16 Jul IE MBA Students Collaborate with IFC/FT’s Business Transformation Awards

Author: Claudio Cirillo

This year, IE MBA students took part for the first time in a collaboration with IFC/FT’s Business Transformation Awards: they worked as consultants for five small and medium enterprises selected by the World Bank with a social impact on society, namely Beyond Water, FairCap, AdmitAll, Anuvia and Connectera. We will sum up their experience going through five stories.

Manasi, IE IMBA student, is an entrepreneur from India who founded a fashion boutique called Suits to Suit in Mumbai, India. Her goal is to spread Indian fashion and design worldwide. She moved to Madrid to learn entrepreneurship skills which play a key role at IE and expand her business. She joined a team to help Beyond Water to develop a business plan in order to attract investors and support clean water to inhabitants of Malawi. Beyond Water is active in providing water pumps to small-scale farmers and householders, it supports sustainable and affordable water among regions in order to sustain prosperity, health and better economic opportunities. “It was a challenge to generate investor interest in watering a venture providing quality life to people in Malawi” said Manasi. Their presentation to management team was effective and Beyond Water is implementing their business plan to grow as a business and keep on helping local population in a sustainable way.

Yoram is a twenty-seven years old IMBA student from Ivory Coast. After working as banking advisor for Royal Bank of Canada, he joined IE’s IMBA to grow in his career. Yoram and his team has been consulting for FairCap to develop a business strategy, reduce operative costs and target promising markets. In his own words: “The impact project was one of the highlights of our IE MBA program. We had the opportunity to work on one of the IFC’s project with a passionate entrepreneur having a strong social vision. This experience has reinforced our willingness to always go the extra mile and try to make a difference in society. In my case, joining the international committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) next fall will be the chance to carry on with that desire of making a social impact around the world.”

AdmitAll is asmall enterprise committed in affordable education in the Philippines. Its work involves finding free spots in public and private school and sell them to local people who cannot afford at full price. AdmitAll asked for consulting to expand its business in Europe. “AdmitAll has a proven business model and the right team, but the most important aspect is the social impact on its community” said Anibal, a project manager from Chile involved in finding opportunities in Far East markets.

Mwasha has an amazing international background. He spent his young life in Zambia, Botswana, Kenya and United Kingdom. “IE is among few top schools with a strong presence in Africa and in particular in Kenya”. This MBA is a perfect choice to enrich his knowledge and grow up in his career. “IE is fast-paced, diverse and with a strong social side of humanity”. Anuvia, the small company that he consulted for , manufactures fertilizers from organic waste in a sustainable harmless way for our environment. Their goal is to expand this business internationally. “Environmentally friendly production is an issue today and we must care about it”. They had two presentations and both clients and investors were enthusiastic with their plan.

Environmental issues are also cornerstones of Connectera. It is the fifth company which participated in this ambitious project. All its business involves a massive use of technology, machine learning and artificial intelligence in farming. “Connectera is helping farmers to save their time from doing repetitive and manual work so that they can focus on the development of their business” said Adi. Connectera’s target is an exponential grow of revenue in order to invest more money on technology in farming. Connectera was looking for a good market strategy and Adi’s team has accomplished their expectations.

All group presentations were successful and both clients and investors found themselves more than satisfied. These projects will be implemented soon and social business will keep on having a positive impact on both a local and international scale worldwide through deserving projects.