Netural Coaches JKU Business School Winner Team at Scaling Challenge
For the second year in a row, students from Johannes Kepler University in Linz beat teams from top Asian, US and British universities to win the online growth strategy competition Global Scaling Challenge. They took one “Best of the Day” award and the gold medal for overall victory. Having coached the winning team, Netural is exceptionally pleased by this result.
At stake were not millions of Dollars like in the popular TV shows Shark Tank and Dragon´s Den, "only" € 40,000 in prize money - and an enorous prestige gain: students from the master's program "LIO - Leading Innovative Organizations" at Johannes Kepler University, Linz, entered the international online Global Scaling Challenge, were tasked with developing innovative growth strategies for young companies in the aerospace sector - and won one “Best of the Day” award and the gold medal for the overall victory against strong international competition. Netural is particularly pleased with this result, being an active supporter and sponsor of the Leading Innovative Organizations master's program – and also because Netural CEO Albert Ortig coached the winning team as a mentor.
Nineteen universities on three continents entered 25 teams in an online competition that aimed at motivating students around the world to overcome their pandemic isolation, to network, compete and learn to from each other, and that also confronts the next generation of business leaders with "real world” problems.
Team coach and LIO sponsor Albert Ortig congratulates the winning team: “Nothing makes sponsors happier than victory. Well done and thank you - it's a pleasure to support the Leading Innovative Organizations program.”
This year´s task was to develop growth strategies for three real business cases in the aerospace sector, one involving AI-driven communications, one dealing with space weather, and one marketing additively manufactured radiation shields. Much like in the Shark Tank and Dragon´s Den TV shows, a demanding jury of venture capital investors, entrepreneurs and researchers judged the solutions of the participating teams.
The students had one short week to develop unique selling propositions, market entry, growth and financing strategies and to wrap it all up in a compelling presentation. Professor Matthias Fink, JKU, Professor Hans Landström, Lund University, and Albert Ortig, Netural CEO, supported the Austrian participants as mentors.
The JKU team scored points with holistic, responsible growth strategies in which economic, social and ecological objectives drive and enrich each other. All JKU team members are participants in the "Leading Innovative Organizations" program, an English-language intensive course which leads selected students in small groups under the guidance of a research-strong faculty to a full master's degree in just one year.
Team mentor and LIO sponsor Albert Ortig congratulated the winning team, commenting that, "if anything makes sponsors happier than winning, it's serial winning. Double congratulations, and thank you – it is a pleasure to support the Leading Innovative Organizations program."
