180DC Sydney: Elevating Impact Through Collaborative Excellence

3 minute read

This article was written by Michael Drever, the President at 180DC Macquarie, Sydney, Australia.

Meaningful impact is seldom the product of individual efforts. This is why collaboration and team connection are integral cornerstones of 180 Degrees Consulting (180DC). It was this spirit which led to Sydney’s recent inter-university 180DC event, hosted by industry partner’s, Oliver Wyman Australia. 

On the 28^th of June, the three regional 180DC branches in Sydney, Australia, were involved in an inaugural inter-university pitch night. The event was designed to celebrate the hard work and dedication of the best student consultant team from each of the three branches; Macquarie University, The University of Sydney and The University of New South Wales.

The evening featured three premier quality pitch recommendations from each of the universities, who presented their projects from the past semester. The event followed a competition format, whereby each university pitched recommendations to a panel of consultants from Oliver Wyman, who then voted on the ‘winning project’ at the end of the evening, evaluating on the basis of presentation skills, solution creativity and scope of potential impact.

The evening showcased 180DC’s incredible reach and the impact the organisation is having on the community. This was on display from all three universities, with the University of NSW (UNSW) delivering a complex project recommendation dealing with social return on investment (SROI). The development of this SROI model will enable UNSW’s client, the Big Brother Movement, to more effectively allocate its resources towards achieving its goal of supporting young people to become practical and impactful leaders.

The University of Sydney demonstrated how far 180DC has come since its beginnings in 2007. The university at which the organisation was founded presented a project to help Lifeline Australia, Australia’s biggest suicide help hotline. Their project aimed to expand Lifeline’s outreach and awareness strategies to help them better achieve their target UN SDGs of good health and wellbeing and sustainable cities and communities.

What made this event so special was the mutual benefit afforded to the clients, our industry partners, and our own consultants. Feedback from a panel of industry professionals had profound effects in increasing the quality of proposals presented, directly translating to benefit for the clients. This process also yielded benefits to our partners at Oliver Wyman, who were able to get involved with some of the best minds each of the three universities have to offer. Both the formal and informal proceedings of the evening took great strides towards developing the relationship between the branches and our host. Through this, our own consultants at 180DC shared in the benefits from the event. The chance to present to, receive feedback from, and get to know such esteemed professionals was a special opportunity that was embraced by every student at the event.

This event aimed to build on the collaborative efforts made between the universities at 180DC’s 2023 APAC summit, which saw remarkable engagement from many branches and industry sponsors in the Asia Pacific region, and was headlined with a keynote speech by 180DC’s founder, Nat Ware. Looking forward, the Sydney regional branches are excited at the possibility of holding such events more frequently, potentially at the end of each project cycle. 

Inter-university initiatives such as this one show that collaboration is an amplifier to the value that 180DC can provide to charities, partners and members. It truly shows that by simply getting involved, everyone has the ability to be a part of this amazing collaborative journey, helping to better charities around the globe one project at a time.

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