The judging panel from left to right: Alan Kirkpatrick, Alison McFadyen, Ewan King, Mark Ridolfo

Second year BA (Hons) Business Studies students were challenged to pitch a Business Simulation proposal in just under 7 minutes on April 30 to high ranking professionals from IBM, Best Training, Hays, Learning Dynamics and Content is King.

Over 300 Students had to work in groups to create a business based around a simulated learning experience through a professional real life project, pitching ideas from marketing a tablet computer in Singapore to creating a successful app for a failing games design company.

Students had to pitch realistic costs to the panel, how many minimum students were needed to run the simulation exercise and break even, how the would brand and market the product made in the simulation and what potential sponsors they could identify.

Joanna Janko a second year Business Studies student who presented her teams pitch to the panel said,

“I think it went a lot better than I expected, although I was really nervous, but the feedback I got was really positive so I was really proud of what we achieved.

In relation to first year we did a management unit, which was great to work in a team and bring those skills forward, to get used to a group and on the theory basis once you apply it practically you understand it a lot more.”

Students pitching to the panel

One of the professionals on the panel, Ewan King Managing Partner of Content is King said he was very impressed with the quality of pitches he saw,

“Overall I think the quality of the work has been generally very good, at times highly professional, there are some people I have seen present today that I would take into a  presentation with me for my company and that’s at a very senior professional level. I think that reflects highly on the way the subject is taught here, and I think students have a lot to take away from that.”

Senior Lecturer at the Business School Mark Ridolfo out lined the purpose of the exercise,

“In 6 mins 40 seconds they are telling us what their idea is, how will they will work with us what sort of activities students will do, idea is that exercise should bring together learning and bring it all together in an integrated way and addressing the needs of employers and recruiters in terms of soft skills areas and transferable skills.

The winners will be announced on Thursday May 3, where the best 3 groups will be selected to present their pitch again in front of the Director of Learning Dynamics, who run the simulated business experiences for real on behalf of IBM, the national IBM university business challenge.

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…

This year’s students have a tough act to follow, as one of our Business School teams won last year’s competition!

The IBM UBC is the UK’s premier national business simulation, which this year will see more than 300 teams from over 80 universities compete. In the past, Bournemouth University’s Business School teams have performed with distinction, with three teams having reached the Grand Final.

In the first round, students will compete online, aiming to win a place in one of the Regional Semi-Finals. After that, the winner of each Semi-Final competes in the Grand Final, hosted by IBM.

We are particularly pleased to announce that our two first-year teams have been sponsored by JPMorgan, whose support is greatly appreciated.

We wish all our teams every success!

 Further information on the IBM UBC…