MBA Students Work To Fight Infant Mortality

By Pradeep Suthram (MBA ’11)

Three months ago, General Electric (GE) and the Center for Social Value Creation (CSCV) sponsored a challenge for students at the Robert H. Smith School of Business. Fifteen students from the full-time MBA program participated to answer some of the toughest questions in the global health arena – how to sustainably deliver quality healthcare to reduce infant mortality from hypothermia in developing countries.

GE’s Healthymagination program sponsored this challenge as part of its commitment to finding innovative solutions and imaginative ideas. It applies to moving beyond technological innovations and looking into business solutions for advancement. The company’s $6 billion Rural Health Initiative focuses particularly on creating products and solutions for resource-constrained environments. GE’s purpose behind organizing this challenge at the University of Maryland is to seek out answers for the most difficult issues – such as infant mortality.

In 2009, 8.1 million children died before reaching 5 years of age . 41% of these children die before their fourth week of life . Reducing child mortality by two thirds is a Millennium Development Goal (MDG) outlined by the United Nations and the international community.

The student participants spent four weeks researching various ways to reduce infant mortality in developing countries – How do we develop a delivery mechanism that is sustainable in rural India, China, Kenya, or Indonesia? In which countries can GE develop public private partnerships to create large-scale healthcare solutions? How can GE partner with NGOs already serving mothers and children to provide sustainable healthcare solutions?

“It was one of the most intense competitions I have ever worked on. I realized how significantly business skills can be used to address global health issues,” said Pradeep Suthram, a participant in the competition.

“I grew up in rural India and was able to bring my knowledge and understanding to provide GE with more context and answers. I felt like I was giving back to my village,” added Santosh Chavan, a full-time MBA student at the Smith School of Business.

Students were driven in this competition by the immense and obvious social value of the cause. They applied their business modeling and research skills to analyze the issue of infant mortality across various geographies, develop a methodology to find sustainable markets, and provide partnership models as delivery mechanisms. They found a variety of organizations from South America to Africa to Asia for GE partnerships and research.

On April 16th, all teams had the opportunity to present to leaders from GE’s Maternal and Infant Care (MIC) division located in Laurel, Maryland. They were impressed with the findings of every team that confirmed some of GE’s efforts while also providing new ideas. Two teams were chosen as finalists to make final presentations to GE’s leadership for the Rural Health Initiative and Marketing Team for the Maternal Infant Care division at the GE office in Laurel, Maryland.

Melissa Carrier, Executive Director of the Center for Social Value Creation, emphasized that such challenges are critical to innovation and sustainability. She also spoke to its importance as “an opportunity for students to learn about critical social issues and for companies to explore imaginative ideas and innovative solutions.”

To learn more about GE’s healthymagination, please go to www.healthymagination.com.

To learn more about Center for Social Value Creation, please go to www.rhsmith.umd.edu/svc.