NBB Group, comprising of the National Bank of Bahrain (NBB) and Bahrain Islamic Bank (BisB) recently held an internal ‘Innovation Challenge’ competition based around the theme of ‘Digital Growth.’ The competition was introduced to encourage corporate innovation and provided a platform for employees to share ideas that support the organisation’s future digital growth strategy.
Working individually or as part of a team, NBB and BisB employees explored different creative concepts before submitting their final ideas for assessment. In total 70 concepts were submitted from individuals and groups across 10 various departments as part of the competition.
The ‘Innovation Challenge’ finale was hosted at the HQ – Seef Mall, where 15 shortlisted candidates pitched their concepts. Judging the finale were Usman Ahmed, NBB Group Chief Executive Officer, Yaser Alsharifi, Chief Executive Officer of BisB and Razi Amin, NBB Group Chief Technology Officer, who named the three finalists.
An awards ceremony for announcing the winners was also held at NBB’s Headquarters with His Excellency Shaikh Abdulla bin Khalifa Al Khalifa, CEO of Mumtalakat in attendance. Maryam Ebrahim from BisBcame in third place; Mert Kabadayi and Zahra Almeshaima from NBB came in second place; and Elias Muradand Ahmed AlKoohejiwere awarded the first place prize.
Reflecting on the success of the ‘Innovation Challenge’ Usman Ahmed, NBB Group CEOsaid; ‘We would like to thank all the participants of the 2023 Innovation Challenge for their outstanding efforts. The creativity of the concepts submitted and the overall dedication of our employees throughout the competition was admirable. Congratulations to all the winners and we look forward to working on implementing their exceptional ideas.’
On his end, Yaser Alsharifi, CEO of BisB, said: ‘The challenge provided a collaborative opportunity for employees to demonstrate their innovative ideas and creative thinking in developing remarkable concepts for the Group. We look forward to hosting similar initiatives in the future as we encourage our team members to showcase their industry expertise.’
NBB Group continues to develop initiatives that foster a culture of innovation and provide opportunities for its workforce to valuably contribute towards the organisation’s success.