Ulla Keino: We are not so much for innovations than putting together reasonable new solutions. Companies do not have time enough to always find the resources needed for developing the business. Students act as consultants, steered by the mentor, SeaFocus and the companies. Intelligence Hunt teaches to look at the case from different aspects: technology, commercials, innovation and even legal. You really learn to think out of the box.

AH:

For young people, it is easier to think about something new as they don’t work in the same ‘box’ for many years, so they look at the problem from a different perspective, thus they can bring fresh ideas that will help companies to be more innovative.

AH: We tell the students and the companies that these projects are like simulating consulting work and also work in big companies, as the students normally don’t know each other in advance and work virtually.

AH:

Optimally we sell the cases to the companies first and get the names of the committed companies and the theme heading to the students, when the enrolling starts. Sometimes we cannot get the cases in advance so the students, in such a case, have to enrol ‘blind’. We decide who to put in which team, and to which case, based on the student’s own description of his or her interests and skills and education.

Kicking off the project happens first with the mentor and the case company and the student teams. In the middle, there is mid-term reporting and the final report will be sent to the company to be studied before the executive summary is delivered to the jury.

The jury will study the executive summaries and has criteria published in advance. Stage presentation is the last criteria which is evaluated in the finals. The work takes normally three months and the finals is like a hackathon of a three-month assignment.

AH: When we started, we first did not even steer the teams’ work, but let them act fully alone until the finals. Next edition we took a strong [project management office] role and the results were even better than in the first one.

AH: In the last two editions, we have also decided to expand the Intelligence Hunt not only to cover students but also the more matured professionals. When seen in this role, as for most a hobby, they are exposed to the market with their competence and can gain something for themselves, something with a value for their own professional development. In some editions, we have had one team /case company and in some two. This edition has two cases with two competing teams.

AH: The competition has been organised twice a year, the last one was held in Oslo in the spring of 2019 in conjunction with Nor-Shipping. After this, there is Intelligence Hunt 6, Navigate 2020 version, with finals on 22 January. We will have a project phase 1 with semi-finals autumn 2020, and then the shortlisted five will travel to Transport Logistic, in Messe München, in 2021, where we will have our 90 minutes of finals on the stage.

AH: We have had some cases, where two weeks after the finals the company has been able to put the solution to commercial portfolio of their service offering. Typically, companies have taken the solution and implemented it further by giving one of the team members a Master Thesis around the mentioned solution. The student has then been employed by the company.

AH: Mentors play an important role in the project as they give a chance for students to hear an opinion of the person not involved in their team’s work. This helps the team to understand whether they are clear enough with their solution, before it’s time to present in the finals. Mentors also help understanding sometimes, even the most complicated assignments, and steer the team to a right direction, so students can focus to the innovation part of the work. The mentors are like role models, real examples of brilliant careers in shipping.

Image: SeaFocus