Digital Week Competition: In the shoes of a consultant, expert in digital solutions

Last 16th to 20th January, ESSEC Business School organized the fifth Digital Week Competition: seven days during which Advanced Master’s students worked under the same conditions as the digital agencies. The objective was to propose innovative solutions to current issues presented by 25 partner companies.

Guenola, Calixte, Thibault and Thomas could hardly believe it. All four of them had just been announced as winners of the Digital Week Competition. However, after an initial 48 hours of work, they had decided to abandon their original idea and start again from scratch. ‘We made the first company brief on Monday, and on Tuesday evening, there was nothing left of it. We started to think about a new idea,’ states Thibault Mennezein, a student in Advanced Master’s in Marketing Management and Digital (MMD).

Like 314 other students in ESSEC Business School’s Advanced Master’s, they were part of 75 teams working on an issue presented by one of the 25 large companies participating in the competition. For them, it was the AstraZeneca Group that asked them to reflect on how to accompany patients during their fight against cancer. A complex subject and an initial project that after two days of trial and error, they ended up completely modifying. ‘We were able to interview a patient and that opened our eyes,’ saysGuenola Fisset, a student in the Advanced Master’s in International Agri-Food Management (MIA). ‘The patient confided in us the need for support, and we told ourselves there was a tool missing for her close ones on the subject.’

‘I’ve made real friends’

The four students consequently started to work on an application dedicated to sufferers and their close ones. ‘We worked hard, as a team, and in a smooth way,’ states Calixte Faucon, a student in the Advanced Master’s in Technological Projects (MPT). ‘There was a good fit from the beginning onwards which carried us along over the whole week.’ However, they didn’t know each other before this Digital Week Competition. ‘We lived a real human experience,’ smiles Thomas Schuler, an Advanced Master’s Centrale-ESSEC Entrepreneurs student. ‘We had four distinct profiles, coming from 4 different Master’s programs. And today I’ve made real friends.’ ‘It created strong links,’ finishes off Guenola. ‘We were very complementary and if this application sees the day, it will be a great victory over cancer.’

A dream that could become reality with this project because AstraZeneca plans to invite the students to come and present their project in the company. ‘Our subject was perfectly understood by the students and we were really impressed by the quality and relevance of their proposals,’ explains Anne-Claire Donze, Head of Digital Projects in Oncology at AstraZeneca. ‘Following their victory in this Grand Prize we plan to invite the winning team of students to the AstraZeneca headquarters for them to present their great project and the possible next steps forward.’

‘The students leave the week more mature’

A show of willpower that demonstrates the professionalism of the students and their involvement in this week of competition which has plunged them for the first time into a real service provider relationship. ‘The students leave the week more mature in terms of their digital and managerial skills,’ states Valérie Dailly, the creator and Head of Learning for the event. ‘As they all come from eight different Advanced Master’s programs, they exchange knowledge and bring to others what they’ve learnt. Supervised by coaches who are true professionals in the digital field, they have their baptism of fire in cross-functional team management practices. And they must be up to standard for the companies!’

The participating companies indeed play the game, and half of them come back the following year. Thanks to this loyalty, the challenge could see itself grow over the coming years.

The Digital Week Competition 2017 Facebook page
Consult the event’s Social Wall