Outbound exchange students excel in innovation competition in Finland

Two BBA Global Business Systems Management students, Valent Cheung Chiu-ying and Nevis Lee Kam-wing, of the Department of Information Systems, teamed up with three overseas students from London School of Economics and Political Science, and Australian National University, to participate in the Accenture Digital Innovation Challenge 2016. The team consisted of all exchange students studying at Aalto University School of Business in Helsinki, Finland.

The team, Eco-Vangelists, proposed innovative solutions for a partner company Stora Enso, a leading provider of renewable solutions in packaging, biomaterials, wood and paper. The team created a solution to develop a secondary market for reselling apparel via reselling platform and smart lockers that can provide product authentication by sensors including NFC with intelligent apparel packaging, which helped retailers make handling of returns easier and more sustainable.  

In the Case Day, the team pitched their business proposal to the judges, competing with 20 other teams. After a vigorous competition, the team was awarded the Case Day Winner title, and selected as one of the seven finalists to compete for a grand prize of EUR10,000 at the Slush conference in December. Though the team lost in the final, their project concept was highly appreciated by the partner company, which planned to turn their idea into real business solutions.

Valent shared his excitement joining the competition, “This is for the first time our idea is considered by the case partner company. We’re thrilled to know the company has contacted value chain partners to realise our idea. To me, this is not just a group project competition; this is a real deal here."

“As a global business student, I’m proud to have worked in a diversified team. We made good use of the advantage of different cultural backgrounds, and proposed creative business solutions together. That made us straight to the final," said another student Nevis.

Accenture Digital Innovation Challenge is a digital concept competition jointly organised by Accenture, a global management consulting, technology services and outsourcing company, serving clients in more than 120 countries; Fjord, a service design consultancy that specialises in creating wide-ranging digital experiences and services for consumers across different platforms; and startup and technology conference Slush, a leading startup and investor event in Europe, which connects high-end players of the global tech scene together. The Challenge was held first time in 2015, aiming to gather young talents to innovate new services, product concepts and business models to solve real life business challenges of the partner companies.

For more information about the competition, please refer to the news.