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With FTxBocconi a Challenge for Young Talents to Redesign the Business World

, by Tomaso Eridani
Applications open until November 24 for the Bocconi and Financial Times international competition for university students and young professionals to stimulate new ideas on policy, entrepreneurship, finance and marketing. The 150 selected participants will compete online in February

A year after the first edition last February, the 2021 FTxBocconi Talent Challenge will take place in a world drastically upturned by the impact of Covid19 and to face today's new challenges the competition, organized by Bocconi University and Financial Times, will focus on how to reshape the business world. 150 students and young professionals from all over the world will be selected to challenge themselves in finding new strategies and business models in a challenge that will take place online February 6-13, 2021, with live streamings from Bocconi in Milan and the FT's headquarters in London.

Participants will compete in teams to address today's new challenges, devising solutions in the areas of Policy, Entrepreneurship, Finance and Marketing - with an indication to leverage on human capital, sustainability, diversity and inclusion in designing their innovative ideas. During the Challenge, participants will also be involved in masterclasses and talks held by Bocconi professors and top alumni – such as Mario Monti, President of Bocconi, Diego Piacentini, senior advisor KKR and former Senior Vice President of Amazon, and Cristina Scocchia, CEO of KIKO - and FT managers and journalists.

The members of the finalist teams will also have the opportunity to develop their idea by participating in the 2021 call of Bocconi for Innovation (B4i), the University's accelerator.

The first edition of the talent challenge saw the participation in London of 100 young people from 40 countries around the world and the participation of speakers such as Nobel Prize winner Michael Spence and Vittorio Colao.

"The FTxBocconi Challenge was a really exciting experience, full of learning opportunities and the challenge itself was very stimulating," recalls Magnus Broch, 24-year old Danish, studying at Copenhagen Business School, whose team proposed an idea for an online platform to pre-order clothes from luxury retailers. "I think I especially learned how to work in a team under pressure and to navigate in a team made up of a broad variety of cultures, ways of working and approaching problems - my team consisted of a Spaniard, an Indian, a South Korean and a Dane."

"The Challenge was a really enriching experience for me. It was a unique opportunity to meet, work and network with people from different backgrounds. And I really enjoyed the different speeches of the exceptional guest speakers that I found very stimulating," says Apolline Bernard, 23 years old, French, who studies at Bocconi, whose team reached the final of the Challenge proposing to digitize clothing labels in order to improve the transparency of luxury brands.

University students and professionals in the early stages of their careers are invited to apply at FTxBocconi2021 by November 24