Last month I was involved in the Said Business School, University of Oxford Hackathion 2022. the challenge was Making COP26 deliver. Several teams partecipated from leading business school, Oxford, Cambridge Judge, London Business School and Warwick Business School.
It was a first for me as a mentor and I am so proud to have given my humble contribution to the winning team!!
They proposed a wonderful idea to nudge customers to sustainable behaviours through a carbon token reward system for a leading supermarket chain.
Here the interview with the wonderful team from Warwick Business School!
presentation of the team and bio
“We were classmates in the same cohort at WBS MBA when we first formed the team. Not only do none of us have prior hackathon experience, but we have never dealt with a sustainability-related case before. As you can see, it was a major challenge for us. Nonetheless, we were confident that we could be a serious contender. Our team is well-balanced, with each member coming from a diverse background and bringing different skill sets to the table that complement one another. We purposefully chose the ‘business model’ challenge in order to fully optimize our resources. As a result, we won the competition on a split decision.”
Thanit Dangmas, CFA – experienced in the finance field as an investment analyst covering a variety of asset classes such as equity, fixed income, and real estate investment trust (specialized sectors: telecommunications, transportations, tourisms, automotives, and commercial REITs). Enthusiastic about business analysis and investment
Linkedin: www.linkedin.com/in/thanitdangmas
Proud – experienced as a brand-building consultant with clients in various industries, and as a marketing strategist, in developing go-to-market and communication strategies. Passionate about how brand and business interconnect and complement one another, especially for small firms and entrepreneurs.
Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/paraneeanangosolporn/
Puspita – Previously worked as Finance in a Multinational FMCG company. Experienced in various fields in the industry such as sales finance, supply chain finance, financial reporting, internal control, and transformation project. Outside the field, passionate about entrepreneurship with an experience of running a social business in food and beverages industry.
Linkedin:https://www.linkedin.com/in/puspitadb/
Jianyu – experienced as a senior investment associate in the field of M&A and equity investment, mainly covering the Industrial and Tech sectors. Skilled in industry&company analysis and deal processing (due diligences, valuation modeling, transaction structure design and negotiation) with Certified Public Accountant certificate and Legal Profession Qualification. Passionate about investment and value creation.
Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jianyu-yang/
the problem you wanted to solve
How can Sainsbury’s encourage suppliers to reduce carbon emissions from food production while also influencing customer behaviors toward more sustainable products in order to meet its carbon reduction target by introducing a new business model?
the solution proposed
We proposed a ‘Carbon Point Token Reward System’. Customers who purchase sustainable products are rewarded with carbon point tokens under this system. These tokens can be redeemed (for a one-of-a-kind product/service at a partner’s location), traded (open exchange in the token marketplace), or donated (Sainsbury’s will plant a tree in the customers’ names), providing an incentive for customers to purchase sustainable products. In the long run, this will gradually influence customer behaviours toward sustainability. Suppliers, on the other hand, must reduce the carbon emissions of their manufacturing and production process in order for the product to be labeled with carbon points. The offset carbon from each supplier would then be calculated into carbon points, which would be stamped on the products of that supplier. Furthermore, these sustainable products would be placed on distinct shelves in stores with the highest foot traffic, creating an incentive for suppliers to innovate for a more sustainable way of producing goods. For Sainsbury’s, the company would be moving closer to its carbon reduction target while also facilitating customer behaviour change.
the way forward
For now, we haven’t come up with any plan for the next steps of our idea but weare open ourselves to any opportunity that might come to move forward the idea in the future.
your experience in the Hackathon, benefits and lesson learned
Experiences:
The SBS Hackathon was, without a doubt, the most remarkable experience we have had so far since our MBA. We enjoyed the process of creating and developing the ideas, constantly verifying the business model’s feasibility. The final presentation resulted from the constructive discussion that helped us gain more insight and overcome all the challenges. We have gone from a group of individuals to an efficient team in only a few days. It was such an invaluable experience for all of us.
Benefits:
· Opportunity to practise: The SBS Hackathon allowed us to put what we learned from our MBA studies, both hard skills (business acumen) and soft skills (leadership and collaboration), into a real practice.
· Connect with industry experts: The professional guidance and comment from the mentors has inspired and pushed us to take our ideas further (the advice of tokenization truly inspired us to explore the new area that we can build on our initial business model). Also, the feedback from the judges also provided us with in-depth knowledge in the industry and practical solutions from their real experiences.
· Learning from other teams: During the pitch, we got the opportunity to learn about other teams’ ideas/business plans on various areas, which was both intriguing and eye-opening for us.
· Opportunity to get into sustainability: the hackathon also gave us the opportunity to unlock new knowledge in the wider scope of sustainability. Along the process of building up the idea itself, we learned many new things we weren’t familiar with before.
Lesson Learned:
· Never stop learning: Although none of our team members come from the sustainable, retail, or technology industries, it allows us to be curious and deeply explore concepts and learn what we might not know before (i.e., the carbon footprint, the retail industry’s value chain and the tokenization process). We have gained a significant amount of new knowledge and came across interesting facts about sustainability. In short, if we continuously learn and never limit ourselves, everything becomes possible.
· Teamwork makes the dream work: One of the things we appreciate the most is the team synergy, especially when it comes to the combined expertise that truly complements one another. The bond between the four of us was strengthened throughout the event due to the conversations and the time we spent working together. As we usually say, the most important thing is that we had a lot of fun!