Economic Zones World (EZW), the global developer and operator of economic zones, under the Dubai World Group, has been chosen as one of the 12 global corporate partners for this year’s Hult Innovation Olympics Program.

The program is set to kick off around the globe at Hult International Business School’s campuses in Boston, London and Dubai.

Hult and the Center for Innovation, Excellence and Leadership (IXL Center) chose EZW based on its longstanding track record of innovative projects and initiatives around the world, particularly the development of Jafza (Jebel Ali Free Zone), one of the world’s largest and fastest growing free zones, a statement said.

Competing MBA-candidate teams will be working with senior members of EZW to develop big, bold innovations for the company.

The Innovation Olympics Program is an opportunity for mid-career MBA students to develop real solutions to the pressing challenges of leading multi-national organizations. Companies are able to “crowdsource” new ideas and insights from diverse international teams with students from over 60 countries.

“Our goal at Jafza, EZW’s flagship business, is to sustain Dubai as a global hub for logistics and trade,” said Hamad Al Hashmi, Managing Director, Dubai Institute of Technology, an EZW initiative.

“Innovation is not constrained by technology or industry. Learning through others and engaging fresh young minds is an essential approach EZW appreciates. Therefore our expectation is high to see new and challenging innovation from our association with IXL,” he added.

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 to August.

They present their proposals and the business case to the leadership team of the corporate partner at the end of the project. Each team is assigned a mentor, often an experienced strategy consultant. All students participate in the project before receiving a business degree.

Tyler McNally, professor of innovation at Hult, said EZW was a world class organisation that has had great success particularly though its flagship Jafza.

“It’s a great challenge for Hult students to find new ways to maintain that success,” he said.

“We designed the Hult Innovation Olympics for exactly these types of big, audacious challenges,” he added.

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

To get a first hand feel of Jafza and its business model, a 22 member MBA student team from Hult International Business School visited Jafza today (July 5).

Professor McNally added: “This partnership enables organizations to tap into the collective intelligence of Hult’s incredibly international MBA student body to focus exclusively on a key growth issue.”

“It also represents a fantastic opportunity for our business students to leverage the knowledge they have accumulated over the course of their MBA program. It reinforces what a Hult MBA is all about – international, practical business education,” he concluded. – TradeArabia News Service