Over two days, students from the 20th edition of the Executive MBA at Católica Porto School of Business and Economics were challenged to turn real-world problems into solutions with the potential to make an impact. The result: six projects, spanning mental health to financial literacy, presented at the Impact Bootcamp.
Quitting smoking. Tackling youth isolation. Learning how to manage money. Finding paid summer activities. These are different problems, affecting different audiences, but they share the same question: how can we move from identifying a challenge to creating a response that works in real life?
This was the question that students from the 20th edition of the Executive MBA at Católica Porto School of Business and Economics explored on 11 and 12 September during the Impact Bootcamp. Over two days of intensive work, teams developed social impact initiatives, moving from understanding the problems to defining value propositions, sustainability models and pilot designs.
By the end, six projects were presented to a panel of judges, providing an opportunity to test ideas, gather feedback and discuss their potential for implementation.
Among the proposals was Ar Puro, an app designed to support people who want to quit smoking. The Verão com Futuro project addressed how young people can spend their holidays, through paid summer activities for teenagers aged 15 to 18.
Mental health and social connections were at the heart of Mind UP, an app aimed at tackling youth isolation in the Porto district. Money Level, meanwhile, focused on financial literacy, with a digital platform designed for young people aged 16 to 19.
In the areas of solidarity and health, Raíz proposed a solution for donating hair to produce wigs for people living with alopecia. BORA, in turn, challenged young people aged 13 to 18 to create missions in different locations across the country.
The six initiatives began with identifiable problems and were developed following a project development approach: understanding who a solution is being created for, what value it can generate and how it can be tested and sustained.
The Bootcamp challenge went beyond presenting concepts. Teams had to structure their proposals, consider the feasibility of their solutions and prepare a pilot that could help turn ideas into action.
This process brought participants face to face with some of the central questions involved in developing impact initiatives: who is the target audience, what problem are we trying to solve and what is needed to implement a solution?
The final presentations featured a judging panel comprising Helena Loureiro, representative of Portugal Inovação Social, and Andreia Moutinho, Director at Porto City Council. The feedback and shared reflection helped to further develop the proposals and identify opportunities for future development.
The Impact Bootcamp was supported by IES-Social Business School, which accompanied the learning and project development journey.
For students from the 20th edition of the Executive MBA at Católica Porto SBE, the Impact Bootcamp was an opportunity to step outside their comfort zones and apply management, innovation and teamwork skills to real-world challenges. Over two days, six teams moved from identifying problems to presenting solutions, an exercise that showed how business thinking can also be placed at the service of social impact.
