A United Kingdom charity focused on helping children with cancer in developing countries will receive an infusion of expertise and energy this summer as more than 40 students from top business schools in Asia, Africa, Europe and the Americas develop plans to tackle business problems faced by the organization.
The students, working in teams as part of the Financial Times MBA Challenge, will assist the FT’s seasonal appeal partner, which this year is World Child Cancer (WCC). Seven teams of students – who hail from schools including Duke University’s Fuqua School of Business, Oxford Saïd Business School, the University of Chicago Booth School of Business, UC Berkeley’s Haas School of Business, London Business School, ESADE and IE Business School, among others – will each be partnered with a mentor and required to submit a business plan in September on a set topic. Founded in 2007, WCC works closely with international hospitals and volunteer healthcare workers to help children cancer patients in developing countries. As part of the MBA Challenge, student teams will come up with plans to address a range of challenges facing WCC, including fundraising, improving access to training local healthcare workers such as pediatric oncologists, harnessing technology to raise funds and awareness and improving access to affordable, reliable drugs.
The teams will spend the next seven weeks developing their business plans, and a winning team will be announced in October. Profiles of each team will be featured on the FT MBA blog.
