Amsterdam Sustainable Business Challenge (QAA 1 2 3 4 5 6 7) FEEUK

Introduction:

The Amsterdam Sustainable Business Challenge (ASBC) is an interactive, intensive, competitive student event. Comprised of students from 4 different institutions, mixed student teams will work collaboratively on a real life ‘problem’ for which they need to solve through developing a solution and business case. Working with Amsterdam in business, the official foreign investment agency of the Amsterdam Metropolitan Area. Amsterdam inbusiness helps international companies to establish and expand their activities in the Netherlands. The teams were presented with a provocation through which they had to generate an innovative solution. They were provided support from 16 business experts from a wide range of organisations. Students then develop a pitch to present to a judging panel and a winner is selected.

Activity:

The Amsterdam Metropolitan Area wants to be a sustainable area. Given the increasing amount of foreign companies investing and locating in the Amsterdam Metropolitan Area, the challenge is to ensure that these companies are considering and implementing elements of Corporate Social Responsibility. Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) means that companies bear responsibility for societal problems such as air pollution, climate change, helping people with a distance to the labour market, etc. CSR is getting more and more attention in Amsterdam. At the same time, several studies show that CSR by companies leads to better financial performance, both in the short and the long term. Doing good for the people and the environment also leads to doing well financially and this will lead to more future-proof companies. Also CSR Netherlands (MVO Nederland) observes that societal challenges manifest themselves most clearly at local level. Think for example of poverty, poor air quality, loneliness, etc. By actively advising foreign companies based in Amsterdam on CSR – so that they take care of people, the environment and society and develop extra local activities – they contribute to the city. Bringing these worlds together offers great potential for a healthier, more social and attractive Amsterdam. Therefore, Amsterdam inbusiness supports foreign companies that make an impact at local level in the areas of people, the environment and society. The Challenge How can we encourage foreign companies to engage with CSR in Amsterdam, in order to tackle societal challenges at the local level? Areas Of Consideration - How can we measure the impact of a company’s CSR strategy to assure its success? - How can Amsterdam inbusinesss ensure CSR is embedded into a company’s strategy? - How will the solutions benefit the local region(s) in the Amsterdam Metropolitan area? Additional Areas Of Consideration - How can we support companies in the Amsterdam Metropolitan Area to behave sustainably? - What are conditions we can define to indicate a company’s degree of sustainability? - How can we stimulate foreign companies to not only sponsor ad-hoc CSR initiatives, but also structurally make their business operations more sustainable (think of plastic/paper free offices, sustainable purchasing policy, energy transition etc.). - How can the participation of foreign companies in CSR initiatives on local level be structurally increased? - Which local CSR initiatives/activities are interesting for foreign companies? - How can we be an interesting partner for foreign companies when it comes to CSR and what kind of partnerships between foreign companies and Amsterdam inbusiness can be devised that ensure sustainable cooperation? Timetable The day began with an ideation process covering divergent thinking thorough the Crazy 8s Activity, and convergent thinking by allowing teams to share ideas. After choosing a solution to the problem the students were provided with a business model canvas which they could use to develop their business solution. The business expert meetings (explained below) allowed each team to explore their idea with external feedback and then develop this solution further. After final development time the students were given pitching tips and time to develop a pitch, culminating the event with a two tier structured competition and winners announcement, followed by networking. Business Expert Meetings During the business meetings each student team will be allocated 3x 20min slots with 3 different individual Business Experts. This provides the students with the opportunity to voice their ideas and gain immediate feedback which can be developed throughout the remainder of the challenge. During the 10mins students have to process the input, the business experts will score their interaction with the team. These scores will be used to generate a winning team for the ‘Best Team’ prize. Pitch Information Student teams are required to develop and deliver a 6min pitch. They will then receive 5mins worth of questions. Student teams are not required to provide slides or images but may use flip chart paper or other resources if they wish. Judging Process Student teams will be split into separate rooms to pitch to a panel of judges. A finalist team will be selected from each room and these 4 finalists will pitch again to the whole challenge audience. The overall winner will then be selected from a final judging panel. Impact: One of the key features of this activity is that students get the opportunity to - Work within a multinational team - Generate a solution with an international and sustainability focus - Develop enterprise and employability skills - Widening participation students - Engage with a wide range of business experts from recruiting organisations both within Amsterdam and within the UK Within this particular event we completed a competence questionnaire asking students to rate themselves before the event, and after the event on 15 different competencies.

