{"id":8381,"date":"2017-03-20T17:07:46","date_gmt":"2017-03-20T17:07:46","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/hnews.hult.edu\/?p=8381"},"modified":"2026-05-06T13:11:29","modified_gmt":"2026-05-06T12:11:29","slug":"beyond-flipped-classroom-bringing-classroom-real-world","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.hult.edu\/blog\/beyond-flipped-classroom-bringing-classroom-real-world\/","title":{"rendered":"Beyond the flipped classroom: Bringing the classroom into the real world"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Mike Grandinetti, Global Professor of Innovation, Entrepreneurship & Marketing at Hult International Business School (MBA, Yale)<\/em><\/p>\n

Through my experiences as a\u00a0professor, former McKinsey consultant, and 8-time successful tech entrepreneur, I have always loved bringing the real world into my classroom. However, it is equally important to do the reverse as well: to bring the classroom into the real world. This is where the most intensive learning experiences most often happen.<\/p>\n

Nestl\u00e9\u2019s latest mission
\n<\/strong>Recently, I had the opportunity to invite over 20 of my students from Hult\u2019s Boston Campus,<\/a> as well as several alumni, to join me for Nestl\u00e9\u2019s first ever hackathon. The event was held by Nestl\u00e9 SHIELD – the Skin Health Investigation, Education & Longevity Development business within this global giant. Nestl\u00e9\u00a0is the world\u2019s largest Consumer Package Goods Company by market capitalization, and is considered by Fortune Magazine as the Most Admired Company in the Consumer Foods category, ahead of Pepsi (ranked 2nd<\/sup>) and Danone (ranked 3rd<\/sup>). They are now seeking to improve their global position in Skin Care, Cosmetics and Soaps (Unilever is ranked the #1 World\u2019s Most Admired Company by Fortune, L’Or\u00e9al is ranked #2, and Colgate-Palmolive is ranked #3).<\/p>\n

Nestl\u00e9\u00a0Skin Health SA has decided to invest heavily in this new market category. They recently opened up 35 thousand square feet of beautiful working space on the East River, with great views of Manhattan, Brooklyn and the other boroughs of NYC. They have also opened a SHIELD center in Shanghai, China, and are opening ten more global centers across five continents soon.<\/p>\n

Breakthrough innovation often comes from outside
\n<\/strong>Nestl\u00e9\u00a0chose to use Open Innovation<\/strong>\u2014essentially tapping into the broader innovation community\u2014to help them accelerate their thinking and advance their position against industry leaders. As part of this effort, they hosted a hackathon on March 10 and 11 to address four key challenges: Skin Health Literacy; Nutrition and Skin Health; Engaging Acne; and Skin Health Tech for the Aging Population. <\/strong><\/p>\n

Hackathons are\u00a0where powerful epiphanies and breakthroughs inevitably happen, fueled by a mix of (mostly) youthful optimism and generous doses of caffeine, under an intense, high-pressure deadline. They have become a key \u201ctool\u201d to accelerate innovation by startups and global brands alike. I have been an active hackathon leader for many years, and never fail to be impressed at the power of humanity to create, when properly guided and incentivized.<\/p>\n

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Innovative, disruptive environments are perfectly suited to Hult students, who are themselves driven and entrepreneurial, and from very diverse backgrounds. Hult\u2019s ethos is to offer a practical, relevant learning environment and students are constantly challenged to defy the status quo. 10% of Hult graduates go on to launch their own company after graduation, so naturally these kinds of events are very popular with my students.<\/p>\n

Hult students formed teams and competed in all four challenge categories, going head\u2013to-head against other strong teams from Columbia University, NYU, and many teams comprising mid-career professionals, some with MDs and PhDs. Despite this intense competition, a team of three current Hult<\/strong> Master of International Marketing students<\/strong>, who named themselves International Solutions<\/strong>, won in the Nutrition and Skin Health Category. They became one of four finalist teams who now have the opportunity to compete for a $20,000 <\/strong>grand prize, access to working space in SHIELD\u2019s NYC offices, as well as a year-long partnership with Nestl\u00e9 SHIELD<\/strong><\/p>\n

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The power of networking
\n<\/strong>I had been invited by Nestl\u00e9\u00a0SHIELD\u2019s Senior Manager of Medical Innovation to be their keynote speaker. The timing could not have been better as I was planning my second annual marketing and tech hackathon at Hult for my own tech startup, Reduxio, and there were many more students in my New Product Development<\/strong> course who wanted to participate than I had room for. Nestl\u00e9 said\u00a0that Hult students would be welcome to join their hackathon, meaning another 25 of my students would have the opportunity to participate in a transformative hackathon experience.<\/p>\n

