Summer School – Sustainable Business Model Innovation
Hochschule für Wirtschaft FHNW
Do you want to explore how businesses can be both innovative and sustainable? In the FHNW Summer School “Sustainable Business Model Innovation”, you’ll develop future-oriented solutions and expand your intercultural skills – together with students from around the world.
- Design sustainable business models: Develop solutions with real-world impact and relevance.
- Collaborate in international teams: Strengthen your intercultural competence through teamwork.
- Learn from experts: Gain knowledge from leading academics and industry professionals.
- Experience an intensive summer programme: Benefit from hands-on learning in a compact format.
- Build your global network: Connect with students from partner universities worldwide.
Steckbrief
Zukunftsaussichten
Goals
Students:
- can systematically evaluate strengths and weaknesses of existing business models.
- understand how sustainability can be integrated into the different elements of a business model.
- apply different methods, tools, and innovative techniques to create and evaluate ideas and sustainable business model innovations.
- convincingly present the developed sustainable business model innovations both visually and orally and explain the potential and risks to the management of the company.
Target group
The programme is open to students from all universities and fields of study. Diversity of backgrounds is encouraged to enrich perspectives, foster creativity, and enhance collaborative learning.
We welcome students who are passionate about creating positive change and want to explore how sustainability can be integrated into business practices. No prior in-depth knowledge of sustainability or business models is required – genuine interest and curiosity are what matter most.
Aufbau und Inhalte
This Summer School provides first-hand insights into the world of business model innovation for sustainability. Over the course of the week, participants will have a unique opportunity to let their imagination and creativity run free to tackle real-life business model challenges in collaboration with students from different backgrounds and disciplines. Classes are interactive and teams will be supported by coaches from academia and the business world. Participants will develop the skills they need to make an impact for sustainability. Each team will tackle the business model challenges of a different company. The programme follows a design-based approach, which will include the following phases:
- Understand: Uncover and understand the context and the challenge. Pre-frame your design challenge and next steps.
- Discover: Dig deeper to empathise and understand stakeholder needs and impacts. Define Point of View.
- Generate: Generate ideas, turn insights into potential sustainable business model innovation. Narrow down to the most promising idea to prototype.
- Make: Prototype the sustainable business model innovation idea by looking at the whole business model ecosystem and determine impacts. Further develop the sustainable business model.
- Validate: Evaluate the sustainable business model innovation with checklists and gathering feedback. Then refine and present to the case holder.
Vertiefungen
International
Leitung und Dozierende
Voraussetzungen, Zulassung, Eignungsabklärung
Participants need to be fluent in English (advanced level: European levels B2 written/C1 oral). No formal document/proof needed.
The Summer School is limited to 30 participants. (Minimum size for implementation is 15 students).
