Champions of Optum Stratethon Season 2

Our current Nanyang MBA participants participated in the Optum Stratethon Season 2 titled “Your opportunity to innovate and change the future of health care” hosted by Optum under UnitedHealth Group.

Strategos Tso, comprising Kimberly Liew, Arnold Giovanni, and Joash Heng Xiankai, emerged victorious in the Optum Stratethon (Business Track), winning a cash prize of USD 3,000. The team shared their experience with us.

L to R: Arnold Giovanni, Kimberly Liew & Joash Heng Xiankai

Optum, the world’s leading health care products and services innovation company, organised this competition. It provides opportunities to create Internet of Things in Healthcare solutions/business models that can enable the company to maintain market leadership while transiting towards a future of Smart healthcare business.

Members of Strategos Tso team hail from various industries; however, none of them had any background in the healthcare sector. This disadvantage did not deter them from participating in the competition. As healthcare costs in the US are high and affect their loved ones there, they wanted to harness the power of new technology innovations to provide healthcare in a smarter and affordable way, one that also preserved the stakeholders’ bottom-line.

A total of 64 B-schools from India, Philippines, Singapore, Malaysia, and Vietnam participated in season 2 of the Optum Stratethon. The competition, which began last November, had various segments, staring with Simulation & Guessestimate quizzes, detailed presentation submissions, and virtual presentations at the finale judged by Optum’s senior management.

Strategos Tso’s idea was OPTUM 1.0 – a one-stop centre that allows seamless communication for all healthcare stakeholders using a common platform. The team recognised the high demand for healthcare services and ongoing concerns in the healthcare industry such as effectiveness and quality, data protection, and device safety and quality. The root cause of the problem is the fragmented information flow between healthcare stakeholders due to lack of standardisation. Hence the birth of a one-stop platform that links all systems secured by blockchain technology.

To prepare for the competition, the team highlighted that they relied on the relevant business knowledge and skills gained during their MBA programme. NBS faculty had also play a significant role in their preparation. Professor Vijay Sethi’s case workshops, for example, provided them with a general framework to handle almost any business case competition, while Assoc Prof Kang Soon Lee’s strategic management classes helped them apply the concept of ‘ambidextrous organisation’.

Participation in this case competition saw a boost in the team’s confidence, as they were able to apply their classroom learning to address a pressing global issue. They concluded their sharing by giving some advice to the next batch of Optum Stratethon participants:

“Work with team members from different backgrounds. This way you can gather differing viewpoints and brainstorm better.

If you are not familiar with a certain industry, look for experts in that field. Reach out to your network and talk to people to gain insights into the market.

Finally, embrace the experience – take this opportunity to participate in as many case competitions as you can. The more experience you have with business cases, the more confident you will be as you are able to apply your knowledge and skills and test a hypothesis.”

Once again, NBS congratulates team Strategos Tso for their victory, and wishes them the very best in their future endeavours!