For the second year in a row, a team of international
relations graduate students from the
Johns Hopkins School of
Advanced International Studies finished in first place
competing in the
Sustainable Innovation Summit Challenge hosted by
Thunderbird School of Global Management in
Glendale, Ariz.
The overall competition included 138 teams
representing 47 universities in 11 countries.
SAIS was the only non-MBA school participant among
the 10 teams from around the world
competing in the final round. An MBA team from Thunderbird
won second prize, and a team from
Queens School of Business in Canada won third prize. The
winners were announced Nov. 15 at an
awards dinner capping the competition, which reflected a
commitment to economically, environmentally
and socially sound business practices.
Sarah Austrin-Willis, Caroline Levington, Kimberly
Wattrick, Victoria Wilson and Lauren Witlin
made up the first-place SAIS team, taking home a $20,000
prize. They were the only all-women team
participating in the finals, which called for the students
to develop innovative and sustainable business
solutions addressing real-life challenges presented by the
two global sponsors, Johnson & Johnson and
EcoVerdance.
Each posed a question. EcoVerdance asked, What is the
best model for implementing a for-
profit business that will address food security in
sub-Saharan Africa, carbon dioxide reduction
capability and nitrogen runoff, and offer an attractive
return to investors? Johnson & Johnson asked,
What strategies should our 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?
For EcoVerdance, the SAIS team proposed utilizing
pre-existing 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 therefore
suggested working with farmers' groups, 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 addressing the challenges.
Once piloted in Kenya, the team said, their
model could easily be scaled throughout the region.
For Johnson & Johnson, the 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 SAIS team captain, said that
although the questions were very
different, her team focused on answering both by
demonstrating that a company can create a
sustainable venture by building its social capital. "The
competition was challenging, but I believe the
holistic SAIS education truly set us apart," she said.
"Drawing on our understanding of culture,
economics and foreign languages, we were able to propose
unconventional yet highly effective solutions
to the sponsor questions."
Neil Currie, a judge from Johnson & Johnson, said,
"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. They went a
step beyond the rest of the group," he
said.
EcoVerdance executives surprised final-round
participants by giving each 1,000 shares in their
company.
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