Matt received his award from company AgustaWestland, which manufactures and sells helicopters. He spent six months of his placement working in the company’s operations department – making sure deliveries were on time and there weren’t any parts shortages – and six months in the sales team, pitching for new business and trying to win contracts.

He was also part of the company’s charity committee and led a project selling t-shirts with helicopters on to raise money for charity.

“I am extremely pleased about. It was a great evening and being on the committee, which organised the evening and the charity events. We also beat last years’ record by raising £38,000 of which £6,000 was by the t-shirts I sold individually in addition to the other events myself and another member primarily organised,” commented Matt. He also thanked the Business School’s Placement Team for their help and support over the year.

Read Matt’s Case Study >>

Matt is now working with the company on his dissertation and hopes to go into business operations when he finishes his degree. The Placement year on our BA (Hons) Business Studies degree is an excellent opportunity for our students to gain essential work experience that will put them ahead of other graduates when looking for a job.

Read the full story on the BU News web pages >>

The students were assigned the brief that they work for a large Marketing consultancy that has been retained by an insurance company to develop products for the over 65s and had the task of working within a team researching and designing a presentation to representatives from the company. This group project was worth 50% of the overall unit mark.

Each group member took on one of the following roles:

• Marketing Director
• Market Research Assistant
• Customer Analyst
• Product Manager
• Pricing Analyst
• Logistics Personnel
• Brand Consultant
• Advertising/Promotions Executive
• PR Executive

The winning group members were: Hannah Arnold; Samuel Bennett; Lewis Brown; Amy Callanan;  Steven Coe; Amy Deal; Michael Ellis; Cloe Gray; Clive Green; Evan Jenkins; Sarah Kneebone; James Knott; George McAlpine; Karen McHendrie; Rebecca Peazold; Peter Ramsey; Adam Sharpe; Jamie Tillen; Agnieszka Tkacz.

CII members attended the presentations and, together with the Marketing unit tutors, picked the winning group. The group that produced the best Marketing presentation/project received a £1,000 award.

Well done!

Preparation for the marathon has been challenging; as she approaches the end of the final year of her degree she has been getting up at 5:30am to go for 3 hour runs, whilst working hard to finish her dissertation and keep up with other work deadlines.  She is the first to admit it hasn’t been easy but as she says, “it is all for an incredible cause.”

Cystic Fibrosis is an incurable disease which affects 9,000 people and is one of the most common, life-threatening, inherited diseases in the UK. It is close to Rhiannon’s heart and it is her passion for the cause that has kept her focused on her goal. Her best friend Laura Visick suffers from the disease and Rhiannon describes her as an “inspiration”.  Like her, Laura also studied at Bournemouth University, achieving a first class BA (Hons) Multimedia Journalism degree, despite having to make a number of hospital visits during her final year.

Rhiannon completed the Brighton marathon in 4 hours and 20 minutes but after a week of pain with frequent visits to a physiotherapist, the London marathon proved to be a lot tougher, taking an hour longer.  However, after tearing a tendon on the 15^th mile of her second marathon and spending 30 stressful minutes with the St John’s Ambulance team, her determination still pulled her through; “even if I was going to crawl over the finish line nothing was going to stop me.”

A fantastic £2,356 has been raised by Rhiannon and Hannah so far, and donations are still coming in. Rhiannon has said “the pride has massively outweighed the pain and if it wasn’t for everyone that has sponsored us none of this would have been possible”.

The sisters are already planning their next fundraising events, a half marathon in June and July followed by the Beachy Head full marathon in October.

Well done Rhiannon and Hannah!!

If you’d like to make a donation, please visit Rhiannon’s Virgin Money Giving page >>

The Business Studies graduate received the award in recognition of her successful and fast-growing business Sparkly Nails, an online store selling specialist nail art supplies. Stocking everything from gems and foils to stickers and providing a wealth of complementary information, tips and expert guidance, Ali’s determination and innovation has seen her become one of the top suppliers in the UK, despite the less than favourable economic conditions.

Ali founded the business just after completing her degree at Bournemouth University in 2004.  Finding that she couldn’t get all the supplies she needed to complete a beauty course, she turned a gap in the market into a new business opportunity by catering to the increasingly fashionable trend of nail art. Starting with the remaining £800 of her student loan, Ali purchased a selection of nail art gems and a web design package before teaching herself – with no previous experience – to build an e-commerce website.

Sparkly Nails is now a regular feature in many of the national fashion magazines such as Vogue, Company, Now, Shout, Mizz, Chat and Grazia, as well as having been featured in The Times and on ITV’s This Morning.  The company also landed a high profile opportunity to exhibit at Channel Four’s T4 Stars of 2011 event – with the only other two brands invited being major stockists in Boots and Superdrug.

Over 10,500 clients are now on the Sparkly Nails database, with Ali having built the company up from 25 orders a month in 2004 to over 300 orders a month today – with a 13% increase in sales in the last year alone.

Well done Ali!

Find out more about BA (Hons) Business Studies.

