Alumni of the GSB International Management programme won the 2024 Flourish Prize for the UN Global Goal 3

The winners of the prestigious 2024 Flourish Prize international competition dedicated to celebration of business as an agent of world benefit are this year's graduates of the Master's programme in International Management at the HSE Graduate School of Business. Daria Plotnikova, Ahmad Fahim Enayat, Nim Sisil, Damayantha Panavala Kankanamge, Zohrab Serobian and Aysenem Bazarova, under the guidance of Ekaterina Ivanova, Associate Professor of GSB Strategic and International Management Department, won the 2024 Flourish Prize. They were awarded for the story of ‘Digital Technologies and Rehabilitation’ from Motorika company in the nomination of the UN Global Goal 3 ‘Good Health and Wellbeing’.

GSB 2024 alumni found out about the victory a few days after the graduation ceremony, which made the end of the programme an even more special occasion both for the recent students, and also for their professors and the whole GSB: the students' deep and meaningful work on real material allowed them to tell a story of sustainable solutions, making an important contribution to society.

Ekaterina Ivanova

Associate Professor at the Department of Strategic and International Business at the GSB

‘I am proud of the success of the GSB alumni. As part of their studies in the course ‘Sustainability Management in Global Business’ they interviewed the top management of Motorika company. Students told the world the story of innovative technologies for disabled people in Russia. Motorica creates prosthetic hands and uses advanced AI technologies for the rehabilitation process. Winning the prestigious international competition Flourish Prize, held since 2015 by the Case Western Reserve University, in one of 17 nominations according to the number of Sustainable Development Goals, is a high recognition and a great honour for the GSB. Now we also have an award in SDG 3, which is aimed at people's health and well-being,’ said Ekaterina Ivanova, Associate Professor at the Department of Strategic and International Business at the GSB.

The Flourish Prize is an annual international competition for student-written stories created by using an appreciative inquiry interviewing method to showcase business innovations aimed at achieving the UN SDGs. In 2023, 485 student teams from all continents participated and told the world about the power of business as a driver of positive change. 

Among the 17 finalists of the Flourish Prize 2024, for the third time in its history, there was a team from Russia, represented by students of the HSE Graduate School of Business. The GSB team told a story about the ATTILAN digital platform of Motorika company, which has been working at the intersection of medicine and robotics since 2014. Motorika's innovative prostheses allow people who have lost their upper limbs to continue their full active life. The ATTILAN platform is a virtual reality-based project that allows the prostheses to be controlled at an intuitive level. The business innovation story, created and presented by the GSB students to an international audience, won the prize in the SDG 3 nomination, presenting the effective use of modern technologies to improve the lives of people with disabilities.

We congratulate the team members, their advisor Ekaterina Ivanova and partner Motorika on the high international recognition! Winning the competition is an excellent career start for our alumni and the basis for the success of future international projects of the GSB in partnership with leading companies.