WHT Business Challenge
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What is the WHT Business Challenge?
The Business Challenge has been integral to the WHT Leadership Programme for the past five years.
Our mission for the Business Challenge is to equip our Scholars with essential business skills, not just to become businesspeople, but for every aspect of life. From addressing problems to collaborating with a diverse team to finding solutions and confidently pitching business ventures, we aim to empower them with the tools needed to navigate the complexities of the world of work beyond their time at Oxford.
Throughout the Business Challenge, Scholars participate in workshops, mentorship sessions, and interactions with experts from diverse business domains. It begins with collaborative business case studies during the Welcome Weekend. As the programme unfolds, they tackle challenges and develop their own venture ideas. Testing feasibility, viability, and desirability, they prepare business plans and pitch decks.
The Business Challenge has genuinely been a thought-provoking exercise. Coming up with an idea to tackle pressing social needs and developing it has been an exciting adventure. It has led to the Mothers Matter Initiative, an educational app to provide accessible and affordable on and offline training to maternity care teams to handle obstetric emergencies.
Brenda Tanyi Mpeh Efeti (2021-22),
Cameroon,
MSc International Health & Tropical Medicine,
Oxford-Hoffmann and GRoW @ Annenberg
If I had told myself a year ago that I would be participating in one of the most prestigious enterprising fairs in Oxford with my own start-up, I would have hardly believed myself. In a nutshell, this is what this year with the Business Challenge has been for me – believing in myself and, more importantly, in my abilities.
Irina Gribanenkova (2022-23),
Russia,
Oxford-Hoffmann,
MSc Water Science, Policy and Management
The WHT Business Challenge is an opportunity for Scholars to put their skills to work to make a positive change in the world. Previously in 2020, a Seed Fund was set up to support the Scholars’ business journey after Oxford. Fledgling business ideas from the cohort included drone reforestation in Myanmar, online doctor support in Pakistan and a last-mile delivery company in Zimbabwe.
I had never thought of myself as an entrepreneur or ever thought in a way where I could see capitalism benefitting those in my country. From the school of thought that I come from such businesses are always looked down upon as to be opportunistic, but I was pleasantly surprised at how useful the skill was and how noble some of the ideas we as a team managed to come up with were.
Gurmehar Kaur (2019-20),
India,
MSc Modern South Asian Studies,
Oxford-Weidenfeld and Hoffmann/Rosner
Scholars’ next step with the Business Challenge projects
Zahid Shashoto, on behalf of The Drop team
MSc Environmental Change and Management, 2021
Hertford College
The drop project aims to ensure sustainable and equitable access to drinking water in challenging coastal regions of Bangladesh by employing low-carbon transportation methods to deliver water directly to people's homes.
Zahid from The Drop project from (2021-22) pitched The Drop project at the 17th International Conference on Community-Based Adaptation to Climate Change (CBA17) from 22-25 May 2023 in Bangkok, Thailand. The project won the category of best business case.
Martina Lejtreger, on behalf of the Hace la fuerza team
MPP, 2020
Green Templeton College
“Hace la fuerza” (Makes the strength) is a community of women professionals of Latin America that provides mentoring opportunities for female undergraduate students in their transition to the workforce and to high school students in their transition to university.
The Hace la fuerza venture was highlighted by UK Foreign Minister James Cleverly in his speech during his visit to Latin America.
Yawar Abbas, on behalf of the Sustainversity team
MSt Diplomatic Studies, 2021
Keble College
Sustainversity offers students a platform to trade and exchange goods, promoting sustainability through second-hand markets, reduced food wastage, eco-friendly delivery, and affordable bike options.
The Sustainversity team has made a strategic decision to take the project forward. They have updated the website and are working on developing a new and innovative app.