JHU SAIS Team Takes First Place in Thunderbird Sustainable Innovation Summit Challenge
A team of five international relations graduate students from the Johns Hopkins University Paul H. Nitze School of Advanced International Studies (SAIS) finished in first place out of more than 100 teams competing in the Sustainable Innovation Summit Challenge hosted by Thunderbird School of Global Management in Glendale, Ariz.
SAIS was the only non-MBA school participant in the group of 10 teams from around the world competing 11/8-10 in the final round of a competition held in conjunction with Thunderbird's Sustainable Innovation Summit. MBA teams from Thunderbird won second and third prize.
Tania Askins, Chris Meyer, Michael Ralles, Sarah Rotman and Genevieve Taft comprised the first-place SAIS team, taking home a $20,000 prize.
The winning teams beat out seven other finalists including a second team from SAIS and teams representing Duke, University of California Davis, Purdue University, University at Buffalo the State University of New York, University of Rochester and University of Maryland. Alan Cameron, Sean Michaels, John Moyer, Sarah Naimark, Matthew Walsh and Kim Wattrick comprised the second SAIS team. More than 100 teams representing 51 universities in 13 countries took part in the overall competition.
Students in the final round of the competition developed innovative and sustainable business concept plans that addressed real-life challenges faced by global corporations Johnson & Johnson (J&J) and Arizona Public Service (APS). Each team had to address questions proposed by both companies.
Arizona Public Service's question involved formulating opportunities for the utility company to use business process improvement and make sustainability a core business value. The SAIS students developed the "E2Co meter," which is a matrix that allows the APS Sustainability Group to give a score to a project considering three different criteria: environment, economics and community (hence "E2Co meter"). If an idea scores high enough on the meter, it could be worth a certain amount for a cash award--say $100--to the employee who brought the idea to the Sustainability Group, thus providing incentives to all levels of employees to think about their work and potential projects in a sustainable way.
Johnson & Johnson's question required finding an effective means for the company to cater to the medical needs of diabetic patients in China. The SAIS team's proposal was based on leveraging the concept of "social capital" to provide greater access to monitoring device services to the diabetics. As a starting point, the students used the example of retired people who meet daily in China's public parks to do group exercises. The students proposed to identify one person in the exercise group to become a Johnson & Johnson "friend" who would be trained in basic diabetic monitoring and equipped with a J&J tester and data collector. Benefits to J&J would include the selling of more testing strips, accessing a new sales channel and markets, and obtaining new data on diabetics. At the same time, the diabetics would receive better monitoring and information about their condition which allows for reduced complications from the disease.
Chris Meyer, the winning team's captain from SAIS, described the summit as challenging and said his team's strategy was different from others. "For the APS proposal, our plan was viewed as straightforward, engaging all levels of the workforce and easily implemented. In the second question, we focused our Johnson & Johnson proposal on the grassroots level and how to deliver benefits directly to the underserved population in China."
The winners were announced 11/10 at an awards dinner capping the three-day competition that reflected a commitment to economically, environmentally and socially sound business practices.
"This year's Thunderbird Sustainable Innovation Summit produced truly innovative thinking by the finalist teams," said Greg Unruh, director of Thunderbird's Lincoln Center for Ethics in Global Management. "They were able to demonstrate the real business value produced by new approaches to businesses that integrate economics, ecology and societal concerns."
SAIS is one of the country's leading graduate schools devoted to the study of international relations. Located along Embassy Row in Washington's Dupont Circle area, the school enrolls more than 450 full-time graduate students and mid-career professionals and has trained more than 13,000 alumni in all aspects of international affairs.