Learning Through Action events are known to put HBA students to the test.
Beginning in November with the BCG Case Competition and wrapping up in April with Hunter Straker and Ivey Give LemonAid, the mandatory events encourage students to apply their classroom knowledge to real world situations.
Now in its second year, the Deloitte Innovation Forum, sponsored by Monitor Deloitte, gives students less structure and more freedom.
Kicking off on March 14, the three-day event challenged students to find innovative ways that their client Wealthsimple could encourage Canadians to save more money. The students’ task was to get imaginative and think beyond the strategies the online investment management tool already has in place.
Alex Morris from Doblin, an innovation firm and part of Deloitte Consulting, spoke to the students on Monday to get the creative juices flowing. He stressed the importance of finding a balance to make their innovations desirable, viable, and feasible.
"Focus on desirability," he told the students. "Figure out what people want. If we start with desirability and suspend a little bit of disbelief around how to make money and how to actually pull it off, it leads to a bigger, bolder innovation."
The third Learning Through Action event of the year put students on a tight deadline. They had about 30 hours to choose a demographic to focus on, think of an innovation that would work, and submit the idea to the judges. Then, they had a night to work on crafting a presentation that would explain their idea in an appealing way.
The winning team was Team 2 from Section 1: Curtis Brehn, Colleen Ha, Lauren Nicolaas, Wendy Pu, Kurtis Sterling, Ayush Vaidya, and Diyang Yu. Their idea was to market Wealthsimple to small businesses using a savings incentive plan that motivates employees, helps to retain top talent, and fits with their budget.
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