D1 Partnership with Instituto de Empresa

Dufry took an active and exciting role in the Instituto de Empresa’s (University in Madrid, Spain) International MBA Program (IMBA). We were the chosen “Learning Partner” this year for their “Business Impact Lab”; a five-week program integrated into the eleven-month duration of the International MBA, with the aim of helping 80 international students to demonstrate their entrepreneurial skills by transforming the Travel Retail industry. The course started on Monday February 25, and concluded with the final presentation on March 29. Prior to the start of the Business Impact Lab, the students conducted an “immersion activity,” involving a visit to Dufry’s stores at Terminal 4 of Adolfo Suárez Madrid-Barajas Airport, accompanied by Antonio Simon, the Area Director for Madrid at Dufry. The visit was of enormous benefit to the students, who learned the key aspects of the business and the dynamics of the store.

Once the course started, students were divided into workgroups with the task of formulating their hypotheses to respond to the Corporate Challenge, that is to suggest ways that Dufry could transform the travel retail industry by improving customer experience.

The objective of the Business Impact Lab is to provide students with a unique learning experience that allows them to work in the development of disruptive business solutions in order to solve the proposed Corporate Challenge, to be able to identify opportunities and lead changes and innovation processes within a given organization. To this end, a team of six Dufry tutors – Laura Chedid, Coral Clavero, José Luis García, Pedro González, Marianna Primiceri and Scott Tremaine - were in permanent contact with the students, providing them with feedback and monitoring the progress of their projects on a weekly basis.

Julián Díaz, Eugenio Andrades, Pedro Castro and other members of the Dufry team attended the presentation event on March 29, asking the students for further details on their projects and giving insight and feedback themselves. The ideas that were put forward in this exciting project will be taken into consideration to improve the store experience of passengers at the airport, develop new business models and payment methods or contribute to the digitalization of stores. Watch this space!