Four students from the Mannheim Business School (MBS) have already achieved what is the main goal of elite football teams at the moment: they are the best in Europe. Alistair Bruce, Moritz Hertler, Stefan Reuter and Christian Uhrich, who are still studying on the one-year full-time MBA program until September, triumphed at the "European Business Plan of the Year" at the London Business School with their "SPOTTED" application concept based on social media platforms, which connects people with others in their direct vicinity who share  the same interests. The competition annually awards the best business plan for an entrepreneurial idea and was being held for the 20th time. In the final of this competition, Mannheim MBA students beat 14 teams from renowned business schools from ten nations, including Great Britain, France, Italy, Spain, Switzerland and Sweden.

"Even the invitation to the finals was a huge success for us. We were of course convinced by our concept, but none of us expected to be able to win against such top-class competition", says team member Stefan Reuter. MBS President Professor Dr. Jens Wüstemann congratulates the winning quartet, "this is further proof of the exceptional quality of our students and shows that Mannheim Business School stands for management education at the highest international level, which demands and promotes teamwork as well as entrepreneurship". For MBS, this is already the second success for its students and alumni at an important international competition within a year. Three MBS graduates were already awarded with the worldwide "Entrepreneurial Venture Award" by the renowned Association of MBAs (AMBA) in October 2011 for their enterprise concept developed as part of the ESSEC & MANNHEIM Executive MBA that was then successfully implemented later on.

On their path to winning the joint victory with prize money of 3,000 EUR, the Mannheim MBA students had to face several challenges: the submission of a 40-page business plan was required in the first stage, which documented, for example, the marketing strategy, financing and technical implementation of the idea. During the three-day finals in London several presentations and discussion rounds in front of competitors and panels of experts were then on the agenda. The final decision was made after a presentation to a jury consisting of six professional investors.

Now, the Mannheim MBA students want to also realize their concept. "The basic idea of SPOTTED is to compare the online profiles of people who live close to each other and send a message to their mobile end device if they share the same interests. As a result, interesting personal networks may emerge or be developed in a very simple way", explains Stefan Reuter. In the first stage, the team wants to focus on students. "It is, for example, conceivable that SPOTTED will bring graduates who are interested in starting their career in a particular industry together with relevant companies at a Career Fair", says Reuter.