Impact Week - Program Overview

Program overview
Michael Hübl

Our mission
We foster innovation, entrepreneurship
and intercultural exchange through Design Thinking.

We...
● initiated by entrepreneurs and innovation
consultants in Germany in 2015.
● over 40 consultants went abroad to
organize Impact Weeks.
● this group wants to scale Impact Week in
2017.
Team 2015
Team 2016

… to foster innovation, entrepreneurship …
● teaching people how to create business
models out of existing problems.
● giving people the tools and knowledge to
found own businesses that help them to
make their own living.
● We believe this (and education in general)
is the most sustainable way of relief work.

… and intercultural exchange …
● bring people from different countries and
cultures together.
● create friendships that lasts a lifetime.
● We see ourselves as “servants” and equal
to the people we teach. We might have the
methodology knowledge but the solutions
lies in the people itself.

… through Design Thinking.
“Design thinking is a human-centered approach
to innovation that draws from the designer's
toolkit to integrate the needs of people, the
possibilities of technology, and the requirements
for business success.”
1. Train professors as Design Thinking
coaches.
2. Organize Impact Week and teach students

Impact Week took place twice in Kenya and was a huge success
“Impact Week is the best thing I’ve ever
experienced since I am at this university”
“Way more effective than anything I’ve been
through”
● 220 students participated
● 39 business models developed
● 15 professors trained as DT coach
● 2 companies “founded”
● Countless friendships
● Open minds and knowledge sharing
● New business opportunities
Watch the movie from Kenya 2015:
https://youtu.be/FK-l4snc2J0

Each Impact Week has 4 phases to ensure success and sustainability
Train the trainer
(2 days)
Impact Week
(4 days)
Facilitate the
winners
Impact Week
Prototype(s) by
local team
Find University and
Incubator
Set up and
prepare
1 2
Incubation
Mentorship
Ensure long term
sustainability
3 4
Conduct Impact
Week
FundingEvent Preparation
Build coaches team
Fundraising
Together at project
country
Lead: Coaches team Lead: Local team Lead: Local team
Ongoing
coaching until
Impact Weeks
can be
independently
organized by
local teams

Phase 1: Set up and prepare
Find partner university and incubator.
● University: the place where the actual Impact
Week takes place and where the local organiser
team is located.
● Incubator: the place where the winning teams will
be hosted afterwards so they get a chance to
really implement their ideas and found a
business.
● Both partners have to be really committed to
Impact Week as they are responsible for the long
term success.

Teambuilding:
Two teams are needed.
1. The “local team” at the university where the
Impact Week takes place.
2. The “coaches team” from the country of the
organizers. This team is responsible to lead the
Train the Trainer and the Impact Week. Their
responsibility is to teach the local team to
organize Impact Week by themselves.

Prepare Impact Week:
● local teams has to advertise the event, manage
participants, organize speakers who act as role
models and set up the locations.
● coaches team has to create the overall program
and the content of the workshops.
● Teambuilding: Being in a foreign country and
living under local circumstances with mostly
strangers is a huge challenge - only a great team
will succeed.

Each Impact Week costs ~ €20.000 (given 12 people in
the coaches team).
€5.000 for the main event (catering, location, materials)
€600 p.p. for food and accommodation
€600 p.p. for travel (flights and local transport)
€20.000 / 12 = €1666 costs per person. (This is less
than 1 day of personal coaching..)
Depending on the context it can make sense to add also
prize money ($5000 in Kenya)
BILD SPONSOREN

Each Impact Week has 4 phases to ensure success and sustainability
Train the trainer
(2 days)
Impact Week
(4 days)
Find University and
Incubator
Set up and
prepare
1 2
Conduct Impact
Week
Event Preparation
Build coaches team
Fundraising
Together at project
country
Lead: Coaches team
Facilitate the
winners
Impact Week
Prototype(s) by
local team
Incubation
Mentorship
Ensure long term
sustainability
3 4
Funding
Lead: Local team Lead: Local team
Ongoing
coaching until
Impact Weeks
can be
independently
organized by
local teams

Phase 2: Conduct Impact Week
Train the Trainer
● In two days local professors are trained as
Design Thinking coaches.
● Goal: gain enough knowledge so they can act as
a Junior Coach during the Impact Week itself to
make their first coaching experiences.
● In the future they should be able to act as Senior
Coaches in their own Impact Weeks so it is
essential to teach them well.

