Executive education enters a new realm as MBA students design prototypes that can be scaled up and taken to the next level not just to start entrepreneurial ventures but to find real-time solutions to societal problems

Global citizenship not just a privilege or an intellectual advantage, but it’s an ecological and social necessity, a technological possibility and also an emotional and political possibility in ways that it never was before. And because of a growing awareness of ecological and economic interdependence,  the young managers and entrepreneurs  stepping into the arena  of turbulent global work space  need to learn to look beyond the narrow career goals to  take on the mantle  of responsible  leaders by creating  different  kinds of mechanisms that empower stakeholders in a sustainable manner.

‘Leadership beyond boundaries ‘ unfolded into  reality when these solutions were presented to an impressive jury that included : Ashish Somaiyya, CEO-Motilal Oswal Pvt Ltd ,U.R.Bhat ,MD.Dalton capital Advisors(I)Ltd , Anurag Madan,Exec Director-Edelweiss , Sameer Tamhane, Sr.Director(HR),MSD Organon(I) Pvt Ltd , Varky Joseph, Head-Customer experience-Raymond, Leon Verdes, Sr Manager- Finance , Castrol, Rajendra Samant,Area manager-Jain Irrigation, Sanjay Badhe-Consultant –Mktg & Retail strategy and Dakshesh Parekh,Executive Director- Business India.

Lyndon Rego, Director-Innovation Incubator& Global Director -LBB, and Ramsey Ford,Co-founder &Design Director-Design Impact , from Center for Creative Leadership (CCL ) mentored the students along with WeSchool faculty, reviewed the breakthrough projects and briefed the Global Citizen Leaders of the future  in this journey.

Among the 25 projects that were scrutinised by the panel of juries, the 3 top solutions were:

• VERMISPRAY ,A business plan for converting an agricultural by-product ; an organic liquid fertilizer into an user friendly product for the consumption of the urban spaces like public and terrace gardens, nurseries,  landscape artists ,horticulturists as well as rural farms.
• SWEET NOTHINGS, A plan for positioning the everyday jaggery into a high-end ready- to- retail product by converting the crude packaging and bulky form into with sophisticated  packaging and branding.  To make it  attractive for the urban consumer for health and taste, to be sold in bars(like chocolate),cubes(like chiklets ) ,syrup  ( for desserts) and also as a healthy substitute for the Hypoglycaemia patients.
• www.egrameen.com, an IT intervention  to bring a convergence of  news, product information, technological know-how, on-ground workshops, chat rooms to boost rural entrepreneurship

The students from WeSchool’s niche programs like Healthcare, Retail ,Business Design and Rural Management grouped with their counterparts from the PGDM & PGDM E–Biz have been undergoing a transformational program in leadership, team building ,value and ethics etc.and  looking at ‘opportunity spaces ‘ that included  burning social issues,  environment protection ,inclusion of stakeholders in developmental process, energy conservation and alternate sources of energy; where they were expected to look deep into the psyche of multiple stakeholders, create stakeholder maps ,understand the patterns that emerged during the process and turn them into solutions for  societal benefits. What emerged out of this creative endeavour were business plans that were also solutions for issues faced by both rural as well as urban population i.e. financial services for the urban underprivileged, de-congestion through improved traffic sense, improving emergency healthcare in cities, enhancing the branding of government services like the MTDC, designing an efficient IT tool for tracking government documents needed by citizens and many others.

Prof Dr Uday Salunkhe ,Group Director-WeSchool commented  , “India needs young talent who will not only strive for personal success as a corporate leaders  or   entrepreneurs but also on making  the society a better place to live. One of the key initiatives that WeSchool has taken up towards nurturing its students is the AAA approach. AAA stands for Acquisition, Application and Assimilation of knowledge. The approach emphasizes students to learn through application of acquired knowledge and as the next step delve deeper to make meaning of the knowledge acquired & experience by understanding one’s roles & responsibilities towards business, relationships & society .Center for Creative Leadership  has joined hands with WeSchool  to mentor our young students into seekers and explorers in search of answers, that will heighten the sense of responsibility and cultural empathy, broaden the world view and assist them to create a new, higher ideal; an identity of self that they can relate to. As the vision of self will undergo a deep change, the young manager will move from responsive to transformative contribution to the society “

This initiative compelled the young   MBAs-to-be to step out of the comfort zones of classroom learning, look closely at the fast- paced realities of the environment and come out with strong solutions that had the potential to be taken to a higher level .This endeavour not only changed their lenses but also tested their ability to accept failure and turn it into opportunities for higher degrees of success.