Hult Life - Undergraduate Life at Hult International Business School Winter Issue 5 | Page 16

16 HULT LIFE MAGAZINE
Visionary business
Meet team DECNA—Zach, Mallika, and Marie-
Louise are in the second year of their undergraduate
degree and were the youngest participants to reach
the Hult Prize accelerator in 2019.
Referred to as the “Nobel Prize for students,”
the Hult Prize challenges students to find
solutions to tackle some of the biggest social
issues around the globe. 2019’s Hult Prize
challenge was to provide meaningful work for
10,000 youth within the next decade.
Aspiring team DECNA welcomed the challenge
and we caught up with them during the process
to found out about their ideas, thoughts,
experiences … and how it all began.
HULT
DECNA
Tell us how you came up with DECNA
and what your idea is.
We all took a course called “Storytelling
& Persuasion” and our challenge was
to create a business that would change
people’s lives. This is when we came
up with the idea of DECNA, which
means “vision” in Hindi. We realized the
challenge for Hult Prize was the same
thing, so, we decided to try our luck in
the competition! H
The problem is most graduates in India
lack professional networking and career
development skills. ZACH
Our solution is to upskill them through
industry workshops and make sure that
they’re able to shine bright in front of
employers.
H
D
“It was a defining
moment of ‘look
what we’ve
achieved?!’”
What have been your highs and lows
so far?
Let’s start with our highs—when we re-
watched a video of ourselves pitching
our idea at the beginning of the course,
we were reminded of our roots, where
we’d come from, and how far we’d come.
It was us at our best, bringing DECNA
to life through passion, team spirit, and
unwavering drive. It was a defining
moment of “look what we’ve achieved?!”
Now for the lows—one of the biggest
challenges was receiving feedback and
knowing what advice to take. We had
input from different mentors and it was
hard to choose which feedback we were
going to act upon, and which feedback
we were going to implement later.
D
How did you manage your team?
In all honesty, at the beginning it was quite
tough. We all assigned roles to each other
and sometimes they would overlap. But
we quickly learned that communication
is a critical success factor in growing a
business. You have to communicate with
your teammates and, most importantly,
understand them.
What did the challenge mean
to you personally?
We were passionate about the challenge
because we are the youth; the fact
that we can really inspire our generation
is exciting.
MARIE-
LOUISE Our events will offer employers and
graduates an informal setting to network.
I know the importance of what we are
doing and how it will positively affect
people’s lives.
MALLIKA I went to an Indian high school and all my
life I was told how to get the best grades,
but nobody told me how to obtain soft
skills, which is what personally inspired me
to create DECNA.
Team: Follow us on Instagram! @decnaindia