By Mary O’KEEFE

Four Loyola Marymount University [LMU] students will be going to Buenos Aires, Argentina next month due to their competitive spirit, business skills, foresight and innovation.

One of the four students is Connor Grayson Sobczak, who is well-known in the Crescenta Valley area as he attended CV High School and has a name that has been synonymous with Montrose for over 60 years. Grayson’s Tune Town was founded by Sobczak’s grandfather, Ken, and he has been working at the music shop for years, most recently as its manager.

Sobczak, along with teammates Liam Cerniglia, Alicia Mock and Alex Coletta, competed against five other teams in the KPMG Innovation and Collaboration Challenge [KICC] and won regional and national contests. They will be representing the United States at the world competition in Buenos Aires.

“This was the first year doing this,” Sobczak said. “I was hesitant at first. I hadn’t done anything like this before.”

LMU students had never entered this contest whose purpose, according to the KICC website, is to explore global issues, tackle big business briefs and give students an opportunity to present their innovative ideas to business leaders.

Sobczak is majoring in business/entrepreneurship and this challenge matches his focus at school.

The challenge this year was: What innovations would help to empower people in disadvantaged communities in your country to take control of their own health and well-being?

Teams had to come up with an answer and create a presentation supporting their innovation.

“We came up with community gardens,” Sobczak said.

At its foundation this seems like a simple idea but the students had to create a business concept and an operating model. It needed to be a way not only to help but to empower local communities to take control of their own health and well-being.

“We had to pick a company we would work with and we picked Amazon/Whole Foods,” he added.

The students had to use the chosen company’s real world business plan as they added their innovation. Because it is a community garden, the team also looked into the agricultural aspect of their plan and how they would work with cities to make use of vacant lots.

“We did do some projections for financial [planning] but more than anything else it was about the idea and the pitch,” he said.

KPMG [Klynveld, Peat, Marwick, Goerdeler] is a global network of independent member firms offering audit, tax and advisory services, according to the company’s website.

The LMU team won in competitions against prestigious teams including those from UCLA, CSU Northridge, USC and University of Washington.

The LMU team will be representing the United States in Buenos Aires with other countries from around the world. The international challenge will present a different question to the teams, which will have to come up with a new innovation and present a business plan before a panel of judges.

“You can prepare all you can but when you get there you have two hours to prepare a PowerPoint presentation,” he said.

Although a little concerned during the first challenge, Sobczak is now looking forward to the experience.

“[The national challenge] was amazing. It makes you think outside the box and makes you think of social change,” he said.

He also is looking forward to working with his teammates again.

“We didn’t know each other before [this KICC],” he said. “It was interesting to see how we didn’t know each other but were able to build a [strong] team.”

The trip to Argentina will be in April. Their advisor is Prof. David Choi, director of the Fred Kiesner Center for Entrepreneurship. Whatever the outcome, Sobczak plans on using all he has learned during the competition and in school to help his favorite innovative business – Grayson’s Tune Town.

  Mary Okeefe