Challenging Time Zones to Win the Business Game

A class of a hundred students from all over the world: an extra challenge to organize the business game of the Strategic innovation and entrepreneurship in fashion course of the three-year program, held by Stefania Saviolo and Elisabetta Marafioti. If there hadn't been a coronavirus emergency, at the end of the course the students would have taken on the role of innovative startups and competed in class for three days to develop the best business plan.

Distance learning started in March, everything moved online, business game included. The game is based on the Fast (fashion strategy) platform developed by Built Bocconi. "Paradoxically, working remotely brought us closer," says Saviolo. “Through chats we were in fact always connected, our weekly appointments had created a very active community (more than a class) which was emotionally difficult to end just by turning off the camera and microphone after the last session. "

After a week of simulations divided into 17 groups (due to the difficulty with the different time zones, the gamers were given more time ) came the verdict. The students’ professors were joined in judging by Stefano Galassi, managing director of Startupbootcamp, startup accelerator in the world of fashion, which awarded the winning group with the possibility of participating in an accelerator event.

The day was taken by the Kakou group, which focused on innovation and sustainability by creating a business plan for the marketing of swimwear made using plastic collected from the oceans and designed to be as inclusive as possible in terms of size and fit. "The biggest difficulty was working with time zones in mind," says Alessandro Zanotta, student in BEMACS Bachelor program and member of the winning team. “Our team was actually divided between Italy, Canada, China, Norway, Peru and the United States. The main conference call of the day was held at 6pm Italian time ".

For a week, therefore, the business game kept students connected from all over the world glued to their PC. However, it was also an opportunity to discuss the emergency that hit the world: “Smartworking has also allowed us to share personal experiences with students quarantine, expectations and hopes, a personal interaction that is difficult to achieve in the classroom ", Emphasizes Elisabetta Marafioti.