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Student consultancy project leads to innovation for East Midlands start-up

An East Midlands start-up is planning to modernise its products and revamp its website following a successful consultancy project with students from Nottingham Business School (NBS), part of Nottingham Trent University.

NBS students stood in front of a screen with representative from the company
The team of NBS students with Greg Spencer, founder of East Midlands Roller Doors (third from left)

East Midlands Roller Doors was established in 2021 and supplies residential electric garage doors across the region. Following a successful first year of trading, the company is looking to expand into the commercial market with a view to recruiting more local talent to the organisation.

Six students from MSc Management and International Business and MSc Global Supply Chain Management courses carried out a competitor and SWOT analysis and explored the potential size of the market and the scope for the company to enter into it. They also considered steps that East Midlands Roller Doors could take to develop the commercial side of their business.

Their recommendations covered customer finance options, product diversification and the business rationale for developing a strong brand identity.

Greg Spencer, founder and manager of East Midlands Roller Doors, said: “As a new start-up we were looking for fresh ideas on how we could grow our business. We set the students the task of looking at how big the potential market is for roller doors in the East Midlands area. We also asked them to find out what could set us apart from other garage door companies working in the region.

“Throughout the project they were passionate, motivated and it was a pleasure working with them. After several weeks of research, the students presented their feedback to us.

“We will certainly be using some of the recommendations. We are looking at new, innovative features that will modernise our products. We’re also incorporating some of the student ideas into our new website build. We now have some exciting things we're working on that will be released in the coming months.”

Prajwal Hulikere Mohan Kumar, MSc Management and International Business student, said: “This professional consulting project was a highly motivating experience for a Masters’ student like me to step into the professional world. This project gave us the real time experience to understand the requirement of a real business and analyse their challenges.

“We had an initial meeting with our client to understand their aim and what they wanted to achieve in the next few years. After analysing their requirements, we presented frameworks and recommendations for the best strategy to enter the commercial market.

“As a team we were happy that we could achieve our task with hard work and meet the client’s expectation. This consulting project helped me learn how to handle a client and understand their requirements in real time business.”

The project is one of 45 NBS student projects which took place over the autumn. The teams are supported by an academic supervisor who guides them through the process.

During 2021/22 NBS arranged 157 business projects for more than 700 post graduate students - 92% of organisations surveyed said they’d recommend these projects to others.

Greg Spencer added: “It has been a very good learning experience for us and given us ideas to take into the new year that will help us achieve our goals. I highly recommend companies working with NBS on these projects as the fresh ideas can be eye opening and it's all useful information for potential growth.”

NBS is looking for businesses to host new projects from May 2023, if you are interested in taking part, please contact nbsstudentprojects@ntu.ac.uk

  • Notes for editors

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    About Nottingham Business School at Nottingham Trent University

    Nottingham Business School (NBS) at Nottingham Trent University (NTU) is a leader in experiential learning and personalisation of business, management and economics education and research, combining academic excellence with positive impact on people, business and society.  NBS has an unrivalled level of engagement with business, public and voluntary organisations. With more than 8,000 students, NBS is also one of UK’s largest business schools.

    NBS is Quadruple+ Accredited by EQUIS, AACSB, EFMD BA for International Business, which are globally recognised hallmarks of excellence and quality for business education. NBS is also accredited by Small Business Charter, providing support and development for SMEs. The school is also a PRME Champion and held up as an exemplar and beacon by the United Nations Principles of Responsible Management Education (PRME).

    About Nottingham Trent University

    Nottingham Trent University (NTU) received the Queens Anniversary Prize for Higher and Further Education in 2021 for cultural heritage science research. It is the second time that NTU has been bestowed the honour of receiving a Queen’s Anniversary Prize for its research, the first being in 2015 for leading-edge research on the safety and security of global citizens.

    The Research Excellence Framework (2021) classed 83% of NTU’s research activity as either world-leading or internationally excellent. 86% of NTU’s research impact was assessed to be either world-leading or internationally excellent.

    NTU was ranked second best university in the UK in the Uni Compare Top 100 rankings (2021/2022). It was awarded Outstanding Support for Students 2020 (Times Higher Education Awards), University of the Year 2019 (Guardian University Awards, UK Social Mobility Awards), Modern University of the Year 2018 (Times and Sunday Times Good University Guide) and University of the Year 2017 (Times Higher Education Awards).

    NTU is the 5th largest UK institution by student numbers, with nearly 39,000 students and more than 4,400 staff located across five campuses. It has an international student population of 7,000 and an NTU community representing over 160 countries.

    Since 2000, NTU has invested £570 million in tools, technology, buildings and facilities.

    NTU is in the UK’s top 10 for number of applications and ranked first for accepted offers (2021 UCAS UG acceptance data) It is also among the UK’s top five recruiters of students from disadvantaged backgrounds and was the first UK university to sign the Social Mobility Pledge.

    75% of NTU students go on to graduate-level employment or graduate-entry education / training within fifteen months of graduating (Guardian University Guide 2021).

    NTU is ranked the second most sustainable university in the world in the 2022 UI Green Metric University World Rankings (out of more than 900 participating universities).

Published on 24 January 2023
  • Category: Current students; Press office; Nottingham Business School