McKinsey's solve it 2022 competition – We're in the finals

In 2021, we opened our doors to our founding cohort. Our OGs. They immediately proved themselves to be what we already knew: that they’re a group of wholly unique and fundamentally interesting individuals — with bags of courage. Forget less trodden. These students took a path that had never seen footsteps.

Which brings us to Solve It, a McKinsey & Co competition where teams of university students put their heads together to tackle a non-profit’s strategic and operational challenges. This is real work with real social impact. It’s complex and challenging. Very ‘LIS’.

So we — “we” meaning Team LIS in the form of Dhiresh, Jet, Laurence, Lucy, Summer, and Tom — entered. And now we’re in the finals. It feels really good to write these words. Thank you to the students for making it happen.

This is a big deal. McKinsey only allow 20 of the UK’s top universities to enter. Other competitors come from places such as Durham, Manchester, and Warwick. We’re feeling a little like David and Goliath. But we like the underdog mentality.

So today, we’re celebrating the hard work and achievements of our students. They can think. And thinking is sought after. It’s sought after by organisations like McKinsey.

Other universities have more history than us, more resources than us, more everything than us. Their coffee budget will be bigger than our marketing budget. But we’re here, rubbing shoulders with higher education’s Goliaths.

We don’t have to be big to have influence. A splinter can stop a giant.

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