Global Health Business Case Competition: Third Edition!
For the third year in a row, the Global Business Center, along with UW’s Department of Global Health and the Jackson School’s Center for Global Studies, hosted the Global Health Business Case Competition (GHBCC). GHBCC taps into the vast network of UW departments and Seattle area companies that work on global health issues. The competition offers students, both graduate and undergraduate, an opportunity to work across disciplines on a global health problem important to the Seattle and UW global health communities.
On Jan 25, 2018, 31 teams (25 undergraduate and 6 graduate) were given “Vaccine Vial Monitors: ‘The Little Big Thing’ Taking Social Innovation to Scale,” a case written by Debra Schifrin and Steve Davis, and published by the Stanford Graduate School of Business.
The students were asked to take on the role of a joint team of managers from Temptime (the main Vaccine Vial Monitor manufacturer) and representatives from UNICEF. The judges acted as members of the Pan American Health Organization (PAHO). The student teams had to make the case for PAHO to require VVMs on “newer” vaccines, those that target more than 15 diseases, including Haemophilus influenzae type b, hepatitis B, mumps, rubella, influenza, yellow fever, pneumococcus, rotavirus and human papilloma virus. While creating the pitch, they had to consider, among other things, the burden of various diseases in the country and the country’s health care infrastructure, particularly the vaccine supply chain. Next, they had to develop a plan for implementing VVMs in their chosen country for the “newer” vaccines. This proposal had to include a timeline, the costs at each stage of the timeline, and a financing plan.
Students had just 24 hours to do their research and create the slide deck to accompany their presentation. On Saturday morning, January 27th, teams presented their solutions (in two parallel tracks-one for graduate and one for undergraduate students) to panels of judges representing the Seattle global health and business communities. Judges scored teams on their analysis, style, rational, and ability to handle the question and answer session. The three highest scoring undergraduate teams, as well as the two highest scoring graduate student teams were awarded prizes.
The Foster School was fortunate to partner with our colleagues at the Jackson School’s Center for Global Studies and the UW Department of Global Health as well as an incredibly diverse group of judges. They represented an array of local businesses and organizations: the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, Doosan GridTech, People Tech Group, Expedia, Inc., Artemis Connection, WayUp!, Point B, Kaiser Permanente, Avogadro Partners, LLC., Orca Wave, North Seattle College, Nice-Pak, Starbucks, Rubicon Strategy Group, AVB & Associates, Thunderhead Consulting Group LLC, Village Reach, Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center, Center for Infectious Disease Research, Seattle Foundation, International Insight Consulting, Institute of Translational Health Sciences, Swedish Medical Center, and several UW academic departments.
The first, second and third place teams from the undergraduate track are:
Undergraduate 1st place:
Kim Perdue, Business
Sarah Rinehart, Public Health
Emma Spickard, Public Health
Andrew Stearns, Business
Undergraduate 2nd place:
Ryan Hartman, Business
Sorana Nance, International Studies
Max Powers, Business and Economics
Ruary Thompson, Computer Science
Undergraduate 3rd place:
Hasham Azam, Economics
Alton Cao, Bioengineering
Jasmine Hawkins, Bioengineering
Arielle Howell, Bioengineering
The first and second place teams from the graduate track are:
Graduate 1st place:
Oluyinka Awobiyi, Business
Marie-Claire Gwayi-Chore, Global Health
André Peralta-Santos, Global Health
Kenji Urabe, Business
Graduate 2nd place:
Patrick Kapche, Business
Kayla Lowe, Health Administration
Wilson Trang, Health Administration
Thank you to all of the teams and judges for a successful 3rd Annual Global Health Business Case Competition!
