The Intense, Creative Brainstorming of Bocconi Innovators

18 BOCCONI AND SDA BOCCONI STUDENTS INVOLVED IN A THREE DAY HACKATHON TO GENERATE NEW IDEAS FOR MAKING INSURANCE APPEALING TO MILLENNIALS

A real experience in the generation and development of creative business for the 18 students of SDA Bocconi and Bocconi involved in the first edition of the hackathon 'Imagine Bocconi', organized by the Entrepreneur Club of SDA Bocconi, in collaboration with Generali, SDA Bocconi and Imagine. The challenge? That of being together for only three days, intensively, and to go from creating ideas to presenting concrete proposals to draw the Millennial generation closer to the insurance market.

The event was open to all SDA Bocconi and Bocconi University students and 18 were selected on the basis of a short video presentation. Students were from a variety of programs, from MBA to MAFED to MAMA, and chosen on the basis of their background, passion and personality.

The adventure began on Friday at SDA Bocconi where the participants were divided into six teams, creating teams based on the diversity of participants. Generali then outlined the challenge: improve the offer of insurance, and customer experience, for millennials. The first step for the participants was to begin to identify the underlying problems and challenges to be faced. In the evening, transfer for everyone to Castello di Pavone.

Saturday saw a start at dawn with a 6 kilometer run to prepare minds for the day ahead. A day dedicated to the generation of ideas, with the teams starting to develop their ideas. Sunday was then dedicated to the presentation of the ideas, three times, each time to better redefine the plan, to a panel of experts from Bocconi, Generali and Imagine that gave their feedback.

"Ideas emerged for start-ups, apps and communication campaigns. The added value of this experience was the opportunity to test the feasibility of their ideas and to learn how to make a pitch with the help of expert mentors. A truly disruptive experience," says Pablo Rodriguez, president of the Entrepreneur Club.

On Monday the teams returned to Milan and presented the final projects to a jury composed of representatives from Generali and Bocconi. The winning idea was of the team made up by Lauren DeClue, MBA student from the US, Silvia Cerolini, an Italian from the Executive Education, and Diego Saita, an Italian from the MBA, with their idea for a communication campaign via an app to increase awareness among millennials of the importance of insurance, in this case related to travel. An idea recognized for its creativity, simplicity and feasibility.

The winning team now has the opportunity to participate in Bocconi Startup Day, the initiative to study and promote innovative companies who are entering the market, to be held in November.

"The talent to create ideas, and the passion of people who want to pursue them, is there. Then there is the value of teaching in the area of innovation and entrepreneurship, in which Bocconi is leader, and the experience of companies such as Generali. To promote innovative ideas it is essential to bring together these three elements, as we did on this occasion," says Pablo.

"The Generali Group believes and invests in diversity and creativity as a source of development and innovation. The Imagine Bocconi project involved our experts and young talents from Bocconi in a perfect harmony between business, discontinuity and creative problem solving. Feeling like a 'dreamer' for 4 days favored the self-leadership of the students and the achievement of innovative ideas by showing that you can derive value from diversity," comments Anna Chiara Lucchini, Group Head of Leadership Development & Academy.