Global Innovation Challenge

FAQs for Contestants, Judges and Sponsors about The Innovation Challenge and Skild

Contestants
Judges
Innovation Challenge
Skild

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Contestant FAQ

Eligibility Criteria
Q: What are the eligibility criteria for the Innovation Challenge?
A: The Innovation Challenge is open to persons age 18 and older who are full-time/part-time/executive students attending graduate business school in pursuit of a Masters in Business Administration or similar degree program. Students currently enrolled in other Masters programs may also compete but must have at least two MBA students on their team.

Q: Are cross-school teams allowed?
A: Yes, this year competitors are permitted to form teams with students representing multiple schools.

Q: How many teams from my school can compete?
A: The competition is open to an unlimited number of teams per university. We encourage multiple teams because it increases your school's chances of making it to the final round.

Forming Your Team
Q: What should the make-up of my team be?
A: Students may form a cross-functional team of one (1) to five (5) members, as long as at least one (1) of the members of the team are full-time, part-time, or executive MBA candidates or candidates in a similar program. The team leader must be an MBA candidate or a candidate in a similar program. The remaining team members may be students of any graduate program offered by the same university.

Q: As a Team Leader, how do I check to see if all my team members are officially registered?
A: Please log into the system with your Email ID and Password and click on the "My Team" menu option then select Team Members. If you see "Invited" next to any of your team members' names, this means the team member has not completed the registration process. Click the "Resend Invitation" envelope icon to resend your email invitation to the team member. Please follow up with the team member to make sure they have received it.

Q: As a Team Leader, how can I add/delete a team member or change their personal information?
A: To invite a new team member, click on the "My Team" menu option and select "Members" and click “Add Team Member” in the upper right and enter the team member’s First and Last Name and Email Address, then click Save to send an email invitation to the Team Member. To delete a current team member, click the "Trash" icon to the right of the individual's name.

Q: Can I change my team membership before or after registration closes?
A: Team members who register at the beginning of the contest must participate throughout the contest, with one (1) exception: teams may make one (1) substitution prior to the submission deadline. Once the submission deadline has closed, no changes or substitutions will be allowed. No team may enter more than once; no entrant may compete on more than one team.

Event Registration
Q: How can I pay for my registration fee?
A: For a smooth registration process, we recommend you make your registration fee payments via credit card using our secure online payment system, which accepts American Express, Visa, MasterCard, or Discover. For all other registration fee questions, contact This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it .

Non-disclosure Agreement
Q: Why do I have to sign a Non-Disclosure Agreement (NDA)?
A: Our sponsor companies have agreed to provide you with high-quality background information on their company, their market, and their strategy. This information, combined with the challenge question itself, represents a valuable snapshot of the sponsor's strategic direction and priorities to assist you in crafting a detailed and innovative concept plan. This information must be used only in the context of your efforts in the competition, and we must prohibit its use elsewhere. We therefore require you to sign an NDA.

Q: May I talk about the Innovation Challenge in an interview or on my resume?
A: Because you are under an NDA, you cannot discuss your New Concept Plan or the Challenge Questions to which you have responded. You may, however, discuss your team's innovation process and the lessons you learned from the challenge. In our experience, having an understanding of applied innovation practices and techniques differentiates you from other candidates. In addition, if you rank overall or within you sponsor bracket, feel free to display your rank on your resume as "ranked #N as "World’s Most Innovative MBA Teams."

The Innovation Challenge Question
Q: What is an Innovation Challenge Question?
A: Here are three examples of past Innovation Challenge questions:
How might Hilton Hotels improve the female guest experience?
How might we use mobile technologies to prevent HIV infection in Generation Y?
How might Sprint create an innovative product or service, greatly increasing the subscriber's quality of life, using Wide Area Wireless High Speed technologies?

Q: Who creates the Innovation Challenge Questions?
A: The Innovation Challenge statements are carefully crafted over the course of several weeks by Idea Crossing and executives from sponsoring companies.

Q: How will our challenge question be assigned?
A: Upon registration your team leader will select your team's sponsor preferences. We will try our best to assign teams to their first choice sponsor, but in the event of unequal distribution, we may be forced to assign a team to its second or third choice sponsor.

Q: Will the innovation challenge question be emailed to me?
A: No, you will receive the innovation challenge question online on October 8th, 2011. You must login to your Dashboard then click the Prepare menu option to view your question.

Q: When do we receive our first Innovation Challenge Question?
A: Innovation Challenge Questions will be assigned to each registered team on October 8th, 2011.

Q: To whom should we direct questions specific to the Innovation Challenge Question?
A: Because the Innovation Challenge questions have been carefully crafted and framed, we have complete confidence that all teams can address these questions within their unique groups. Our planning committee is not at liberty to reply to questions that relate directly to the Innovation Questions, for reasons of fairness. However, at the beginning of rounds one and two teams will be given the opportunity to ask the specific sponsors any questions via conference call during a Question and Answer ("Q&A") session.

