DIAC to Support Innovation Olympics Programme at Hult International Business School
June 29, 2010

Dubai International Academic City (DIAC), the dedicated higher education free zone and a member of TECOM Investments, today announced it will be one of the 15 global corporate partners for this year’s Innovation Olympics Programme set to kick off at Hult International Business School’s campuses in Boston, London and Dubai.

A world-class action learning capstone project, the programme is unique among traditional MBA classes and other ‘action learning’ programmes or business plan competitions by virtue of its practical outcomes such as doing tangible work that makes a real impact on clients and building student confidence and skills to be productive on the very first day after graduation.

The Innovation Olympics is a required course for MBA graduation. At each of the locations, Hult partners with five leading organizations and provides each of them with five diverse teams made up of five MBA candidates per team. Each set of five teams competes to develop the best solutions to a company’s growth challenges.

Students and faculty of Hult International Business School Dubai at the kick-off meeting held at Dubai International Academic City, a member of TECOM Investments Education Cluster, to brief the teams for the Innovation Olympics Program.

Competing MBA-candidate teams will be working with senior members of Dubai International Academic City to develop big, bold innovations for the entity.  Hult and the Center for Innovation, Excellence and Leadership (IXL Center) selected DIAC for its long-standing commitment to innovation and collaboration in Dubai and beyond.

Dr Ayoub Kazim, Managing Director, Education Cluster – TECOM Investments, said: “Dubai International Academic City remains committed to supporting pioneering education initiatives. Our support to academic partners Hult International Business School for Innovation Olympics Program reflects this philosophy. In developing real solutions to challenges in leading multinational organizations, we are confident the new ideas and solutions from the participating MBA teams will be effectively implemented by corporations if required. On their part, companies will look forward to ‘crowdsourcing’ fresh insights from diverse international teams with students from over 60 countries.”

At each company, the MBA-candidate teams follow a unique approach developed by IXL Center to generate breakthrough innovations in a seven-week period from Mid-June through August. The programme begins with a challenge from a senior executive at the company. The teams then compete to develop an innovation that will drive the company’s revenue to the next level.

The proposals and the business case are presented to the leadership team of the client at the end of the project period. Each team is assigned a mentor, often an experienced strategy consultant. All students participate in the project prior to receiving a business degree.
Tyler McNally, Professor of Innovation at Hult, said: “As Dubai recovers and grows, the organizations and institutions need to find new ways to develop, collaborate and expand. Hult teaches students to help these organizations identify new options for growth.
“This corporate partnership returns enormous value to organizations because they have a lot of clear-eyed talent from around the world focused exclusively on a key issue they face. It also represents a fantastic opportunity for our business students to leverage the knowledge they have accumulated over the course of their MBA programme and reinforces what a Hult MBA is all about.”

The kick-off meeting was held on 24 June at DIAC during which Hasan Makansi, Director of Partner Development, Education Cluster – TECOM Investments, will brief the teams on the entity and its projects.

Makansi said: “Dubai International Academic City through its Partner Development division has realized many innovative projects and initiatives, and being part of the Hult Innovation Olympics Program reconfirms our strategy to continuously enhance and develop our operations and process. We have great confidence in the competency of the MBA students that our academic partner Hult Business School has and the type of outcomes they will deliver at the end of this programme.”

Hult, which began as the first corporate university in the US, places a strong emphasis on delivering a practical business education. The majority of its faculty possesses extensive experience in the industry as well as academia, which ensures students are taught concrete skills that apply to companies in real life.

DIAC hosts over 30 academic institutions from 13 different countries including the US, the UK, Iran, Russia, Australia, France, Pakistan, Lebanon, India and the UAE. Besides Hult International Business School, some of the important names include the Manipal University, Herriot-Watt University, and the Michigan State University.