Take one of the world's biggest challenges: the global food crisis. Add a $1 million prize to solve it. Throw in some of the brightest minds of our generation and what do you get? The largest case competition out there: the Hult Prize. With innovation this big, it should come as no surprise that four out of the five finalist teams have Net Impact connections. Each year, the Hult Prize (which was recently named one of the top five ideas changing the world by President Bill Clinton and TIME Magazine) throws out a really big challenge, and ten thousand students representing more than 130 countries step up to answer it. I love its audacity in challenging young people all over the world to create new, better solutions to huge global challenges, says Akanksha Hazari, winner of the 2011 Hult Prize and founder of mPaani, which allows underserved communities to earn points for everyday mobile phone use redeemable for services like safe water, education, and more.
I love that it is truly global, Hazari says. It brings together the brightest minds from all corners of the world on a single platform for change. I love its boldness. It not only believes in the power of young people, but then backs them. It is not only about ideating but also piloting the new, unimagined, untested, models born in the competition. The Hult Prize is a testament to the fact that our generation is fundamentally different, we are collaborative, and we want to build a better world together.
The Hult Prize is a testament to the fact that our generation is fundamentally different, we are collaborative, and we want to build a better world together.
This year's challenge, the global food crisis, is vast (nearly one billion hungry people in the world). It's heart-breaking (fully one third of food produced for human consumption is lost or wasted while one in four children go hungry). And it's getting bigger (demand for food around the world is expected to double in the next few decades). So what makes anyone think a handful of people can solve the problem?That's where Net Impacters come in.
At first glance, the finalist team from the Hult School of Business in San Francisco looks a lot like the Net Impact Hult SF leadership team. That's because their members are one and the same. Being Net Impact members has helped tremendously by giving us access to people and domain knowledge, says chapter VP of Career Development Charles Ojei, and the ability to learn from other members.
We never imagined that so many large and locally-based companies would reach out to us offering advice, mentorship, as well as seeking our opinion on their own social projects.
The team's project, which makes small and impulsive saving deposits into an account to ensure a safety net for people living on small, unpredictable incomes, has already gotten valuable exposure within the San Francisco business community through the competition. We knew when we won the most recent round that it was very important, explains team member Saul Minkoff, but we never imagined that so many large and locally-based companies would reach out to us offering advice, mentorship, as well as seeking our opinion on their own social projects.Of course, Net Impact Hult SF isn't the only chapter represented. The finalist team from McGill University, which is competing with a project to turn crickets into a viable food source (yes, you read that right), features Shobhita Soor, a first-year MBA student and the VP of Finance of Net Impact McGill.But the connections don't stop there. Back in November of 2012, Net Impact University of Cape Town co-hosted the Student Social Venture Programme, created to improve the quality and performance of African universities at global student social business plan competitions. Boy, did it succeed. One team that sprung from the SSVP is now also one of the five Hult Prize finalists, and will participate in a summer-long Hult-hosted incubator in preparation for the final pitches at the annual Clinton Global Initiative Meeting later this fall.If you think that's enough Net Impact presence at this prestigious social business accelerator, there's one more: the finalist team from ESADE Business School boasts four members of Net Impact ESADE. Net Impact is very close to our business hearts, says Cesar Del Valle, a Net Impact member on the ESADE Hult team. The team's pitch leverages co-opetition among small retailers in developing countries. By aggregating demand, retailers in slum communities can lower their costs, passing the savings onto their low-income customers.The only finalist team in the competition that doesn't appear to have Net Impact connections (dare we say - yet?), from the Asian Institute of Management, is focused on delivering a nutrition awareness campaign to combat the social-economic ills associated with malnutrition.
These five finalists have come up with some incredibly innovative ideas, but they may not be alone. Any student with a game-changing idea is eligible to enter the online portion of the competition, but they'll need to move fast. The deadline is this Friday, April 19. The scramble may well be worth it, given that the $1 million prize goes to the winning team as seed money to launch their project. All the finalists, however, get the chance to participate in the summer Hult Accelerator, where they'll receive mentorship, training, and resources to set their project up for success.But don't take it from us. Saul Minkoff of Net Impact Hult SF says the competition has meant more to us than we could have ever imagined. It has given us the opportunity to work on something which we are passionate about and see meaning in, and we have a real possibility to implement an idea that could positively change the way that millions of people live.
Students interested in learning more, or entering by the April 19th deadline, can visit the Hult Prize website.