Q: May we contact the sponsoring companies directly?
A: No.

Your Concept Plan
Q: What is an Innovation Challenge concept plan?
A: The Innovation Challenge concept plan is a structured format with 5 text boxes that align with the scoring criterion required three (3) page editable PDF form and one mandatory visual supplement. Additionally, teams may include a second supporting asset (pdf, xls, doc, jpg, ppt, etc.) that they develop in response to their assigned challenge question.

Q: How do we get started on our new concept plan?
A: On October 8, 2011, log in with your Email ID and Password on the Innovation Challenge home page (www.innovationchallenge.com) and click the "Prepare" menu option. Your question will be displayed on the right hand side." To upload your submission, click the "My Entry" menu option, in:
Step 1: fill out the Title and Summary
Step 2: fill in the text in the entry form text boxes provided and submit supporting materials.
Step 3: preview before submitting. Upon submission you should receive a confirmation email an on-screen confirmation.

Q: How much time do we have to submit our Concept Plan entry?
A: You have thirteen (13) days to submit the concept plan entry. Each registered team must submit their concept plan online, from any one team member's workspace by October 21, 2011 by 5:00pm PST (Pacific Time).

Q: May I use information other than the Sponsor Background Information that is provided to me?
A: Yes, you may. The Sponsor Background Information is provided to ensure a level playing field for all contestants, and to build a general awareness of our sponsor's product/service/industry. You may also find some information about any initiatives that our sponsors may have taken to address the question at hand. We strongly urge you to read those documents to avoid duplication of efforts.

Q: May we contact the sponsoring companies directly?
A: No.

Judging Process
Q: How will my concept plan be judged in the Qualifying Round 1?
A: The Qualifying Round is two-phase judging process to ensure fairness to all our contestants/teams. In the first phase judging, each concept plan will be viewed by at least two (2) judges. The scores will be used to eliminate the lower-ranking half. In the second phase judging, the concept plans which advance to the second phase will be viewed again by no less than two different judges to arrive at the Top 10 teams. Of the Top 10 teams in each sponsor bracket, each sponsor will select the top five (5) concept plans from each sponsor bracket and will proceed to the Semi-Final Round 2. More details can be found in the Rules. 

Q: How will my concept plan be judged in the Semi-Final Round 2 and Final Round 3?

A:  Semi-Final Round. For the semi-final round of judging, semifinalist teams will receive feedback on their new concept plan entry from each of their respectively assigned sponsoring companies during a telephone conference call on between November 14, 2011 and November 18, 2011. Semifinalist teams will revise their new concept plan entries based upon the feedback and submit the revised new concept plan entry to the Sponsor by November 28th at 5:00pm Pacific Daylight Time (PDT).

The revised new concept plan entry will be in the form of a PowerPoint presentation slide deck as instructed by the Sponsor. Each semifinalist team will present the revised new concept plan entry to the applicable sponsoring company via an "online web meeting”: facilitated by the Sponsor between November 30, 2011 to December 2, 2011. All revised new concept plan presentation materials (i.e., the PowerPoint presentation slide deck) must be submitted prior to the oral presentations.

Out of the top five semifinalist teams for each sponsoring company's question, the sponsoring company will select one new concept plan entry that will proceed to the final round as determined by each sponsoring company. The top three new concept plan entries will be announced on or around December 3, 2011 on the Site. The entrants from the teams with the top new concept plan entries will be notified by e-mail, phone and/or mail as soon as possible after the selection of the top new concept plan entries. Such entrants will be required to execute and return an Affidavit of Eligibility / Release of Liability and Publicity and any other appropriate documentation (which will be attached or enclosed with the notification) within three (3) business days of its sending or alternate entries may be selected as the top new concept plan entries.

Q: Who are the judges?
A: The judges are hand-selected executives, innovation experts, professors and management consultants from a wide variety of industry and professional backgrounds. The judge bios will be posted inside the contestant workspace.

The Final Round
Q: What does the final round entail? 
A: The final round will be hosted via web meeting between December 5, 2011 to December 9, 2011.  The top team in each sponsor category (3 total) will compete in a final round.  Each team will have fifteen (15) minutes to present their concept to the judging panel followed by a ten (10) minute Q&A.
Judges from each sponsoring organization will evaluate and rank the finalists, select the Most Innovative MBA Team in the World and award the $20,000 top prize.  $3,000 will be awarded to the second place team, $2,000 to the third place team.  

Q: How many teams advance to the finals? 
A: Three (3) teams advance to the finals. More than one (1) team from the same university may also make it to the final round.