1. Opportunity Identification

2. Market Discovery and Development

3. Idea Generation

4. Idea Development

5. Persuasiveness

6. Marketing

7. Strategic Thinking

8. Resilience and Adaptability

9. Commercial Acumen

10. Pitching

11. Team Work

12. Time Management

13. Leadership

14. International

15. Sustainability

Find results here: 

The results between the pre and post questionnaire highlighted that both of the institutions with students from widening participation backgrounds demonstrated an improvement across all 15 competencies. The top three biggest increases were for commercial acumen, time management and international experience for all participants, with the lowest being that of market discovery and development. These results demonstrated a significant improvement and therefore the clear impact of an event of this nature, and more specifically for the widening participation students. Providing students with the opportunity to work in multi-disciplinary and international teams, working on a real world and relevant provocation, receiving feedback from a variety of externals in a specified learning environment, has allowed them to improve their ability in enterprise skills and subsequently enhance their employability.

Student Feedback:

“This event provided a fantastic opportunity to work with both students and business professionals. One of the best things about this challenge was that it felt very much like we were in the "real world" of business, while preserving the support network of a multitude of willing, helpful and kind people, both academics, and experts. I absolutely loved the opportunity that this event brought with regard to helping me gain vital experience in the field of networking, international teamwork, and focus on real world issues. I would highly recommend this challenge. I was initially fearful about visiting a foreign country with no prior connections, but I am glad to say that not only has this event helped me gain clarity in my future aspirations, but also I have come away from it with a group of fantastic, like-minded friends, spearheading the way to human progress whom I very much hope to remain in contact with.” Being able to work on my professional skills as well as connect with potential employers Helping a real existing institution with a problem, and solving this with a cultural divers team. Everything was well explained and we got guidance were needed. I would definitely recommend it to a friend. Enjoyed the opportunity to collaborate with international students, come up with modern solutions to real issues that mattered to all of us. Getting to meet other students both from my own university and from other ones. Made me think more about my career after and the things I can do to help me become successful and stand out. Meeting and listening to business professionals who were very enthusiastic. People were very friendly. The task was very challenging which always makes it more interesting to complete. Working with students from different universities and business experts is a great opportunity to learn and gain different viewpoints. Lastly, pitching in a dragons den esque way is a great experience and helpful for future employment. Unique opportunity to work with students from around the country/world to share different experiences and insights
Business Expert Feedback: From a stakeholder satisfaction perspective this is one of the most successful events we’ve ever run. Students loved it, employers loved it, we loved it! Results wise, early quantitative and qualitative student feedback shows all students have improved across all skill categories, with the most positive increases showing against the time management, pitching and global awareness dimensions.” Emma Moore, Director of Careers & Employability, University of Liverpool 

"Global inter-university collaboration is still rare in the sector - this event made it possible for me to meet lots of engaged students from a wide range of different academic and social backgrounds at one event. I was so impressed with the students I offered them all a guaranteed face to face interview with one of our recruitment team - fast tracking them, through our process.” Ashley Hever, Talent Acquisition Director, Enterprise Rent-a-Car Learner

Outcomes:

A key feature of learner outcomes, as highlighted above is the ability to work with such a diverse range of students and the wide variety of externals that are brought in to support the event. For many students it is also an exciting opportunity to work on such a prevalent and relevant topic. For the widening participation students from Newcastle and Liverpool Universities, there was a key focus here to help them develop their transferable and enterprise skills and to enhance their employability, global outlook and mobility through attending this event.

Resources:

The set up for the event needs to provide a large collaborative working space with additional break out rooms for breaks, judging and business meetings. As the event runs across a whole day catering and refreshments are required as well as access to appropriate facilities. The room is required to have A/V equipment and additionally the list of items below, in order to logistically run the event.

• • Flip chart paper (10 sheets per team – 160 -2/32 pads?)
• • Flip chart pens (different colours, a pack per team – 16)
• • Note pad paper (one pack per team – 16)
• • Writing pens (biros) (one each – 160?)
• • Post it notes (1 pack per team – 16 packs)
• • Coloured pens
• • A4 plain paper (10 sheets per team – 160)
• • Name Badges – sticky labels (enough for 120 people)
• • 2 min signs for pitching rooms x4
• • Table numbers and stands
• • Pyrex table top advertising boards
• • Whistle/bell for timing and getting attention
• • Photography notice signs In addition we required promotional materials such as banner stands for each institution and flyers/leaflets to promote the external organisations we worked with.

We also developed a hashtag for social media so we could #ASBC2019 coordinate our presence online. Finally prizes were required and we also provided thank you gifts for the external business experts.