Harvard wins the ‘Global Ideas Challenge’ competition organised by Ferran Adrià and Telefónica.

WorldWide Tech & Science. Francisco De Jesùs.

Harvard wins the ‘Global Ideas Challenge’ competition organised by Ferran Adrià and Telefónica to shape the new era of elBulliFoundation.

- The jury has awarded the first prize to the two teams from the Harvard Business School, Duende and Team A. The team from the London Business School wins the second prize.

- The two winner teams will get a prize of 10,000€ each.

- The jury notes the winners’ creativity, innovation and groundbreaking ideas of the three teams that made it to the final after competing with 31 projects from prestigious business schools around the world.

 The two teams from the Harvard Business School, Duende and Team A, have shared the first prize in the 'Ideas for transformation' competition organised by Ferran Adrià and Telefónica to shape the new era of elBulliFoundation. The jury has decided that both teams deserve the first prize because they are complementary and both express the concept of elBulliFoundation as a whole. The team from the London Business School won the second prize. The two winners will get a prize of 10,000€ each while theLondon Business School team will get 3,000€.

The three finalists showcased their projects at the Diagonal 00 Telefónica Tower before an audience of businessmen, entrepreneurs and leading personalities in economics and innovation, and a jury composed of Nobel Prize in Economic Sciences winner Joseph Stiglitz, professors Roberto Álvarez del Blanco, Louis Stern and Russel Winer, Telefónica Managers Belén Amatriain and Richard Poston, and Victor Mallet from theFinancial Times, in addition to Ferran Adrià himself.

The jury members highlighted that all the projects were unique and entailed extremely creative and groundbreaking proposals, in addition to being rigorous both conceptually and methodologically, in line with the elBullifoundation's concept and Telefónica.

Team A from the Harvard Business School put forward ideas for developing radical innovation processes and creative work schedules for implementing them. It explores sophisticated technologies (e.g. 3D, digital layer tennis, bioluminescence, use of ultraviolet images, visual spectrums, socio-emotional designs, multisensoriality). The project also includes an economic-financial feasibility, investment policy and revenue plan to ensure elBullifoundation's sustainability, along with a technological support programme to driveTelefónica's image of leadership and innovation.

The team Duende, Harvard Business School, presents a unique outlook. It proposes a lean and flat organisational structure, an original sponsorship plan predicated on new initiatives and a series of platforms to develop creativity and innovation performance, effectiveness and internal efficiency measurements.

All the proposals include strategies and synergies that Telefónica could develop and obtain from a project of this kind bearing in mind its key role in the development of elBullifoundation.

The Team A is made up of Jonathan Bailey, Margaret Kendall Fitch and Anand Venkatesan. Luke Langford, Liroy Haddad and Vasile Tofan make up the Duende team. Professor Michael Norton has directed the two teams from the Harvard Business School while Professor Jeffrey Skinner has directed the team from theLondon Business School composed of Alonso Bustamante, Roberto Capuano and Han De Cauwer.

Creativity and talent

Telefónica and Ferran Adrià launched this international competition in October 2011, as a further step in the agreement they signed in 2010. The 'Ideas for Transformation' competition calls for projects to shape the new era of elBulli from 2014.

The competition was presented to MBA students from Harvard Business School, HaasSchool of Business of the University of California, Berkeley, Columbia University, London Business School and Esade Business School. It has piqued the interest and brought together professionals of many talents, achieving unprecedented success for an international competition of this type, drawing 31 projects from three-member teams representing these universities.

Participation far exceeded expectations for this type of competition. The motivation of the participants was the result of the uniqueness of the event and the attractive features of the proposal, allowing participants to provide out of the box and innovative ideas.

At the centre of the picture Belén Amatriain, Telefónica’s sponsorship programme director; on her left Ferran Adrià and Kim Faura, director of Telefónica in Catalunya; along with the finalist teams of Ideas for Transformation Contest from Harvard Business School and London Business School.

Belén Amatriain, Telefónica’s sponsorship programme director and Ferran Adrià, at the centre of the picture, with finalist teams of Ideas for Transformation Contest from Harvard Business School and London Business School together with jury members.