The American University of Beirut’s teams clamored to enter the L'Oréal Brandstorm 2019 competition and six teams were ultimately selected to participate in the National competition.
Suliman S. Olayan School of Business (OSB) teams won second and first runner up places and one AUB/ESA Business School team was awarded first prize. Next step is May 21-22 in Paris where 65 teams from top universities in the world will pitch their innovative ideas to executives and internal investors and the winning team will spend three months at Station F developing their idea.
The innovative competition has brought together over 34,000 ambitious students from 63 countries. For the first time in its 27 year history, the competition now offers an Intrapreneurship Award where the winning team takes their Brandstorm idea and transforms it into a real business model. Over the period of three months, the winning teams will boost their idea with coaching and guidance from L’Oréal experts and ultimately defend the business model to top executives and internal investors.
Coach Leila Khauli said that the competition “was very challenging and students had to think hard to come up with disruptive ideas. They got the chance to apply first-hand what they learn at AUB and once again they were up to the challenge.” Khauli coached teams in 2014, 2015, 2016, 2018, and now the 2019 national champion team.
“By participating in such a competition,” noted student Yasmeen Nasser, “I learned firsthand what it means to be a team, to support and encourage others, and above all else communicate my idea in a clear and exciting way. Because of L'Oréal Brandstorm, I plan on participating in other international competitions and maybe even developing our idea. Thank you to Mrs. Leila Khauli Hanna for her dedication to the team and thank you L'Oréal for the challenge!”
Nicolas Bastoli stated, “I‘m really glad I made the decision to join this amazing event. Brandstorm has been a learning experience on so many levels. Coming from an engineering background, I was not very knowledgeable in the fields required for the competition. In the last couple of months, I had the chance to learn about the cosmetic industry and L’Oréal, along with so many skills needed in business development and marketing. Along the way, I was able to meet great participants from all over Lebanon. Being surrounded by so many innovative, smart and motivated people filled me up with a lot of positive energy and vibes and really pushed me to give my full potential and bring the best out of myself. We are definitely ready to make AUB and Lebanon proud in Paris!”