Shift to Connect is a first of its kind supply chain competition, pioneered by Aaron Gichane, a fourth year Bachelor of Commerce student specializing in Management Science.
While describing the competition, Aaron notes that its main focus is finding solutions for our pressing societal problems. “We aim to solve two main prevalent issues: complexities in the supply chain and youth unemployment in order to improve people’s lives in different communities through economic, social, environmental and technological aspects,” he says. “Further, the competition aims to prompt students to work cohesively with their peers to identify problem areas in the supply chain and come up with effective and efficient solutions,” he adds.
This year’s competition, being the inaugural edition, attracted students with diverse backgrounds; from supply chain, commerce, computing, law, finance and economics, all of whom had very good ideas. The ideas traversed different streams of agribusiness supply chain sustainability; introducing aquaponic farming in rural Kenya, introduction of agri-technology parks and green shops, smart farming technologies. and sustainable potato farming through technology enhanced platforms, among others.
The Shift to Connect competition 2022 themed ‘Sustainability in Agribusiness’ kicked off in June with participants submitting their ideas. The top ten teams were then shortlisted after which they went through a mentorship phase with industry players as they refined their business ideas. The teams then pitched their ideas in front of a panel of judges. The competition culminated in an awards ceremony on 14th October where the winning teams were announced. The overall winners were Agritrack, with an agritech business idea aimed at tackling inefficiencies in the upstream supply chain of potatoes. Sustainability Strivers focused on promotion of the cotton sector in Kenya through value addition while The Collective aimed at assisting small businesses in rural areas and persons with disabilities by cutting down on farming costs and conventional farming labour intensiveness.
The competition process involved having industry partners such as Harley Reed and CIPS Kenya, as well as individual supply chain practitioners and academicians as mentors and judges through rigorous mind stimulating sessions that led to the choice of the best teams through the “the judges eye”. Our partner, Harley Reed Kenya continues to enhance professional development in supply chain and logistics through its partnerships with chartered institute of logistics and transportation and chartered institute of procurement and supplies. A special mention to Harley Reed and CILT for opening up to develop top teams through provision of bursaries for CILT.
The competition is a contribution to the student chapter of the Supply Chain Innovation Program of Strathmore University. The supply chain innovation program (SCIP) is tailored to cultivate students and faculty innovations towards the upscaling of supply chain performance and education. The SCIP is divided into two arms; the faculty chapter and the student chapter.
On a path towards the building of sustainable supply chains and economies by extension, Strathmore University continues to position itself as an academy of choice, providing top notch training and development of human resources through the Bachelor of Science in Supply Chain and Operations Management as a part of the community that endeavors to solve supply chain problems through education. Learn more about the Bachelor of Science in Supply Chain and Operations Management Programme here.
Find out more about Shift to Connect via their social media pages @ShifttoConnect on LinkedIn and @ShiftToConnect on Instagram.
Article by Juliet Hinga and Mary Aming’a
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