Businesses at the core of teaching activities
The Challenge Open Innovation, launched 8 years ago, aims to put students in real-life situations via complex and innovative practical cases, pushing them to think collectively on actual and real issues.
Roughly 450 students, from the Marseille, Paris and Bordeaux campuses, thus took part in the challenge, forming trans-disciplinary and trans-generational teams. During three weeks, major groups such as Airbus, Fareva, Valeo, Coca-Cola and La Poste, and research centres such as INRIA Bordeaux and CEA IRESNE, submitted real and unconventional challenges, and dared students to develop innovative projects able to meet their expectations.
This event illustrates KEDGE unique pedagogy, putting the relations with businesses at the core of its DNA. The acknowledged know-how of the School's different programmes allows to maintain close relationships with strategical partners, which ensure a greater employability to our graduates.
The novelties in the 2022 edition
For the 2022 edition, new businesses submitted complex and innovative themes:
- Coca-Cola joined the challenge and asked the students to think about the launch of an innovative organic brand.
- Ajinomoto, the Japanese food-processing giant, invited students to "find a way to increase its brand value for the Generation Z" and "create a concept for an Onigiri firm in France, using local culture and Ajinomoto's ingredients".
- The La Poste Group asked students questions such as "How to improve accessibility to the La Poste Group's products and services" or "How to promote La Poste social, societal and ecological commitments to the youth".
- LEARDAL, European actor specialised in resuscitation and simulation Medical Devices, proposed themes such as "A new Business Model in the Medical Device sector", "How to speed up the adoption of the subscription Model?", "Service Design in the Medical Devices industry".
This year, missions relating to the maritime industry were under the spotlight, with the participation of CEREM and its problematic about maritime freight by sail, the CEA IRESNE, INRIA and IHU Marseille research center and the major industrial groups Airbus, Valeo, Veolia and Fareva.
Another novelty in the 2022 edition: the rise of Blockchain startups, which was represented at the challenge by entities such as OVOCHAIN and URBIZ.
The Business Relations, Alumni and Business nursery networks were also mobilised to propose 45 missions in response to the problems presented by the companies, from French start-ups to large international industrial groups.
This year further strengthens the basis laid during the previous editions, and provides students with the opportunity to work on subjects more and more innovative and anchored in the market's real-life condition.
Results of the Challenge
On the 28th of March, several prizes were awarded to the most impacting projects:
- 1st prize for the Manpower France mission, supervised by Muriel Fossati Caillol, Manager Life Science Division on "How to attract talents in the medical area?".
- 2nd prize category "Innovation" for the Airbus Helicopters mission supervised by Christophe Prior, Digital Transformation Office leader on the "Digital twin" theme.
- 3rd prize category "Collective Intelligence" for the Ajinomoto Europe mission supervised by Ornella Silva, Deputy Director, Strategy and M&A on "Increasing brand value to the Generation Z".
- 4th prize category "Creativity" for the TeenLabs mission supervised by Sylvie Jouanard on "Service innovation in the area of the skills expected on the market".
- The jury's "Coup de Coeur" award goes to the Centralgroup FAREVA mission on the theme "Creation of a Customer Platform".
This challenge allowed us to take a consulting role and work on a subject previously unbeknownst to us. We thus evolved, together, during four weeks by making the subject ours: the recruitment and medical markets. This was a professionalising experience, owing to our team exchanges but also to those we had with our coach Marjolaine Rouard and Manpower. We are more than glad that the work we invested in the challenge has been rewarded.
At the bottom of the page, you can download the MANPOWER project (in French) in its entirety, conducted by Inès MALECOT, Emeline OGER, Thais VEGEAS, Zeki DURNA and Thomas BABY.