Manage Your Account
Q: I forgot my password. What should I do? 
A: Please click on the “Forgot Password?” link on the bottom right-hand corner of the login panel, situated at the top left corner of every page. Enter your Email ID into the form provided. A new link to reset your password will be sent to your email address. Please remember that this password is case sensitive (i.e., upper and lower cases matter). If you receive an error message that says “Unable to find your user login and/or unable to verify password,” please send us an email at  This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it with “Reset Password” in the subject line.

Q: Why have I not received my login and password?
A: If you are using an email service that has a Junk Mail filter such as Yahoo, Hotmail or Gmail, your login and password information may have been filtered out as Junk Mail. Please check your Bulk/Junk Mail folder to find the invitation email.  If you require further assistance, please send us an email at  This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it with "Login Info" in the subject line.

Judges FAQ

Judge Registration
Q: How can I register to be a judge in the online round?
A: You must apply to be a judge. Please click here to apply. After you have completed the online registration process and you are approved, you will receive a confirmation email.

Q: Which phase of the competition will I be judging? And, can I judge both rounds of the online competition?
A: During registration, you can select your phase preference or by logging into your Dashboard and selecting the Preferences link. If you would like to judge other online phases of the competition, simply check all checkboxes that apply. 

The Judging Process
Q: What is the judging process? 
A: We have a two-phase judging process. In Phase 1 (Oct 24 – Oct 31), you will be asked to judge between six (3) and eight (8) concept plans. Your scores will be used to eliminate the lower-ranking half. Remaining plans will then advance to Phase 2 (Nov. 1 – Nov 7). If you elect to be a judge for both phases, you will judge additional plans (different from the first) within the same sponsor bracket. Your scores will then be used to help sponsors determine which teams from this bracket will advance to the finals.

Q: What is the time commitment required to become a judge? 
A: The estimated time for judging one plan is anywhere between ten (10) and thirty (30) minutes. You will be assigned three (3) to ten (10) Concept Plans for the same topic, which will amount to (at most) five (5) hours over five (5) days. We appreciate your interest in judging the Concept Plans and also respect the time you take out from your busy schedule to participate. Many judges find the judging process interesting and intellectually stimulating.

Q: What are the judging criteria? 
A: To download the judging scorecard please click here. This document will also be available to you throughout the judging process as a link from your judging workspace. 

Q: What is an example of an Innovation Challenge question?
A: Here are three examples of past Innovation Challenge questions:
1) How might Hilton Hotels improve the female guest experience?
2) How might we use mobile technologies to prevent HIV infection in Generation Y?
3) How might Sprint create an innovative product or service, greatly increasing the subscriber's quality of life, using Wide Area Wireless High Speed technologies?
These challenge questions are for reference only. Do NOT consider these examples as the actual topics for competition.

Q: Where can I find additional background information about the sponsoring company? 
A: When you log into your judge account using your Login and Password, you will given the same company background information that is available to our contestants via the Prepare menu option

Q: Will the Concept Plans be emailed to me?
A: No. You have to login to your judge account with your username and password to view your assigned concept plans. Phase 1 concept plans will be viewable in your account on October 24.

Q: How will plans be assigned to me?
A: When you register, choose your preferred sponsor. We will then attempt to assign plans from that category to you using a double-blind system. You will access your plans through your judges’ workspace online.

Q: Where did the Innovation Challenge get its start?
A: Founded in 2002 by Anil Rathi, at the Thunderbird School of Global Management, Skild (formerly Idea Crossing) initially hoped to link consumers who had come up with great product ideas to the companies that could bring the ideas to market.  The competition started as something of an incidental experiment.  But when the brainiacs leaped at the chance to tackle real-world problems and the companies swooned over the solutions these young outsiders came up with, the "experiment" graduated into an franchise of competitions (excerpt from the book “We are Smarter than Me – Wharton Business School Publishing).

Q: Who have been some of your past sponsors?
A: Some past sponsors include American Express, Shell Oil, Samsung Electronics, Google, Harley-Davidson, Hilton, IBM, Whirlpool, USPS, DaimlerChrysler, M&M’s Chocolate Candies, Sprint, The UPS Store, Dial Corporation, Chiquita, Cold Stone Creamery, U-Haul, and GE Money to name a few.  

Q: How many years has the Innovation Challenge been running?
A: The Innovation Challenge is in its ninth year. 

Q: How many contestants, schools and countries have participated?
A: To date, over 8000 students from over 88 countries have tackled pressing issues facing sponsor companies.  Over 1500 global innovation experts form a judging community tasked with selecting the most innovative teams. 

Q: What is the total amount of prize money for the 2011 Innovation Challenge?
A: $25,000

Q: When will the winning teams ring the bell at the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE)*? A: The precise date is being coordinated with the NYSE and our current sponsors.
*Each team will be responsible for providing their own travel and accommodations to and from New York City.