In 2020, Les Roches Crans-Montana launched the very first edition of the unique #NextDisruptor competition. The concept is simple: if you have an innovative business idea that has the potential to disrupt the hotel, travel, and tourism industry, it’s your opportunity to get creative, share it with experts, and win an incredible prize!
For the 2020 edition, students and adults worldwide competed in the challenge and shared innovative business ideas that could disrupt our ever-moving and -changing industry, just like Zev Rosenfield, from the United States of America, and Alexis Onoufriou, from Cyprus, who respectively won the Bachelor’s and Master’s categories.
Now it’s your chance in 2021!
This time around, the #NextDisruptor contest is a global initiative led by both of our campuses, Crans-Montana and Marbella, and is specifically dedicated to high school students from all over the world who would be interested in studying our Bachelor’s in Global Hospitality Management.
Once again, we will be working hand in hand with The Growth Works, a boutique strategy and innovation consultancy company with deep expertise in both traditional and disruptive hospitality. With their CEO, James Lemon, they will be supporting us in defining which candidate goes through to each round and will offer our participants coaching to make sure they are prepared to deliver the best material and pitches they can.
The selection process
Like last year, #NextDisruptor candidates will be asked to, first of all, share a 5-minute video and a supporting document to pitch their business idea, and present themselves. After this round, only the best twenty-five pitches will have the opportunity to go through to the next step of the challenge, during which they will be required to create a pitch deck to support their idea.
Following the scoring, three finalists will be selected and invited to come to our Les Roches Crans-Montana campus to pitch their ideas in front of our judging panel of industry experts. The Grand Winner will then be elected and will receive an amazing prize.
Meet our unique Partner
This year, we have partnered with an amazing influencer, Airbnb’s hospitality guru, New York Times bestselling author, TED speaker, and Founder of the Modern Elder Academy: Chip Conley.
What could we say? Chip Conley was the person who helped the founders of Airbnb turn their tech start-up into the global brand that we all know today. In his book “Wisdom@Work: The Making of a Modern Elder”, he shares his journey from going from CEO to “intern” after having to learn everything about technology as Airbnb’s Head of Global Hospitality and Strategy at the time, and also being Brian Chesky’s, CEO of Airbnb, mentor to grow the company.
Today, our #NextDisruptor partner works as Facilitator at his Modern Elder Academy, a beautiful oceanfront campus in Mexico and the world’s first “midlife wisdom school” dedicated to career and life transitions, where he brings his experience and wisdom to the classroom. Chip also serves on the board of Encore.org and the advisory board for the Stanford Center on Longevity.
Win the Grand Prize!
The winner of the 2021 #NextDisruptor Challenge will have the chance of a lifetime to get an exclusive one-to-one coaching session with Chip Conley! Yes, this is the cherry on the cake this year, in addition to the full-tuition scholarship for the Bachelor’s degree at either our Crans-Montana or Marbella campuses, and the chance to take their idea to the next level with our business incubator, Spark.
This is a truly unique opportunity for high school students all over the world to be creative, meet incredible industry experts, grow their confidence, and study at Les Roches! Find out more here: www.lesroches.edu/nextdisruptor
Watch Zev’s (Winner of the 2020 #NextDisruptor’s Bachelor’s Category) video below:
