Middlebury Institute of International Studies

As part of a team of four, Jon Smith and Matthijs Hovelynck from London Business School’s MBA class of 2015 walked away with a check for €3,000 (c. US$3.3k) for a business plan aimed at improving child literacy.

The plan centered on the work of LendMeYourLiteracy, an online teaching resource which has already attracted 25,000 users since it was set up in 2013. Its primary aim is to encourage children to write by publishing, sharing and celebrating their writing. From September, the company will rebrand itself as ‘Pobble’ – a Celtic word for ‘people’.  

“We’ve grown from four founders to a team of 15 in 18 months and it’s been an incredible ride for us. Achievements like this give the team validation for their hard work and show that we are on the right track,” said Smith. The startup’s CEO also acknowledged the support, mentorship and guidance that his team has received from London Business School, who they represented at the competition.

It is the second year running that an entry from London Business School has claimed first prize in the ‘European Business Plan of the Year’. The 2015 edition of the business plan competition was staged by Rotterdam School of Management (RSM) in collaboration with the Erasmus Centre for Entrepreneurship (ECE) – an initiative launched between RSM and the Erasmus School of Economics in 2013 to support the growth and development of new businesses. 

Cutting lecture time by as much as 30% will be central among these changes, as Nyenrode seeks to make more room for action learning opportunities and project work carried out with companies. When they are in the classroom, Nyenrode students can expect a more collaborative state of affairs, with faculty encouraged to become ‘education advisors’ rather than ‘education providers’.

“The restructure of our program reflects what students and employers want to receive from an MBA,” said Christo Nel, MBA program director at Nyenrode.

The changes spell the end for taking a series of modular courses at Nyenrode. Instead, the MBA program will concentrate on the fundamentals, and their real-world applications, with renewed vigor: “Business isn’t run as separate courses but as a set of integrated real-life practices,” explained Nel.

More program resources will be given over to the areas of self-reflection and personal leadership development, with plans to run courses and activities throughout the entire MBA program.

The changes afoot are the result of research carried out into new approaches and program teaching methods found across the world, and follow focus groups held with Nyenrode students and alumni.