The Kent MBA has had an exhausting but fantastic Consultancy week, which took place from the 25th to the 28th of February 2013. This event, sponsored by Startmybiz is designed as an integral part of the Kent MBA curriculum. The Kent MBA Consultancy week offers businesses an opportunity to bring a business problem to a team of MBA students. Students have an average of 8 years managerial experience and come from a wide range of nationalities, backgrounds and business sectors.
This year, the Kent MBA class of 2012-2013 were divided into three teams and consulted for eleven companies over four days. The businesses ranged from manufacturing to food to music, and ranged in size from sole proprietor to businesses with several hundred employees. This year’s discussions looked at issues surrounding the development of new products and services, marketing and website development, streamlining business processes, investigating new global markets just to name a few.
Steve Waller, Waller Associates Ltd, commented “We were approached last year by Kent Business School to see if we had any future project work that their MBA students would be able to assist with. At that time, we were considering purchasing some additional plant and machinery and welcomed any external advice on the viability. We therefore put together a basic feasibility study for the students to work on culminating in a consultancy with a group of students at the University.
I was extremely impressed with the thoughts and potential solutions I was given which has assisted us in deciding what future course of action we should take. An additional bonus outcome was feedback on the Company website and on ways it could be improved together with assistance on sourcing the equipment we require from alternative sources!
This was an extremely worthwhile exercise and I hope the students got as much out of it as I did.”
Sarah Weller, the boogie nights band, added “I would just like to say a big thank you to all the students in team 3 for taking my business on as part of their MBA coursework, listening to how it works, analysing the information I have given them both beforehand and on the day and then making recommendations to me on how to improve. I found the whole experience most enjoyable, informative and useful. I thought they were able to understand very quickly the current issues within the business and recommend useful ways to improve. They were positive and extremely constructive without me feeling awkward or overwhelmed.”
Richard Edmonson of Bespoke Interiors writes that “I have been slowly digesting the shock of meeting you all! A very nice shock and only a shock because of the amazing outpouring of ideas in a short space of time. …An enormous thank you for the zeal and effort you have made. I am very keen to stay in touch and meet up again.”
Ingrid Eissfeldt of Artisan Bread Organic felt inspired from the first class presentation which she thought was well researched and well presented.
Our student Geoffrey France, a Senior Financial and Investment Analyst from Ghana says “It has been very helpful, applying most of the new things we have learnt to bring practical solutions that are beneficial to entrepreneurs”. Another student, Karen Creswell, the founder/owner of the Kings Hill Director thought that the consultancies she attended were varied, challenging and immensely valuable. She learnt from the experience and also felt that she could actually contribute something useful for the companies that they could put into practice.
Dr Pamela Yeow, Deputy Director of the Kent MBA said “I thank the companies and the students for the great dialogue that they’ve had in the last couple of weeks. We were all working within very tight schedules and I was impressed with the in-depth conversations and analysis that the teams undertook for the organisations. We will continue to work with the organisations, some of whom have agreed to further develop these consultancies into business projects which will run during the summer period (June-September).”
 |
 |
 |
 |