2024 Systems Innovation Challenge

Tackling the Retail Industry’s Billion Dollar Product Return Problem

The inaugural 2024 Systems Innovation Challenge, presented in partnership with Walmart Canada, brought together 185 students from universities across Ontario to explore a critical challenge for retailers: the rising costs and environmental waste of product returns.

The challenge unfolded over two stages:

Nurture Stage: Virtual workshops led by Ivey faculty helped students build foundational systems thinking skills and examine the retail returns system from multiple perspectives. The stage concluded with an in-person showcase in London, Ontario.
Navigate Stage: The top five teams advanced to this phase, where they worked directly with Walmart Canada leaders to reimagine the retail experience.

Watch the video recap of the in-person showcase in London:

“The experience has been educational, fundamentally shifting my approach to problem-solving.” Xavier Desroches Borelly, Computer Science Student at Western University  

“Overall, this was an incredible experience because of the people, the learning that took place, and the collaborative aspect of the presentations!” Kellie Stevenson, MBA Student at Degroote School of Business  

“Innovation North has taken a unique spin where the standard practice of keeping your solution a secret was the opposite of what was encouraged.” Patrick Wojtera, MBA Student at Degroote School of Business/McMaster University

Read More On Ivey News

After presenting their ideas to company leaders at Walmart Canada’s Mississauga headquarters, three teams were recognized for their outstanding solutions:

Most Feasible Idea ($5,000) – Schulich School of Business MBA students Pallab Kumar Doley, Ankita Sharma, Menka Ahlawat, Ashwin Vignesh Rajagopal, Nikita Prabhu (not pictured)
Most Creative Idea ($5,000) – Rotman School of Management MBA students Derek Leung, Sirun Wan, Armanda Iuliano, Sandra Villasenor, and Camilo Gonzalez
Most Scalable Idea ($5,000) – Telfer School of Management and University of Waterloo PhD and Masters students Wrenford Thaffe, Sneha Pujani, Shirin Biglari, Meraj Bousaki (not pictured) and Masters student Mithara Fonseka.

“I was most impressed by the depth of research the teams conducted to understand what programs Walmart has tested and implemented already, not just in Canada but in other markets around the world, and how the proposed ideas were very feasible, tangible, and ready to execute.” – Hussain Bandali, MBA ’11, Senior Director, Store Layout and Experience at Walmart Canada