Students were then invited to select the competition better-suited to their career goals. For the Nestl\u00e9 hackathon, I prioritized students with\u00a0prior professional experience or who were currently engaged in the Skin Health, Wellness, and Cosmetics category, and invited them\u00a0to join me in NYC for the 2-day Nestl\u00e9 event. The students were very enthusiastic about being chosen, as many were also planning careers in this domain, and some already writing their own beauty and fashion blogs. When the selected students were told they were “going to New York”, the energy and anticipation were palpable<\/p>\n

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Preparing for the hackathon
\n<\/strong>Once again, timing is so important. The key Learning Outcomes in my New Product Development course are ideally suited to innovation\u2013related events like hackathons, design sprints, and prototype scrambles. I have been teaching my students about powerful methodologies like Design Thinking, Lean Startup, Value Proposition Design, and rapid Prototyping- exactly <\/em>the kinds of skills needed to excel in a hackathon. As an experienced global hackathon leader, I see consistent proof of this, whether I am facilitating these events in the US, Canada, Israel, or Europe.<\/p>\n

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In my 10-session New Product Development course at Hult, students learn by doing. In the very first session, the teams start with a product that they feel has the ability to disrupt their chosen industry, and then we go through the same steps to create this new product. It’s done in the same way as you would if you were working for a Fortune 500 company or a startup, culminating in the development of a digital prototype and presenting to a group of world-class product design and development experts.<\/p>\n

The methodologies that I teach are regarded as hyper-current global best practices ideally suited to the iterative, non-linear challenge of creating disruptive new products in highly dynamic and competitive categories.<\/p>\n

Students chosen for the Nestl\u00e9 hackathon selected one of the four challenges and got started with some pre-reading and research to be able to hit the ground running in NYC.<\/p>\n

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Arriving in NYC \u2013 Friday, March 10
\n<\/strong>After a rather challenging journey from Boston to NYC to join my students, who had mostly gone together as a group by bus right after my class, I was reminded once again that it is still very much winter in the Northeastern U.S. Snow called my own agility into action, as I went from a planned flight that was severely delayed to the Amtrak Acela train \u2013 only to have the train literally strand me by dying on the track \u2013 in need of a \u201crescue\u201d train.<\/p>\n

Eventually, I did make it to NYC, and my students were just starting their work. I made the rounds and spent time guiding each team, making sure that they were off to a good solid start, and in some cases, meeting new team-members that they had partnered with from the NY community, bringing new skills and experiences to the team.<\/p>\n

As is common with hackathon newbies, many teams needed to rein in their focus, tighten the definition of their personas, and streamline the problem domain they were trying to address. These are classic challenges that I see constantly in my travels as a hackathon leader and mentor. Having gotten everyone set, we began preparing for the intensive next day.<\/p>\n


\nCompetition day \u2013 Saturday, March 11
\n<\/strong>Saturday began as a bitterly cold and windy day in NYC, but inside the Alexandria Center for Life Sciences, right next to the NYU Medical Center, you\u2019d never know. The atmosphere was electric\u00a0as I stepped to the podium to deliver my keynote address.<\/p>\n

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Many in the room were first-time hackers, which is always an exciting experience to share for a self-confessed and incurable hackathon junkie like myself. After an overview on what exactly is a hackathon, why Design Thinking methodology is so critical to success<\/strong>, and how to apply it in this context, it was time to hack<\/em><\/strong>.<\/em><\/p>\n

22 teams found their way to their working spaces, and the real work began. A group of mentors, including myself, worked with the teams all day \u2013 from 10AM until they had to turn in their pitches at around 4:30PM. Our job was to provide feedback, challenge their approach, get them re-focused, and help prepare for questions that they might be asked by the judges.<\/p>\n

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The pitches
\n<\/strong>There were many memorable ideas, including one pitched by a Hult alum,\u00a0Moon Jerin,\u00a0who is my Teaching Assistant, mentee, and former Hult MBA<\/a> student, on how to use existing digital technology combined with a newly developed algorithm to easily gauge and prevent the likelihood of developing skin cancer. \u00a0Moon, from Bangladesh, partnered with two members of the NY community, with her as commercial lead and the two other teammates holding down the technology role.<\/p>\n

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Another memorable idea came from two current Hult Master of International Marketing<\/a> students, who partnered with a PhD in Chemical Engineering from the University of Connecticut. This team of three Chinese women focused on the surprisingly strong effect of skin aging caused by our near constant use of smart phones, laptops, and TVs. The team proposed the use of a nano-material smartphone screen cover that would both filter out harmful UVA rays as well as store the energy to create a 3D effect for the screen.<\/p>\n

The Hult teams made their professor very proud, clearly demonstrating that they:<\/p>\n