Members of Dynamic (centre) receive the LV= BU Project Challenge award from Ken Taylor (second from right) and Jean Morgan (right), both from LV=

BU hosted the finals of the 2011-12 LV= BU Project Challenge on Friday 3 February. Year 2 BA (Hons) Business Studies (BABS) students who are studying project management completed 12 projects in teams to compete for the title. Ken Taylor, Group Change Delivery Director from the Bournemouth-based insurance and savings company Liverpool Victoria LV= was on the panel of judges.

Before announcing the winners, Mr Taylor told all the teams that he was very impressed by the high standards of presentation, and in particular praised the ambition of some of the projects. Paraphrasing a quote from Winston Churchill, he said that project managers who “fail to plan, are planning to fail” and that BABS students were learning the tools and techniques that would help them with their careers.

The panel of judges also included Jean Morgan of LV= along with a member of the winning team from last year; Ryan Walker, who is currently on placement at LV=;  Marc Vernaeve, Global Environmental Management Champion with WDS, and Gwyn Jones, Director of the Association of Sustainability Practitioners. Teams were assessed on their project outcomes and their ability to manage the project.  

The winning team was ‘Dynamic’ with a consultancy project around information and communication requirements to improve performance of the Dorset runaways service ReRun. Team members were: Fay Potter, Benjamin Boxall, Christina Ebdon and Amy-Anne O-Neill.

Second place went to team ‘ProVision’ for their project to raise awareness and increase participation in the local BT employee volunteering scheme.  Team members were: Megan Ryder, Chloe Saunders, Kenneth Stene and Danielle Stillwell.

Team ‘Pentad’ were awarded third place for their project to develop the concept of a ’Zero Waste Zone’ on campus for Costa Coffee.  Team members were: Andy Kimber, Joanna Janko, James Hickmott, Jennifer Lamond, Melissa Clarke.

For more details, please read the full story on the Business School news pages >>

Congratulations to the winners and well done to everyone that took part!

What’s more,  one of the teams to make it through to the next stage is the team of first-year BA (Hons) Accounting, Finance and Economics students, which is being sponsored by JPMorgan.

The members of the three teams through are:

1. BA (Hons) Accounting, Finance and Economics first-year students - Daniel Wade (C), Alice Atkey,  Jack Kowalik, Kishan Thakarshi and Amy Veryard
2. BA (Hons) Accounting, Finance and Economics second-year students – Rion Best (C), Simone Buller, Ryan Gale, Michael Gilbert and Cara McFarlane
3. BA (Hons) Business Studies and BA (Hons) Finance & Business final-year students – Nicholas Illes (C), Damien Ashmore, Stephen Doo, Ryan Pestana and Anna Stringer

Participation in the UBC is open to all undergraduate university students in the UK. The UBC puts students on the road to success by developing and enhancing employability & enterprise skills.

BU’s Mark Ridolfo, the Business School Coordinator for the IBM UBC, commented: “The UBC gives students a fantastic opportunity to pit themselves against the best students from around the country, showcase their talents to prospective employers and to put into practice what they have learned on their courses. We regard this as an important competition and are proud to be associated with it.”

We wish all teams well in the Semi-Finals and we will keep the Blog updated.

Further information on the IBM UBC…

The APM theme this year is ‘My City’ and the Challenge was launched at a Sustainable Business networking event held at BU in October.

Twelve teams of BA (Hons) Business Studies with Project Management students presented their project proposals to a panel comprising Dan Jane of the APM, Jean Morgan from LV= and Marc Vernaeve of WDS, who shortlisted five teams to go to the semi-finals.

At the semi-finals, the APM judges selected three of the BU teams to compete in the finals. These three teams will each have a budget of up to £500 to help with their project and will be allocated a professional mentor.

The semi-finalists are ProVision, Ambition and Logic.

The finals will take place in February and we’re hoping to build on our success at the 2010-11 finals. Good luck to the three teams competing.

Read more about the 2010-11 APM University Challenge…

The students took turns on two stationary bikes, provided by Pure Gym, between 9am and 8pm, with Adam Buttigeig cycling the furthest, clocking up 55 miles over two hours and 12 minutes.

The Westbourne based Youth Cancer Trust provides residential breaks for 14-30 year olds with cancer or any malignant diseases.

The charity’s Fundraising Chief said: “As ambassadors for Bournemouth University they were absolutely fantastic. They were polite, well organised, focused, and energetic – if you were a university professor you would choose them”

Some of the students have already signed up to participate in a parachute jump for the Youth Cancer Trust in May 2012.

The award was given for Mark’s unstinting support of students and colleagues during his leadership of the BA (Hons) Business Studies course and his outstanding teaching in cross-cultural capability, communication and management.

The award is for staff who have made an exceptional contribution, over and above the minimum expected, to ensure that they provide the best possible service to students or staff.  The award recognises staff who:

• continuously seek new and better ways of providing service that makes students’ or colleagues’ experiences more positive;
• use their own initiative to solve problems;
• demonstrate enthusiasm for ‘getting on with the job’.

This is acknowledgement and recognition of the highest order for the outstanding and sustained personal commitment that Mark has made over a long career at BU. 

It also demonstrates the commitment of BU staff to providing exceptional service excellence and student experience, as well as ensuring that our students benefit from relevant, professional expertise during their studies.

Congratulations Mark!