Business School team wins first prize at London Business School's Business Plan Competition

The 28th of April saw a team of Imperial College Research Fellows and Tanaka Business School Executive MBA students walk away with the coveted top prize in London Business School’s Business Plan Competition.

Facing down competitors from London Business School itself, and Stanford, the team from Imperial wowed the judges with their demonstration of how to create revenue from new advances in medical technologies, netting themselves £15,000 in cash and services!

The winning project was based on research developed by Omer Aziz, a surgeon and Adam James, an Imperial College research scientist. The team, which included 5 EMBA students, presented Smart Surgical Appliances, a company that would develop new surgical appliances, generating revenue through licensing its products to medical device manufacturers. These appliances would include re-usable instruments with disposable swabs used during the treatment of patients undergoing surgery, based on cutting-edge technology currently being produced in Imperial College. Judges were impressed by the team’s focus not only on developing the existing portfolio of products, but also of generating new intellectual property through close collaboration with centres of excellence, such as Imperial College.

The initial spark for this business plan came from Omer Aziz’s participation in Tanaka Business School’s Technology Venture Fellowship, which provides 5 Imperial College PhD students every year with the possibility of joining MBA classes in entrepreneurship and venture capital finance. Having worked and studied with a group of business students, the next logical step was to see how to collaborate on the strategic development of an innovative new company. As David O’ Simmons, one of the team members puts it “…the fact that the team was made up of MBAs and research fellows was, in my opinion, its greatest asset. It gave us the perfect balance of science and business.”

“We are delighted to see that our students continue to demonstrate the value of linking innovation in technology to management” says Tim Meldrum, Teaching Fellow in charge of Tanaka Business School’s Entrepreneurship centre. “This great result is a vindication of decision to focus on giving our students direct access to new innovations and technology, both through the technology venture project that all MBA students follow and the Technology Venture Fellowship that brings leading research scientists into contact with management students”.

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About Imperial College and Tanaka Business School

Consistently rated in the top three UK university institutions, Imperial College London is a world leading science-based university whose reputation for excellence in teaching and research attracts students (11,000) and staff (6,000) of the highest international quality. Innovative research at the College explores the interface between science, medicine, engineering and management and delivers practical solutions that enhance the quality of life and the environment - underpinned by a dynamic enterprise culture. Website: www.imperial.ac.uk

Imperial College’s Tanaka Business School is a world-class provider of business education and research, focusing primarily on Imperial strengths in innovation and entrepreneurship, finance and healthcare management. The School offers full-time and executive MBAs, Master's programmes in Finance, Risk Management, Actuarial Finance, International Health Management and Management; and a PhD programme.