The newest intake of WHU – Otto Beisheim School of Management MBA students raised a record €86,239.97 during the week-long bi-annual Future Leaders Fundraising Challenge (FLFC). Students from both Full-Time and Part-Time MBA Programs raised funds from corporate and individual donors over the course of one week in support of Save the Children’s long-standing vision of alleviating the global hunger crisis.
The Future Leaders Fundraising Challenge takes place over five days and is the very first course encountered by students in the WHU MBA program. The FLFC is designed to impart and develop a sense of leadership and camaraderie in students through a combination of lived experience and instruction from leading industry experts, and to instil a lasting sense of leaders’ social responsibility beyond their own organizations.
One of this year’s guest speakers, Professor Dr. Rob Britton, airline industry expert and Professor of Marketing and Management at Georgetown University’s McDonough’s School of Business agrees, “Future leaders really need to embrace the idea of social responsibility in their organizations.”
Divided into small teams and under the tutelage of an MBA mentor, students face a new real-life challenge each day drawn from core MBA Program topics like product, brand, and claim development, marketing, strategy, and negotiations. Under enormous time pressure and in fierce contention with fellow teams, individuals must address the challenge of creating an effective and functional team consisting of members with strong personalities with diverse backgrounds and experiences.
Professor Dr. Jane Lê, Chair of Strategic Management and FLFC course professor, summed up the extraordinary success of the week, “It was really challenging to crown a winner this time around, because teams brought their A-game every single day. That made our job harder, but in the best possible way!”
Since the FLFC’s establishment in 2016, WHU MBA students have raised approximately €500,000 for charitable causes. The challenge has the additional benefit of creating a lasting impact on participants. Jianwei (Jay) Lai, WHU Part-Time MBA, Class of 2023, emphasizes, “This Challenge has changed not only me, but also my view of the world… for a lifetime!”