September 12, 2013

Henkel’s international student competition kicks off again

Wanted: 
Enthusiastic students, visionary ideas and compelling concepts

Düsseldorf – Coinciding with the start of the new academic year, Henkel’s international student competition – the “Henkel Innovation Challenge” – kicks off once again. For the seventh time, Henkel calls on students from all over the world to submit their visionary ideas and concepts for new Henkel products and technologies. Under the slogan “Create. Learn. Grow.”, student teams from a total of 30 countries are invited to submit their innovative and sustainable ideas by December 11, 2013 at www.henkelchallenge.com. A special focus will be on countries in emerging markets such as Brazil, Turkey, China and Russia.
Developing a visionary product or a new technology for one of the three Henkel business sectors Beauty Care, Laundry & Home Care or Adhesive Technologies is the main aim of the “Henkel Innovation Challenge”. Registering in teams of two, students from a wide variety of disciplines will adopt the role of creative, sustainability-aware business development managers. Throughout the competition, Henkel will provide extensive support: once they have registered, each team will be given access to professional e-learning programs that are also part of Henkel’s internal Learning Management. All teams that qualify for the semi-final are assigned an experienced Henkel manager, who acts as a mentor, advising the participants on further developing their innovative concepts. This allows the young visionaries to gain priceless, wide-ranging business experience and a detailed insight into the company. At the same time, the students have the opportunity to establish an invaluable personal contact with managers at Henkel. 
“The Henkel Innovation Challenge allows us to meet top talents from around the world and to elate them for Henkel. Within this contest we are placing a particular focus on the emerging markets where we want to increase the number of employees to a total of 60 percent by 2016. A competition like the Henkel Innovation Challenge helps us to increase the employer attractiveness of Henkel for the major target group of students in the markets relevant to us”, says Jens Plinke, Head of Corporate Employer Branding at Henkel. 
New this year 
In addition to individual advice from a Henkel manager, the students will be assisted by extensive e-learning opportunities and webinars. For instance, they can take advantage of e-learning courses on topics such as marketing strategies and presentation techniques, which will aid them even in the initial stages of developing their ideas. All these measures are entirely in keeping with the competition slogan: “Create. Learn. Grow.” – Create an innovative idea. Learn with your personal mentor. Grow with the competition.
The “Henkel Innovation Challenge” is open to students of all subjects, whether economics, engineering or the natural sciences. This year, teams from 30 different countries are invited to take part in the competition: twelve European countries, nine nations in the Asia-Pacific region, three Latin American countries, the USA and five countries in the MEA region. New participant countries this year will be Tunisia, Egypt and Turkey.
After the application phase 
In March 2014, semi-finals will be held to determine the best teams: here the groups of two will be invited to present their ideas to a jury of Henkel business managers. The winning teams from all over the world will then convene at the Henkel headquarters in Düsseldorf from March 31st till April 3rd in 2014, where they will showcase their innovative and sustainable visions for the future. Again, they will receive coaching from senior managers as they advance their concepts. 
The top three teams of the seventh “Henkel Innovation Challenge” will be invited to attend a personal meeting with Henkel CEO, Kasper Rorsted. In addition to this, the overall winners will receive an around-the-world-ticket with a value of 10,000 euros, the runners-up will receive 4,000 euros and the team that comes third will receive 2,000 euros.
The “Henkel Innovation Challenge” is one of various initiatives implemented by the company in order to establish personal contact with young students at an early stage. Henkel keeps in touch with the participants once the competition is over – in recent years, numerous talented career entrants have been recruited via the “Henkel Innovation Challenge” network. 
Students who are interested in the international competition can get an initial idea of what it’s all about at www.henkelchallenge.com and on the Facebook page at www.facebook.com/henkelchallenge. Videos from previous years can be found on YouTube.
Henkel operates worldwide with leading brands and technologies in three business areas: 
Laundry & Home Care, Beauty Care and Adhesive Technologies. Founded in 1876, Henkel holds globally leading market positions both in the consumer and industrial businesses with well-known brands such as Persil, Schwarzkopf and Loctite. Henkel employs about 47,000 people and reported sales of 16,510 million euros and adjusted operating profit of 2,335 million euros in fiscal 2012. Henkel’s preferred shares are listed in the German stock index DAX.

Further information on recruitment and careers at Henkel can be found at www.henkel.com/careers.
Photo material and further information are available at http://www.henkel.com/press and www.henkelchallenge.com.

Contact	Dorothee Geisel	Hanna Philipps
Phone	+49 211 797 9265	+49 211 797 3626
Fax	+49 211 798 19265	+49 211 798 13626
E-mail	dorothee.geisel@henkel.com	hanna.philipps@henkel.com

Henkel AG & Co. KGaA