After five weeks of team work and four intense briefing sessions, brainstorming and gamification, on 17 November, students from the UIC Barcelona Faculty of Economic and Social Sciences presented their projects to the heads of the Alvalle brand at the PepsiCo facilities in Barcelona. As part of the faculty’s B-Excellent programme, led by lecturer Cristina Treserres and in which students with the best academic records participate, the multinational presented the challenge of solving the seasonal sale of the Alvalle gazpacho to the students. The winning project, as the most creative idea and which PepsiCo intends to launch, was the Magallanes team, with Neus Fernández, Joan Gaudó, Miguel Gómez and Ariadna Bermuda.

PepsiCo brand managers visited UIC Barcelona to introduce their company and their products to the students and to present the challenge for this new edition of B-Excellent: “The Alvalle gazpacho is the crown jewel because it embodies all the PepsiCo values, but it is an extremely seasonal product. The challenge is huge and we give it to you because we want to see things from another perspective,” explained Lucas Sala, PepsiCo marketing director, at the first session of B-Excellent held on 20 October.

Students from the Bachelor’s Degree in Business Administration and Management, organised into different course-year groups, were able to work on their proposals for one month with the aim of presenting a final project that will de-seasonalise the sale of gazpacho. The presentations were made at the company’s offices, after an informative visit to all of the facilities: “This is a challenge that has been on our desk since 1999, and we find it unbelievable that in just one month you have been able to come up with such creative proposals,” said Marta Poyatos, director of Corporate Communication and Sustainability at PepsiCo, as she welcomed the students.

Following the presentations given by the students, Mireia Caballeria, Purpose & Creative Excellence Director of PepisCo, highlighted the professionalism and talent that everyone had shown throughout the process: “Our sincere congratulations for all these interesting proposals, which certainly we are going to implement; you presented them in such a focused way, as true, daring, bold and self-confident professionals,” the director affirmed.

Finally, the dean of the Faculty, Marta Mas, thanked PepsiCo for their confidence and the students for their efforts and work over the weeks: “I want to thank the Alvalle team for bringing these challenges to the classroom, for the opportunity to work with them and above all for opening the minds of these students. With these projects, the Faculty wants to inspire you to be more creative and to work on these skills that companies are expecting from you,” explained the dean to her students.