Partnerships that make an impact

Our educational initiatives use the context of subsistence to challenge conventional thinking and emphasize sustainable business practices. This presents a unique opportunity for corporate partners to utilize students' fresh perspectives to develop solutions that make the world a better place. 

Students in the Sustainable Product and Market Development for Subsistence Marketplaces course work to produce a product prototype and a business plan tailored to the needs of a sponsoring company. Business, engineering, and industrial design students collaborate in this carefully guided program to produce insightful and actionable materials based on the latest scholarship and sound business intelligence.

We have worked successfully with small startups as well as large companies, such as Unilever, Motorola, Microsoft, and Kraft. Our passionate students begin the course by experiencing virtual immersion in subsistence contexts through a poverty simulation, and analysis of interviews with subsistence individuals. They grapple with principles elicited from a rich set of case studies and guest speakers and generate ideas to evaluate on a one-of-a-kind international immersion experience.  Students observe urban and rural subsistence contexts, and  directly interview subsistence consumers and entrepreneurs to tailor proposed solutions to fit users' needs. 

Once fully prepared, in the spring semester, students apply their business and technical skills to design a product prototype and a related business plan. Projects have spanned from improvements to information technology, education, energy, food, and health care.