A team of four MBA students from the Georgia Tech Scheller College of Business took third place in the Goodyear Design Innovation Case Competition, a business design and innovation competition sponsored by Goodyear in collaboration with Case Western Reserve University. Abigail Brenller, Akhil Gupta, Emily Hays, and Sachin Pai represented Scheller College and were among 20 teams from throughout the nation participating in the challenge. This was the first year the competition was held in a virtual format.
In the first round, teams were expected to come up with three innovative proposals to identify the impact of changing mobility trends and how Goodyear could monetize its existing investments in artificial intelligence and machine learning. Only five teams made it through to the second round. For the second round, a virtual hackathon was conducted over four days and each team was assigned a mentor who helped refine their proposal and design a prototype. On the final day, teams presented their prototype and made a pitch for their solution to the judges.
The Scheller team proposed an integrated fleet management service, focused on improving the customer experience for drivers and fleet managers. The solution leverages Goodyear’s existing network of physical service centers and mobile maintenance experiences, collecting vehicle data in order to assist with predicting and planning for fleet maintenance, inventory management, and service center planning.
“The event was well organized and managed,” said Pai, MBA ’21. “The nature of the challenge meant that both our technical skills and business skills were tested. The organizing team provided us mentors who helped us realize a prototype. Our multi-disciplinary backgrounds proved to be our greatest asset throughout the challenge.”
Similarly, Hays praised the value of collaboration in this process. “Working on the Goodyear Innovation Challenge was such a blast,” said Hays, MBA and MID ‘21. “It’s rare to work on such a high-performing team, and Abby, Akhil, and Sachin are just amazing – not only did we have great camaraderie, but the diversity of skillsets, follow-through, and industry experience brought so much collaboration and learning to the table. I particularly enjoyed using my design skills and working collaboratively to find new market opportunities – overlaying user needs, mobility trends, and Goodyear’s current strengths. I’m really proud with the process we used approaching the problem and how our final idea developed.”
Learn more about Georgia Tech Scheller’s MBA programs.