Boston, MA (USA), March 2010 - One Laptop per Child (OLPC), in partnership with Hult International Business School, TalentCastr.com, and the Center for Innovation, Excellence, and Leadership (IXL Center) is hosting MBA and other university students from across the globe to compete simultaneously in four locations in the inaugural Global Case Challenge.
The Global Case Challenge (GCC) compliments the renowned Action Learning Project, a cornerstone of Hult's MBA programme where teams compete to solve a real-world problem and present solutions to top executives of leading global companies. The inaugural edition of the GCC is expected to gather over 300 of the world's brightest young business minds to develop innovative and effective strategies to provide a means of learning to the nearly two billion children of the developing world who currently have little or no access to education.
"Powerful, unique insights are generated when companies combine their abilities with the breadth of experiences and perspectives available outside their organization and beyond traditional partners. We are excited to work with OLPC and support this 'open innovation' initiative", says Tyler McNally, Associate Director at IXL Centre.
Participating teams include students from Harvard Business School, the Tepper School of Business at Carnegie Mellon, Columbia Business School, The Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania, the Rotman School of Management at University of Toronto, the Richard Ivey School of Business at Western University, INSEAD, and the American University of Sharjah to name a few.
"This is a unique opportunity for MBA and other university students from top-ranked programmes to develop and present innovative solutions that are aligned with the mission of One Laptop per Child", says Charles Kane, former President and Board Director of OLPC, - to empower and educate children in developing countries by providing one rugged, low-cost, low-power, connected laptop to every school-age child.
"What differentiates this competition from others is not only the international appeal of competing globally, but the social impact that the competition will have for children and education. As the majority of the winning teams' strategies will be adopted by OLPC at some point in the near future, participants realize that this competition provides them with an opportunity to truly make a difference", says Ahmad Ashkar, event co-founder and President of the Hult Consulting Club.
