INSPER NEWS

The four best groups and two individual highlights earned together R$ 40 thousand in prizes. Meet the winners.

On December 8, the online closure meeting for the Design Thinking elective was held. Carried out in partnership with São Paulo’s Shopping Center 3 mall, the initiative involved students from several Insper Undergraduate Programs using design thinking to propose solutions to complex problems. They worked on six extremely relevant topics for Shopping Center 3 (Sanitation and Cleaning, Retail, Supply Chain, Social Aspects, Food Court, and Physical Occupancy).

The class sessions were attended by 46 students, including Brazilians, Timoreses, Frenchpersons, Swiss, and Colombians, divided into ten groups. They included excursion activities to the mall and remote classes held in English. “It is a great pleasure to be able to provide this experience to our students and also to confirm that the market receives us as problem solvers. Even before graduating, our students show that they are able to give results and directions to real-world organizations,” said Prof. Flavia Piazza, coordinator of the Insper Business Administration program.

For Insper professor and course facilitator Edgard Charles Stuber, this was a very rich semester. “Our students could visit the mall and understand the pain of customers and various stakeholders to solve real-life problems, in an environment with many possibilities to be explored. The expectation is that students take the concepts of design thinking into their professional lives”.

Nelson Zogbi, a Shopping Center 3’s shareholder, thanked Insper and especially the students for the initiative. “The oxygenation you bring is disruptive and essential for this modern world. You are our country’s present and future, and because you are at Insper, one of the best schools in the world, you have this mission of improving our country” 

Prizes

The four best groups and two individual highlights were awarded. In total, there were R$ 40,000 in prizes, with R$ 33,000 for the best groups and R$ 7,000 for the best students.

“The Design Thinking experience makes us think in an entrepreneurial way. All prizes connect to entrepreneurs from more than 50 years ago, who came from other countries and were successful in our country,” pointed out Dani Glikmanas. Mr. Glikmanas is an Insper alumnus, a mentor in our REP (Effective Problem-Solving) course, a member of the Alumni Committee for Entrepreneurship, and the Director of Shopping Center 3.

For Flavia Piazza, the first two individual places being won by women represents a remarkable achievement for Insper. “The fact that the first two places are women’s represents much of our fight to bring more and more diversity to our school. I am delighted to see that”.

Nelson Zogbi stressed that according to a McKinsey survey, in recent years, companies with women in executive positions had increased their margin of EBITDA (Earnings Before Interest, Taxes, Depreciation, and Amortization) compared to companies without them. “We have to take that to the Executive, Legislative, Judicial [branches], business areas, NGOs, in short, all institutions. And you are some of the best representatives of this country. You have this responsibility to seek and conquer this space, which is yours”.

Next edition

Next semester’s edition of the Design Thinking course is already being prepared. It will keep on involving students to solve real-life challenges in partnership with Shopping Center 3.

“This new edition will have a selection process. Through it, students with the highest potential for commitment to understanding the challenges and the deliveries to be made will be selected,” explains Edgard.

Meet the students and groups recognized with the prizes:

Individual Prizes
   
1st Prize – Nelson Antonio Zogbi (R$ 4,500)

Sofia Rodrigues

“I dedicate this prize to my group, which got along very well throughout the process. It was really cool to learn how to teamwork, even remotely, in a unique experience. I thank everyone for this opportunity.”

2nd Prize – Jamil Antonio Zogbi (R$ 2,500)

Luíza Carvalho

“The experience was very enriching. It was very worthwhile to have a real-life experience, as we learned a lot more in practice!”

Group Prizes   

1st Prize – Elias Antonio Zogbi (R$ 12,000)

Retailers 1

Pedro Leite
Igor Seramisu
Giulia Lombardi
Alexia Finkelstein
Bruno Ometto

“We did our best all the time on this project and are very grateful to Edgard and Dani, who supported us a lot. That was the best team assignment I’ve ever done in my life.” (Alexia Finlkenstein).

2nd Prize – Alberto Safdié (R$ 9,000)

Supply Chain

Beatriz Della Mana
Giovana Aerdouts
Tiago Kalil
Valentina Abreu
Vinicius Móres

“I would like to thank Edgard for all the support, and everyone at the mall, always willing to help. Also, to Insper for the opportunity, through which we learned design thinking in practice.” (Tiago Kalil)

3rd Prize – Edmundo Safdié (R$ 7,000)

Retail2

Alan Bassini
Felipe Mendonça
Luíza Carvalho (Winner of the 2nd individual prize winner)
Mariana Jeanetti
Sofia Rodrigues (Winner of the 1st individual prize)

4th Prize – João Antonio Zogbi (R$ 5,000)

Social 1

Carolina Moraes
Daniela Citro
João Paulo Signorelli
Vitor Guedes
Gabriela Nahas Pinheiro

“Besides learning design thinking, we learned to think differently, to open our minds more to solve challenges.” (Vitor Guedes)