Laundry that gets done in an instant with no noise and with total ecological compatibility while hanging in the wardrobe in a kind of clothes bag—it could all come true with a detergent of the future called Persilan Oxygen. At least, that is the idea put forward by Anna Szarecka and Anna Szpot of Warsaw School of Economics, Poland. The two students made a powerful case with their innovative concept for a Henkel product for the year 2050, winning the Henkel Innovation Challenge in the process. And they can be proud of their feat for, having come out top in the international final of this student competition in Berlin, they have seen off some of the best teams the world has to offer.
The Henkel Innovation Challenge is an international ideas competition for students, of which this was the fourth edition. The best student teams from 14 countries in Europe and, for the first time, also four countries from the Asia-Pacific region, first presented their creative ideas at their respective national finals back at the beginning of 2011. Each national winner was then invited to Berlin in order to once again present their product ideas for 2050 at the grand final and work on a fictional product launch.
Image: The winning team
“Together with their mentors, the students continually file away at their product concept, further refining it as they go. Prior to the final presentation round, some of them sat together, working on their ideas, until the small hours of the morning,” explains Katrin Klein, Employer Branding Manager at Henkel and responsible for the competition. “This was worth the effort: All managers were impressed with the creativity, team spirit and high level of all students.”
As a result of this process of close dialogue, the students are able to get to know Henkel very well, forging personal contacts with the Henkel managers while presenting their talents within a realistic working environment. At the same time, Henkel is able to meet some international top talents.
The winners will receive a ticket ‘Around the world’ and travel vouchers worth 1,000 euros each. In addition, Henkel invites the three best teams—with France and Turkey joining Poland—to its headquarters in Düsseldorf where they will have a personal meeting with Henkel CEO, Kasper Rorsted.