The module has already been running for eight years at TUDelft, and is now incorporated into two of RSM’s master programmes. The Sustainable Business Game is linked to the Clean Tech Challenge, a business competition which has national finals, a boot camp, and a global final in London.
“Several of our MSc Global Business and Sustainability electives are already inter-disciplinary, covering supply chains, entrepreneurship and innovation, so this was a next step,” said RSM assistant professor Steve Kennedy. “For students, the experience of working together and cross-pollinating knowledge from different domains is vital to addressing sustainability challenges and being able to break out of silos of thinking that stifle innovation.”
The students are asked for business ideas using clean technologies – a process, product or service that reduces negative environmental impacts through improving energy efficiency amongst other ideas. They seek a tangible outcome such as a new product, process or business model, complete with a business plan, for their new enterprise.
Esther Blom of the Delft Centre for Entrepreneurship at Delft University of Technology said: “We have run this course for more than eight years already, but this is the first time that 30 students from Rotterdam will participate. I am looking forward to seeing the outcomes of the multidisciplinary teams we are forming this year.”
First, students must propose their idea, then test its feasibility in workshops; along the way all the students attend lectures and refine their ideas as they acquire new knowledge. Entrepreneurs and academics help mentor the teams on the course. Past competitions have generated ideas ranging from renewable energy technologies and waste solutions to social challenges. It is hoped that RSM and TU Delft students will progress to the Dutch national semi-finals and finals of the Clean Tech Challenge by the time they completed the elective’s sessions. The national winners then head for an international competition in London where the top prize is the opportunity to put their idea into action and £10,000.
