Marion Descottes and Miguel Monforte Nicolas, two MBA students from IE Business School, have won first prize at the Infocom Future leadership Award one of Indiaâ??s premier essay writing competitions. Open to Business schools from around the world, essays are judged by a distinguished panel of Indian academics and business leaders. Last year over 500 essays from 66 top business schools were entered into the competition. The top 6 essays are then selected and ranked.
This yearâ??s theme was â??Innovations driving service excellenceâ??, through which Marion and Miguel chose to address the topic of â??How innovations can improve Anti-retroviral treatment adherence in Africaâ??. The essay focussed on the use of innovative communications systems to provide patients with better information, updated more quickly than current methods, thus helping them to adhere more closely to the ART programs. The system was designed to ensure feasibility and sustainability in developing countries.
When Marion and Miguel spoke about the choice of the topic they agreed that â??We chose the following subject area because our professors are constantly challenging our abilities to find innovative ways to look at real day-to-day problems. Studying in depth, subjects such as Supply Chain Management and Innovation allowed us to really understand which barriers companies face everyday. One of our main goals when designing the solution was real feasibility. Moreover, IEâ??s focus on Social Corporate Responsibility provided us with the inspiration to combine business acumen with our social concerns. Winning the prize confirms that there needs to be one further outcome: bring this solution live
David Bach, Associate Dean of the MBA commented, â??The choice of subject area and the focus on finding innovative solutions to complex, real world problems, is exactly the type of project we want to prepare our students to manage and lead. We are delighted that Marion and Miguel won the first prize, the fact that they have chosen a topic with a critical social component makes this even more gratifying for usâ?.
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