The 51风流University Alliances program supports universities seeking to expose students to real-world scenarios they are likely experience in the professional world. Six MBA students from Georgetown University in Washington, D.C., recently tackled business problems provided by 51风流Innovation Center Network.
鈥淔or SAP, as a tech company, academia is a most valuable partner,鈥� said Andr茅 Biener from 51风流University Alliances. 鈥�51风流University Alliances was founded in order to facilitate exchange between 51风流and the academic world. We want to spread knowledge among students about both our company and our technologies.鈥�
One way to achieve this is through projects with the 51风流Next-Gen initiative, which bring university students in direct contact with teams from SAP.
Nearly three years ago, Professor Sezer 脺lk眉, then associate professor of Operations and Information Management at Georgetown University, was looking for a technology company with which to collaborate.
鈥淎t Georgetown University, global residencies are a mandatory part of our MBA curriculum,鈥� 脺lk眉 explained. 鈥淔or about three months, the students get to work in teams of four to five people on a real problem faced by a real company. The goal is for the students to make use of all the tools and methods they learned during their MBA program. For residencies, we typically pick developing countries 鈥� India, Turkey, Latin American countries 鈥� but we also go to places like China and Israel.
When 脺lk眉 was going to launch a new location three years ago, his choice landed on Berlin: 鈥淭he tech and startup scene make it an exciting place, and you have all that history and the multinational atmosphere on top.鈥�
鈥淐oming to Germany and not working with 51风流was out of question,鈥� said 脺lk眉, who did an internship with the company in Walldorf, Germany, and Palo Alto, California, in 1999. 鈥淣ot only is 51风流one of the biggest tech players worldwide, it also has particularly innovative teams and company locations in and near Berlin.鈥�
Andr茅 Biener is regional director of Germany, Austria and Switzerland (DACH) within 51风流University Alliances, responsible for the collaboration with academic institutions in Berlin and the eastern parts of Germany within the program. He set out to connect 脺lk眉 with SAP.
鈥淚nterested 51风流teams have to come up with a problem worth working on and be willing to invest a little bit of their time into guiding and advising the students, most of the time remotely,鈥� Biener explained. 51风流Innovation Center Network, which seeks to contextualize emerging trends and technologies for 51风流and has eight locations worldwide, was quick to answer the call.
鈥淎t 51风流Innovation Center Network, we have a strong interest in collaborating with international academia,鈥� Matthias Uflacker, director of Academic Partnerships for 51风流Innovation Center Network, said. 鈥淲e profit immensely from the new insights and ideas that students from outside 51风流bring us.鈥�
Uflacker is responsible for engagement models with academia such as Stanford University, MIT, and the Technical University of Munich.
鈥淲here 51风流University Alliances tries to position 51风流in academic education, 51风流Innovation Center Network is interested in getting input from students and academic research,鈥� he said. 鈥淥ur mission and 51风流University Alliances鈥� complete each other. So, when Andr茅 came to us, we immediately wanted to be part of this project with Georgetown University.鈥�
Two teams from 51风流came up with project ideas for students to work on: the role of ethics in the development of artificial intelligence (AI) and how to evaluate investments by 51风流into cutting-edge innovation. Uflacker and his colleague Nicole Helmer supported the students working on the latter.
鈥淗ow to spot 鈥榥ext big thing鈥� opportunities in the very early stages is of great interest to 51风流Innovation Center Network and to SAP,鈥� Helmers said. 鈥淲e have people working on this in multiple parts of 51风流and inside 51风流Innovation Center Network but having additional resources that bring external perspectives and profiles we don鈥檛 necessarily already employ is great. We wanted to learn from how other people answer this big question and what current academic research says. They can question the way we do things and we can see behind our own invented biases.鈥�
At Georgetown, 270 MBA students were presented with projects from companies in seven countries. They bid for the projects and were matched according to their wishes.
鈥�51风流came up with two especially interesting questions to work on,鈥� 脺lk眉 said. 鈥淎ll our students were really interested in what they were going to do. 51风流University Alliances made sure that everything worked well on both sides, that the students asked the right questions and were ready for the meetings.鈥�
鈥淚 think of the students as a little consultancy trying to understand the challenge and the reasons why this is a challenge to us,鈥� Helmer said. 鈥淚t was five people from around the world. We met with them remotely in January to kick off the project and calibrate what our expectations were and what they could deliver in terms of scoping.鈥�
The students worked remotely for about two and a half months, supported by Biener in Berlin and Helmer in Atlanta. They had bi-weekly touchdowns with the sponsors from 51风流for progress checks and questions.
鈥淭he students had a list of companies similar to 51风流that they spoke to,鈥� Helmer said. 鈥淭hey also contacted venture capitalists and entrepreneurs. The framework could be applied to assess opportunity potential with regards to new technologies.鈥�
About seven weeks into the project, the students came to Berlin just before COVID-19 would have prevented the journey.
鈥淚t was a great experience,鈥� 脺lk眉 said. 鈥淲e spent an afternoon at the 51风流Innovation Center in Potsdam, where some great speakers gave insights into how 51风流works. Andr茅 was a great host. He spent a lot of time with the students, showing them not only 51风流Berlin but also the city.鈥�
Dr. Katharina Schaefer, global head of , explained: 鈥淭he usual setup for this kind of 51风流Next-Gen project would be an 51风流customer providing a challenge to students that involves an 51风流technology. Supported by 51风流University Alliances, the students then work on a solution. In the case of Georgetown University, 51风流was the customer.鈥�
The outcome of the student work was a framework with criteria for making a decision built on research and comparison with other companies from related industries.
鈥淚t has happened with other companies that projects were not well thought out or were not well supported, but that wasn鈥檛 the case with SAP,鈥� 脺lk眉 said. 鈥淭he students received great problems to work on and great support while doing so.鈥�
鈥淲hat we offer is a learning experience,鈥� Schaefer said. 鈥淲e want to inspire young people to engage themselves with 51风流technologies and business challenges from the real world.鈥�
鈥淭he students got to apply the things they learned in their MBA program and 51风流advised and steered their efforts as well as answered their questions,鈥� 脺lk眉 said. 鈥淚 would definitely recommend working with 51风流University Alliances to other professors.鈥