as a cohesive team, and most importantly, their solution itself.
Their goal, the team explained, was to have a relatively simple plan that could be realistically implemented. "It had to be sustainable and have the most bang for the buck," Bishop explained. The judges agreed, citing the project's multiplier effect as a major factor in their decision to award UCLA the top prize.
The winning team's plan focused on alleviating the shortcomings in China's underdeveloped non-profit sector by leveraging the effect of the RMB100 million EVOC Foundation fund to achieve maximum social, economic and environmental benefit. They proposed the development of an EVOC Institute to train managers of NPOs, complemented by an EVOC Grant that would provide support to participants after completing a two-week course.
Taking the trophy was particularly sweet for UCLA because the journey to China had been such a difficult one. The trio was kept guessing, up to the last minute, on whether they could fly; their visas were processed only a day before the flight. Then when they finally made it to Shanghai, their luggage did not. The bags arrived two days later. As a result, they had to find a solution to their lack of clothing in addition to formulating a winning solution for the contest, and juggling classwork back at UCLA. Still the team maintained a winning spirit. "I can assure you we took innovateCHINA very seriously. I hope this competition will become a tradition and that we can come back next year," said Nouel.
THE HOME TEAM
UCLA may have won the competition but the CEIBS home team won the hearts of the local audience. The international duo of Indian national Rohan Menon and Andres Bulbu, of Spain, earned kudos from the judges and from EVOC Vice President Sun Wei for the creativity and intelligence of their plan. The proposal aimed to help EVOC, which has a strong IT focus, tackle the pressing problem of e-waste. The CEIBS team's solution called for EVOC to form a JV partnership with an established e-waste recycler, building a plant that can handle 10,000 tons of e-waste per year. The project's key performance indicators (KPIs) included: a profitable plant by 2010 - the same timeframe for when 25 percent of EVOC's production would be recycled - and at the same time reducing water contamination (by e-waste) and providing potable water to 90 percent of the population in the targeted area. "The idea has a lot of legs and opportunities to it," said the main judge, McKinsey's Barton.
After the competition ended, the tired but exuberant two-man CEIBS team had a hard time describing the flood of emotions they were experiencing. Bulbu was clear about one thing, though: he needed a massage. "We didn't sleep for almost three nights, in order to prepare a good presentation. These last two days have been crazy. We've done so many things. We've been interviewed by so many people and for me it was the first time someone put a camera in my face and tells me to be spontaneous!" he said with a chuckle. He added that he hopes innovateCHINA will have a positive impact on China in addition to helping to build the CEIBS brand overseas.
Both home team members graciously agreed that UCLA deserved to win; they also thanked the judges, CEIBS professors, organisers, and friends who had formed a large cheering team during the Grand Challenge Round.
For his part, Menon offered one suggestion for next year's contest: more time. "It was a tough competition. We had two days to prepare the plan, but we were involved in other activities like going to the company site, travelling, so it was not a fully concentrated effort to prepare." A little more time for the final preparation would ensure "much higher quality of presentations," he said. And maybe a little more sleep for the competitors.
BOX:
What the audience had to say
CEIBS faculty
CEIBS President Zhu Xiaoming:
"The competition's challenge question is imperative and critical. Given the disasters such as the tsunami in Indonesia in 2004, hurricane Katrina in the U.S. in 2005, the May 12 earthquake in Wenchuan, we all believe a well structured and charitable system can be of help to people. "
Lydia Price, Academic Director, CEIBS MBA Programme
"We've been talking about the idea of this competition for a while, and the MBA office said it had to be student led. In true MBA spirit they put it together. I am extremely thrilled to see the list of schools that participated and the list of schools here today. "
Sponsor of the Grand Challenge Round
Sun Wei, Vice President of EVOC
"It's an honour for EVOC to collaborate with CEIBS - one of Asia's top business schools - on this. I've noted the diversity of culture of the contestants and EVOC hopes to get concepts from them that can be exported around the world. "
Grand Challenge Judges & Expert Panel
Dominic Barton, Chairman, Asia Pacific, McKinsey & Company:
"The depth and breadth of ideas was fantastic. To me, this is a real sign of leadership when students come up with an idea and drive it through. They were all terrific presentations and we had very, very tough deliberations. "
Nancy Barry, President, NBA Enterprise Solutions to Poverty:
"I think this particular business contest is very interesting because it's a real life company that is prepared to give RMB100 million and the students are asked to help them figure out how to structure it and what the money should go for. "
Dr. Wayne Visser, CEO, CSR-International:
"This contest takes what MBAs are good at - which is having lots of energy, lots of ideas and wanting to change the world - and focuses that quite clearly. We've seen some very good proposals. "
Oliver Yang, CSR & Government Relations Manager, AmCham Shanghai:
"It's a very good platform for international MBA students to get to know the NGO situation as well as the CSR situation in China. I think CEIBS and its students are doing a great job. This is a great event."
Round One Judges
Prof. Steven White
Prof. Bill Parr
Prof. Norma Harrison
Prof. Han Jian
Prof. Ramakrishna Velamuri
Prof. Henri Claude de Bettingnies
Grand Challenge Question:
"How can EVOC's Charity Foundation create sustainable and measurable impact in China using a fund of RMB100 million?"
Grand Challenge Round Competitors:
CEIBS - Andres Martin Buldu and Rohan Menon;
Australian School of Management, University of New South Wales - Bowie Cheng, Regan Crooks, and Don Johnston;
UCLA - Christopher Bishop, Julia Zhe Zhu, and Alexander Nouel; (WINNER)
Oxford - Jenny Hui and Pawel Madon;
IESE - Ignacio Norambuena, Weivin Yang and Carmen Balacianu;
National University of Singapore - Hadi Christian, Zhang Dongliang, and Shweta Vaidva;
York University - Sandra Li, T.j. Park, and Jony Yuwono
Competitors for the 1st Round Justlye Prize:
IESE
NUS
Manchester (WINNER)
Competitors for the 1st Round Global Links Initiative Prize:
Australia School of Management
York
University of Illinois (WINNER)
Competitors for the Fersa Energias Renovables Prize:
CEIBS
Oxford
UCLA (WINNER)
Participating Schools
International schools, Europe:
London Business School, INSEAD, Oxford University, University of Cambridge: Judge Business School, ESADE, IESE, Copenhagen Business School, Manchester Business School
US:
Harvard Business School, UCLA, MIT: Sloan Business School, Babson College, University of Pittsburgh, University of Virginia: Darden School of Business, University of Illinois
Asia:
National University of Singapore, SKKU
Australia:
Australia General School of Management
Chinese Schools:
China Europe International Business School (CEIBS), Fudan University, Tsinghua University School of Economics and Management, Shanghai University of Finance and Economics (SUFE), Shanghai JiaoTong University, University of International Business and Economics, HKUST, National ChengChi University, National ChengKung University.
