IE Mind Challenge: Business Analytics and Big Data Undergrad Students Solve Makro’s Real-World Problem
The winning team landed spots at the Berkeley Leadership Week in July.
IE School of Science and Technology kicked off the Mind Challenge, with students dissecting the details of wholesale chain Makro's sales from the year 2022. The challenge asked students to propose groundbreaking ideas, drawing on their comprehensive analysis of the data. The most innovative proposal won a free spot at the Berkeley Leadership Week in Segovia from July 10 to 14.
Picture of the winning team with their gift bags from Makro
The Mind Challenge is a vital part of the Bachelor in Data and Business Analytics. Designed by Vice Dean Rafif Srour Daher, the visionary of the bachelor, the challenge is a competitive, 15-session group initiative that challenges undergraduates to use both soft skills and analytics to solve real world problems.
Makro’s representatives said they were pleasantly surprised by the quality of work of the teams, acknowledging the extensive analysis they conducted on the sales data. However, they applauded the winning team’s efforts to link every aspect of their presentation to an actionable plan that either reduces costs or increases revenues.
Mehdi Zaid, a third year dual Bachelor in Business Administration and Data & Business Analytics student and member of the winning team, explained how they trained a model that uses past sales data to forecast the sales of the following week, in order to minimize inventory costs. They also built an interactive dashboard that gives a general overview of the performance of the company.
“I think that one thing that probably contributed to the strength of our proposal is that we tried to quantify the impact of our analysis based on some assumptions,” Zaid said.
Here are more insights from the winning team:
“I am really grateful to IE for organizing this event and to Makro for giving us access to their data because it teaches us to work with real data to help solve a real problem for a business. I also like how this competition was a bit open in terms of what solutions we proposed, which allowed us to set our own direction for the project and work on what we considered the most important aspects and uses of the dataset. Throughout the project, I also learned a lot about how to measure the business impact of data analysis, which I think is a very important skill.”
Taha Yassine Moumni, Dual Bachelor in Business Administration and Data & Business Analytics (2025):
“I thoroughly enjoyed the Mind Challenge as it proved to be an incredibly rewarding experience. The opportunity to engage with authentic data and tackle an open-ended question was truly valuable. Not only did it allow us to unleash our creative abilities, but it also provided us with a glimpse into the exciting prospects awaiting us as data scientists in the future.”
Paula Maria Oliver Palmer, Dual Bachelor in Business Administration and Data & Business Analytics (2025):
“I found the Mind Challenge to be a very enriching experience. I really valued working with real data and with such an open-ended question; as not only did it give us the chance to unleash our creativity, but it also gave us a great sneak peek of our future roles as data scientists. I also want to thank my teammates, as they made this experience even better through their good vibes and bright ideas.”