Second-year SMU business undergraduate Valerie Chua Yan Tong participated in the FTxBocconi Talent Challenge 2021 and bagged much more than a winning title.  She forged new friendship across continents and won an exceptional opportunity to bring her team’s winning idea to fruition.

Organised by Bocconi University and the Financial Times in early February 2021, the second edition of the Challenge saw 150 students and young professionals from around the world (selected from 2000 applications) challenge each other in designing the post-Covid world of business and society with innovative ideas.

They competed in 23 teams and devised solutions for four challenges in the areas of entrepreneurship, finance, marketing and policy – leveraging human capital, sustainability, diversity and inclusion in designing new strategies and business models.  Participants also benefited from a series of masterclasses and talks with professors, guest speakers, FT journalists and Bocconi alumni.

Valerie, who majors in Finance and Arts & Cultural Management at SMU, was the only Singaporean in the competition; her teammates were undergraduates and young professionals from Greece, India, Italy, Mexico, UK and The Netherlands, representing diverse in backgrounds of finance, entrepreneurship and management.

Eventually, the team emerged first for Entrepreneurship and third in the overall placing with their idea of an app that would use a gamification solution to help millennials track a more sustainable, and cheaper, consumption of water.  The other winning ideas include a sustainable and customer-friendly business model for an apparel rental company and a project to help spur start-ups and SMEs in Portugal.

Valerie found the experience to be truly unique, with her team coordinating across six countries and three continents, brainstorming and researching with speed over the eight intense days of competition.

“While the week-long participation was both a test of stamina and grit, I’m grateful for my superstart team for the wonderful sense of camaraderie and mutual support. I learnt about diversity, leadership, sustainability and innovation first-hand from so many esteemed speakers,” she said.  The second-year undergraduate is part of the SMU Business Innovations Generator by IIE where her startup BerryHelps, Inc. is incubated.  She is a recipient of the Gary Kunis Scholarship in Entrepreneurship and Technopreneurship and has participated in SMU Global Innovation Immersion by IIE.

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

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