Impact Week
● four day workshop
● students work on problems and create new
business models in three phases
● At the end they pitch their ideas in front of a jury
at the Impact Awards.
● Tracks: Agriculture, Cosmetics, Education,
Finance, Healthcare, Mobility and Security. Program Impact Week 2016

Impact Week - Teams
● The participating students build teams in their
track (3-7 people).
● Each team has one senior coach (from the
coaches team) and one Junior Coach (from local
team).
● In 2016 100 students participated and formed 20
teams.

Impact Week - Day 1: Understand
● understanding the underlying principles of Design
Thinking.
● learn that it is important for a successful business
to understand its users and their problems.

Impact Week - Day 2: Observe and ideate
● Talk to potential customers and building first
prototypes.
● After identifying problems the teams build first
prototypes of their potential solutions and test
them again in interviews.
A day in Nairobi city

Impact Week - Day 3: Create and test
● iterate through prototypes to find the best
solutions for a problem.
● In the afternoon it is all about business models.
What is my target group, what are my
stakeholders, how do I earn money?
Prototyping

Impact Week - Day 4: Awards
● Impact Awards take place. A huge celebration
where students, professors, investors and
families can attend.
● 3 minutes to pitch their ideas in front of a jury. No
powerpoint is allowed, only speech and offline
material (some people make role games or show
posters).
● At the end the jury announces the five winning
teams that receive prize money and get access to
the incubator
Winning team of 2016

Impact Week - Speakers
● Each day a guest speaker is invited.
● Act as role models - they show that it is possible
to found own even under the hard circumstances
in the project country.
● 20 mins plus Q&A.
Program Impact Week 2016

Phase 3: Facilitate the winning teams
Incubation
It is very important to not let the
teams alone after winning.
Therefore it is essential to have a
cooperation with a local incubator
(which are located in most big
cities even in developing
countries).
The winning teams should
receive office space and
mentoring in the incubator. To
ensure only the “right” teams get
a place in the incubator at least
one employee should sit in the
jury.
Mentorship
The members of the coaches
team should be available as
mentors for the winners. This can
happen via WhatsApp, E-Mail or
Skype calls.
Funding
Getting money is one of the
biggest problems for the winning
teams. That is why we give at
least $5000 to the winning teams
so they can at least organize
transport to get to the incubator
and other pitch / investment
events or buy some first basic
materials to build a prototype.

Phase 4: Ensure long term sustainability through independency
Impact Week Prototypes
● create sustainability through independency.
● local professors should be able to organize own
Impact Weeks without coaches in the future.
● Do a “Mini” Impact Week to learn and get
coaching by the coaches team
Program Impact Week 2016

Counterfighters - Ensures you get authentic drugs
● Counterfeit drugs are a huge problem in
kenya
● Counterfighter solve it through SMS
validation
● Currently beta test at one hospital
→ http://counterfighters.org/

Taka Smart - Reduce, recycle, reward
● Redeem plastic for SMS
credits
→ http://takasmart.co/

Other business models
1. Team Savac with their emergency evacuation system
2. Team Afrifast with a real-time traffic information system
3. Team Isafi with technology for safe drinking water
4. Team Gold Trash with their idea of using restaurant wastes
5. Team Happy Farm with their farm in a box

Airtime and press coverage
Impact Week was covered by 3 TV news and
numerous newspapers.

Major learnings for 2017
● Intercultural exchange is part of our core mission: In these times it is more than ever important
that we foster intercultural exchange.
● More participants at Train the Trainer, less at Impact Week: Sustainability comes through
educating others - therefore the Train The Trainer is the most important part of an Impact Week.
● Less members in coaches team: Smaller teams are easier to handle and can have similar impact.
● We need a university and an incubator as partner: We need to make sure that winning teams are
coached even if we leave the country. This is only possible if they get access to the local
entrepreneurship community.
● Cover all costs: Make sure that coaches don’t have to pay anything.
● Design Thinking is our key value: DT is the “buzzword” that brings us sponsors, coaches and
helps participants to identify - this is why we should focus on it from a marketing perspective.

Build it → Nail it → Scale it
● Support ANU to make their own Impact Week
● Organize Impact Weeks in 3 more countries
● Close financial gap

Kontakt
Michael Hübl
Co-founder Impact Week
me@michaelhuebl.de
+4915125206666
www.impactweek.net

Impact Week - Program Overview

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