The first SAP Challenge for EADA arrived to an end last Friday 31st of July with the Final Presentation and selection of the winning teams. During a full month of intense competition, participants from various master programmes worked in teams to bring the best solutions to two challenges proposed by the market leader in software and business applications.
The challenges were a Business Development Challenge consisting in building a comprehensive Sales Play for a high growth startup company backed by a private equity fund, and Sustainability Challenge that focused on finding a solution to manage and reduce tech waste, one of the consequences of digitalization.
A select tribunal made of SAP executives evaluated the solutions presented. Christophe Roy, Mid-Market Sales Director for France at SAP and part of the Business Development Challenge tribunal said, “This is a crucial moment for companies to rethink about processes, skills and talent and to reflect how to weather this crisis. You have fresh views and knowledge and this exercise gives you a real insight into how you approach B2B sales”.
For the Sustainability Challenge final presentations, the teams had the privilege to receive direct feedback from SAP’s Chief Sustainability Officer, Daniel Schmid, amongst other members from SAP’s Sustainability Network. During the session, Schmid also shared some insights on SAP’s Climate 21 Initiative, an ambitious strategic bet that commits the company to a low-carbon future. “We have a broad understanding and holistic view of sustainability in which we play 2 roles: first, understanding our own operations and becoming a role model to gain credibility; and second, being an enabler for our customer’s transformation” explained Schmid.
For the Business Development Challenge, the winning team was made of Nicholas di Nicola from the Master in Marketing, Ricardo Tuch from the Master in Finance and Davi Sahil Sirohi and Juan Brion from the Master in Management.
For Ricardo, “the greatest takeaway was not only to learn how C-level pitch is developed, but also the fact that it involved the private equity sector and we need to find information on how to catch their attention too”. Nicholas reflects on being a diverse team “Working with people from different masters has been a wonderful and enriching experience…. each of us brought a different point of view to the table enhancing our final project quality.”
The winners of the Sustainability Challenge were team members Angelica Rizzo and Mahdi Farran from the Sustainable Business & Innovation Master along with Vishal Sinha and David Vives from the Master in Management.
When asked about their experience the Mahdi Farran says, “The challenge allowed me to apply the knowledge acquired throughout the program in EADA and it was a chance to implement sustainability strategies in a real context and gain hands-on experience”. Angelica Rizzo added, “This was a great achievement for me and it reinforced my eagerness to follow a career in Sustainability after the Master. “ Vishal Sinha concluded, “Working with a diverse team on a deadline with real impact gave us a sneak peek into the corporate world.”