JHU SAIS Team Takes First Place in Thunderbird Sustainable Innovation Summit Challenge
Washington, D.C. - 11/17/2008 - For the second year in a row, 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 138 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 11/13-15 in the final round of the Thunderbird Sustainable Innovation competition. An MBA team from Thunderbird won second prize, and a team from Queens School of Business in Canada won third prize.
Sarah Austrin-Willis, Caroline Levington, Kimberly Wattrick, Victoria Wilson and Lauren Witlin comprised the first-place SAIS team, taking home a $20,000 prize. They also were the only all-women team participating in the final round of the competition.
The winning teams beat out seven other finalists including two additional teams from Thunderbird as well as teams representing Arizona State University, University of Phoenix, University of Wuppertal in Germany, Northeastern University and DePaul University. One-hundred-and-thirty-eight teams representing 47 universities in 11 countries took part in the overall competition.
Students in the final round of the competition developed innovative and sustainable business solutions that addressed real-life challenges presented by sponsoring global corporations Johnson & Johnson and EcoVerdance. EcoVerdance executives surprised final round participants by giving each 1,000 shares in their company.
Each team had to address questions posed by both companies. EcoVerdance asked what is the best model for implementing a "for-profit business" that will address food security in Sub-Sahara Africa, carbon dioxide reduction capability, nitrogen runoff and offer an attractive return to investors? The question Johnson & Johnson posed was what strategies should the company's pharmaceutical business units in China adopt to assure that they attract, develop and retain a diverse and vibrant pool of leaders to accomplish their goal of caring for the health and well being of every local community in the country.
The SAIS team's answer for the EcoVerdance question utilized preexisting social networks to address Sub-Saharan African food security. The group identified buying scale, access to credit and information asymmetries as the greatest barriers to increased farm productivity. They proposed working with farmers' associations such as the Sabatia Small Scale Farmers Association, microfinance institutions such as the Equity Building Society of Kenya, and technical assistance providers to develop a model that addresses the above challenges. Once piloted in Kenya, this model could easily be scaled throughout the region.
For the Johnson & Johnson question, the SAIS team developed a three-pronged approach that leveraged social capital to create human capital. Given the entrance of the single child generation into China's work force, the students' focus-from the attraction phase all the way through to the retention phase-was on team building. Ultimately, the SAIS students proposed a strategy that utilized innovative competition, online professional networking through an intranet Web site, and the creation of a team culture through intramural sports and community development teams.
Kimberly Wattrick, the winning team's captain from SAIS, said both final round questions were very different. She said her team focused on answering both questions by demonstrating that a company can truly create a sustainable venture by building its social capital. "The competition was challenging, but I believe the holistic SAIS education truly set us apart. Drawing on our understanding of culture, economics and foreign languages, we were able to propose unconventional, yet highly effective, solutions to the sponsor questions. Moreover, having the opportunity to work with such a talented group of SAIS women was incredible. From the very beginning, our strengths complemented each other nicely, making this one of the most rewarding experiences we have ever been a part of," she said.
The winners were announced 11/15 at an awards dinner capping the competition that reflected a commitment to economically, environmentally and socially sound business practices.
"The winning team combined a good overall strategic approach to their presentations, gave details, and stuck their necks out and identified the focus areas and priorities they recommended," said Neil Currie, a summit judge from Johnson & Johnson. "They went a step beyond the rest of the group."
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 580 full-time graduate students and mid-career professionals and has trained more than 15,000 alumni in all aspects of international affairs.