“Innovation is in all of us” – Recap of the Case Competition Final Round

Impressive Night Prior

Though I wasn’t competing, I couldn’t help but feel nervous as the cab pulled into the Guest House at GE’s corporate headquarters in Fairfield, where the final round of the case competition would be held.

The Guest House is an impressive center with hotel rooms, conference areas and dining facilities – a place for employees and clients to stay when they’re working on big ideas with the company’s top leaders.

The Thursday evening before the competition was a heady one for all of us, current MBAs and ECLPs alike. Our CMO, Beth Comstock, flew in just to speak to us. After Beth’s speech was over, there was time for networking and a cocktail hour followed by a seated dinner. The food was delicious and the company could not have been better. Though the students would be competing the next day, they did a great job branching out and meeting everyone. Our table was filled with laughter.

However, the stakes for the competition the next day were definitely high. The very fact that the Guest House had been chosen as the venue demonstrated how seriously GE took the competition.

The Case – Curbing Obesity and Improving Profitability  

This year’s case asked students: “Where and how should GE focus its efforts globally to curb the obesity epidemic while improving profitability?” At first, students agreed that they were perplexed by the broadness of the case. However, as they began digging into their research, they told us they embraced the creative freedom.

Our panel of judges included the Director of Healthymagination – Commercial Operations, the Director of Healthymagination – Media Development and the Executive Director of Global Marketing. These are three people within GE who have the ability to mandate action within Healthymagination. As one of the judges said as he kicked off the competition: “Innovation is in all of us.” No one at GE saw the day as merely an academic exercise. We genuinely believed great ideas and solutions would come from the event.

Team by Team Recap

The Imaginators from George Washington

The first team, the Imaginators from George Washington, presented a solution combining grassroots events, an online club with rewards to incentivize healthy behavior, and kiosks at partner locations. They also proposed an electric fleet of fitness and healthy eating trucks to get out into the community. The media plan also included a personal weight loss contest centered around the Olympics. These fun ideas would no doubt engage consumers and also took into account all of GE’s partnerships and how to make the most out of them.

The Marketeers from Texas

Next up were the Marketeers from Texas. The Marketeers proposed that GE expand its Centricity offering, an Electronic Medical Records (EMR) software application for physicians and hospitals, to add a patient-facing component. They also presented in-home medical devices that used wireless technology to send data to both the patient’s home computer and to their physician’s EMR system. This short-term solution was coupled with a long-term government engagement plan that would create tailored diet and fitness plans for different communities based on the data gathered from Centricity.

Team Initech from Notre Dame

Initech’s solution was near and dear to my heart as a Capital ECLP: they proposed providing financing to entrepreneurs for the development of profitable, obesity-curbing businesses in low income neighborhoods, starting with four target cities. The Notre Dame team pointed to numerous examples of entrepreneurial activity that has been known to reduce obesity. Mobile produce trucks have been extremely successful in combating “food deserts,” where people in low-income neighborhoods don’t have access to fresh produce. Other success stories are urban farms, corner stores and low-income fitness centers.

Final Thoughts

At the end, all of the teams came to the front to take more questions from the judges, the audience and each other. One of the judges asked “has working on this case changed your behavior?” The students said it had increased their awareness of underlying contributing factors and the pervasive nature of obesity, even for those who may not be directly at risk.

“You realize there’s a force you’re up against. Walking around the food court on campus, you just see it in a really different light,” one student said.

Another student pointed out: “the hardest thing for adults to overcome is the emotional component. It sucks to lose weight. It’s hard for everyone.” With that comment, everyone in the audience nodded in agreement.

Who Took Home Top Honors?

It was an extremely close competition and I certainly didn’t envy the judges, who had to pick a winner. Each team’s approach was unique, but all tackled the problem and presented profitable, actionable plans that would make a difference. As one of the judges said “this was a really hard decision. What you guys presented are conversations we have all had around the office. It was almost as if you were in the room with us.” The whole group did a drumroll as the judges announced that the Longhorn Marketeers were the winners! They explained that the research the Texas team had done to better understand the healthcare industry had given them a slight edge.

Saying Goodbye

While the current ECLPs and alums said goodbye, the students prepared for their interviews – another benefit to making it to the finals in Fairfield was that they had the chance to interview for an ECLP internship almost two months before other 1st year MBAs. All of the teams agreed it had been an amazing event. One said it was the highlight of her MBA experience so far.

The ECLPs on the case competition committee had been working since January to make the event memorable and they did an absolutely amazing job.

Though I love the work I do at GE Capital, sometimes I forget that I’m just a tiny piece of something much larger. This competition served as a great reminder that I work for an amazing company that is tackling the world’s biggest challenges head on.

I feel fortunate to have been a part of it and can’t wait for next year’s case competition. As you can imagine, we have big, ambitious plans to take it to an even higher level!

Posted by Kathleen