News

Durham team rises to business skills challenge

(21 March 2005)

A team of five budding student entrepreneurs have flown the flag high for the University of Durham in a national competition to test their developing business skills.

The team, comprising four students from the College of St. Hild and St. Bede and one from Collingwood College, came fifth out of 130 entries from universities across Britain taking part in the IBM Universities’ Business Challenge.

The students earned high praise from Hild and Bede Principal, Dr. Alan Pearson, who said: “The team did very well to reach the national finals of this prestigious and demanding challenge. They were excellent ambassadors for Durham and their colleges.”

Team Leader Felicity Copeland (21) from Redhill, a second year student of Natural Sciences (economics, geography and business), said that the IBM Universities’ Challenge was a tremendous learning experience for everyone who took part.

She said: “It helped us to improve our decision-making skills, our team working abilities and increased our knowledge of key business areas such as marketing, finance and production. It also provided an opportunity to talk to the sponsors about internships, the feedback was invaluable.”

Team member Jonny Briscoe (21) from Birmingham is on the same course as Felicity, Mark Hemmings (19) from Ormskirk is studying Economics as is Chris Walton (20), Deputy Team leader, from Sunderland. Fifth team member Rachel Colman (19) from Sutton Coldfield is studying Geography.

The quest for national fame started back in October 2004 when more than 130 teams entered the IBM Universities’ Challenge developed and run by Learning Dynamics, the UK's foremost business simulations company.

IBM is the lead sponsor of the Challenge, which is also supported by Diageo, Lloyds TSB, The Royal Navy, BAE Systems, Chubb Insurance Europe and Procter & Gamble. The Challenge was to run and make profit from hypothetical business simulations.

In the first round the team had to run an already established drinks company, acting as business consultants on the launch of its new alcopop product line. Making decisions on price and productivity, marketing, product development they sought to achieve the highest profit possible, while keeping a high level of customer satisfaction.

They came second in their group and progressed to the semi-finals where they had to run a completely different business from scratch. Much to the team’s delight, it was a wine bar located in a university city. The team made a group presentation to competitor universities, to the organisers and sponsor.

With only the winning team going through to the national final the Durham team came out tops with a profit of around £3500, in the first five months of opening, something all the other teams failed to do.

Durham joined York, Sheffield Hallam, City University, Imperial College, Regents Business School, and Swansea in the grand final at IBM London, Southbank.

The team played business consultants for a software company, consulting on one of their current PC game releases, with the aim to increase the share price and profitability, while retaining customer satisfaction.

In between the periods of decision-making, the students heard talks by members of IBM and Learning Dynamics, and again engaged in team activities with the other universities.

ends

Photograph available. Media enquiries to: Tom Fennelly, Public Relations Office, University of Durham
Tel 0191 334 6078, e-mail t.p.fennelly@ durham.ac.uk