Meet the High-School Buddies whose secret to perfect chemistry made them win the Mondelēz International’s Leading Edge Business Challenge 2021

The moment when their name was announced as the champions of Mondelēz International’s Leading Edge Business Challenge 2021, they got stuck in their seats for a few minutes. Later they realize that not only have they become national champions but have also left their mark on the entire South East Asian region.

Meet Team Tobler 1 (named after the Mondelez product) from University of the Philippines Diliman (UPD) - Ma Lorraine Placer, Dinah Ruth Angot, Alexandria Marie Sombiro, and Abigail Grace Gerona - the high-school buddies who came together to challenge their capabilities and conquer them. Walking with the crown, here they are to tell the secrets of winning competitions, so that you can become the next MDLZ champion!

The desirous gang!

News of Leading Edge Business Challenge 2021 reached their ears via university notification. The thought of participating strike them, as they wanted to challenge themselves to the core. Being a group of engineering students, design thinking was an alien concept, and thus, this factor played the role of a trigger.
Few unpleasant instances in the initial front gave them disappointing experiences. But as and when they climbed the ladder of success, their interest and excitement to learn and win the competition grew.

Want to know the secret to perfect chemistry?

Surprisingly, members of Team Tobler 1 are friends since high school and opted for the same course in the same university. Therefore, they knew everything about each other, from the time schedules to mood swings and everything else. This also provided them an advantage that other teams had to build - knowing the strengths of your teammates. They knew what should be assigned to whom, and how it should be executed.

For instance:

• Dinah edited the final video presentation as she has mastered video editing skills,
• Abigail’s rich experience in material research helped the team cope up with the understanding of the problem statement,
• Lorraine as a team leader was highly organized. She planned and compiled everything from concepts to resources very systematically, and
• Alexandria prepared the communication plan to make the audience understand what they wanted to convey through their presentation.

This dissemination of tasks helped the team work efficiently and effectively and deliver better.

Engineering made it challenging…

“We dealt with numbers, so we were trying to adjust with design and marketing techniques, for which we attended many seminars and workshops.”
Yes, that’s true! At times a different stream can make things all the more difficult. So was the case with team Tobler 1 being a bunch of engineering students, marketing and designing was not their cup of tea.
Understanding the problem statement and tapping on the possible solutions took the first week of the competition journey. The constant brainstorming and flapping out of ideas highly tested the level of satisfaction. The late night and early morning meetings mostly concentrated on laying out the things that they had to undertake (creating prototypes and content), and what level of research would that particular task require.

The BIG Question - What was Mondelēz International’s challenge?

Team Tobler 1 was presented with one big topic in the Leading Edge competition. Out of the three How Might We challenge statements, they picked, “How might we improve the sustainability of our supply chain while still delivering lower costs?” Now that’s what we call a challenge! The same heat was felt by the team. Even they were perplexed as to which point is the question trying to target. Does it require:

• Looking into the products and services of Mondelez
• Changing the packaging of Mondelez, or
• Looking into the transportation of products

Thus, the brainstorming session was the hardest part, especially for industrial engineering students. Lack of adequate data compelled them to learn packaging engineering and materials that they could not have learned in the university. So, competitions do fetch you with something good!

Learn with experiences

“You don't have to be always innovating new things and be into hard facts, because you can balance it out with emotions and empathizing with your customers” - Dinah

Having a difference in viewpoints is inevitable when a bunch of beings come together to accomplish a task. However, what is important is the learnings that they take with themselves to transfer to the world. Team Tobler 1 believes that knowing people's experiences can help one effectively create an innovation that is more impactful and powerful. It is not always necessary to bury your heads into books and research to create something that can positively affect the world.

You may also want to read:

1. Standing 2nd in South-East Asia in “Mondelez Leading Edge Business Challenge'' to becoming BFFs | Journey of Team Kita Berampat
2. The hunger to win Mondelez Leading Edge Business Challenge made them the 2nd Runner-up of South-East Asia showdown