The Home of Tomorrow Helps Explain the Corporations of Today
Imagine the home of the future. What kind of innovative product would you sell to residential consumers? Which companies would you involve in your project? How would you match marketing innovation and feasibility? These days Marketing Management (MM) and Economics and Management of Innovation and Technology (EMIT) students are trying to answer these and many other questions by analyzing opportunities in the smart home market, identifying products, defining marketing strategies. They won't just have to convince their professors. They must impress Vodafone managers too. And hopefully win the YOUniversity contest.
Last March ten Vodafone managers challenged one EMIT and three MM classes to conceive and develop a smart home related product or service aimed at residential consumers or enterprises or mobile devices' users. Groups of six students each started working on it. Seven weeks later Vodafone managers met them to give them feedback and correct errors. Friday, May 23 and Tuesday, May 27 groups will have eight minutes each to present their idea in the most engaging way they can. The managers will then pick out the best project in each of the three categories in three days' time. Winners will be declared Friday, May 30 after the final presentation at the Vodafone Theater in Milan.
"The contest is an opportunity for students to work on concrete issues and to practice what they learned", says Deborah Raccagni, lecturer at the Department of Marketing. She's mentoring the project with Paola Cillo, Boris Durisin and Salvio Vicari. "That's exactly what companies want them to do. Furthermore, the contest pushes them to develop different skills: it's as if they're working in a consulting firm". And personal qualities matters too: students are asked to work as a team and have a good time management. The contest is also a showcase for students looking for internships.
"They experienced the challenges that big companies face to lead the market, and that's amazing", says Paola Cillo, EMIT program director. "Students met managers before, it's not unusual in Bocconi, but this time they had the rare opportunity of having a one-to-one relationship with them. And it's hard to convince professionals who are usually very judgmental on new products and services".
Andrea Grondona and his fellow MM students enjoyed the chance to get a glimpse of Vodafone's operation: "We got a sense of a big company mindset. We also understood the importance of teamwork. It could not be easy, but overcoming conflicts and mixing everyone's knowledges and inclinations pay off in the end". Francesco Betti appreciated the project checkpoint that his EMIT group did with managers. "We put our ideas on the line. It was stressing yet stimulating. It was like being involved in a real business roundtable".