After coming out on top in the zonal competition of the Unilever Ghana Ideatrophy, a team of Ashesi sophomores has gone on to win first place in the national final of the competition held on January 5, 2013. The team, CloseUp Giants, made up of Richard Odame ’15, Precious Nyarko-Antwi ‘15, and Portia Honu ’15, participated in the final with other teams from the University of Ghana, the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology and Radford University College.
(The team, CloseUp Giants, display their prize at the after winning the final)
The Ideatrophy is a national competition, sponsored by Unilever, that allows university undergraduates to develop creative solutions to a Unilever business problem, through which the students get to understand how businesses work while developing their own skills. The participating teams in this first edition of the Ideatrophy Ghana competition had to develop and present a marketing plan for a product that would be built off Unilever’s CloseUp toothpaste.
The winning Ashesi team receives a trophy and gets an all expenses paid trip to South Africa, where they will meet with and present their winning ideas to members of Unilever Africa’s senior leadership. Each member of the team also wins an iPad and a plaque of participation.
“Unilever is a true talent unleashing company,” said Richard Odame ’15, team leader for the CloseUp Giants. “The competition gave us the opportunity to engage with great students from other universities, and several business leaders across industries. Unilever clearly prioritises talent development.”
“The teams showed significant improvement in the transition from the regional competition to the grand finale,” said Fafa Ayimey, Project Manager for the Ideatrophy. “The Ashesi team did not only come up with a great idea, but had also carefully thought through their implementation plan for it. The competition has allowed all the teams to develop practical business skills, and it was great to see the audience sharing lessons they had picked up during the event as well.”
(The team with Sam Dontoh, 2nd from right, Human Resource Director at Unilever Ghana)