Bath MBA Students Compete for Top Business Idea
The annual MBA Entrepreneurship in Action Competition took place on Friday 24th May. Six teams from the full-time and executive Bath MBA presented their business ideas to a panel of judges, all hoping to win the £3,000 first prize and £1,000 second prize, which were generously donated by Santander.
The judges were highly impressed by all of this year’s ideas. First prize was awarded to ‘Beautiful Garden’, presented by full-time MBAs Carmen Costea, Rob Dancer, Zheng Ge, Suzy McKeever, Chris Sullivan, and Viola Wang. Second prize went to ‘Long Live Pets’, presented by executive MBAs Kelly Matthews, Sarah Page-Jones and Mark Taylor.
Each team had 15 minutes in which to present their business idea to the judging panel, this was followed by a 45 minute question and answer session. The judges were Simon Bond (Director of the Innovation Centre, Bath and module leader for "Entrepreneurship in Action"), Margaret Heffernan (Bath Entrepreneur in Residence and guest speaker on the module) and Andrew Harwood (Partner, Jenson Solutions). Prizes were presented by Sarah Williams (Santander Corporate Banking). As well as the judging panel, the audience included members of the School, MBA administration staff and current Bath MBA students.
The first and second place teams were announced at an evening award ceremony, which included a buffet and drinks reception as well as the presentation of the prizes.
Margaret Heffernan commented:
‘Every year, these business plans get more creative, more pragmatic and more inspiring. Many of this year's offerings were, for all intents and purposes, ready to get started. What was particularly striking was the high level of teamwork among very multi-cultural teams.’
Winning team member Suzy McKeever said:
‘The Entrepreneurship in Action competition was the highlight of the MBA for me. Writing the business plan for the competition brought together all elements of the MBA in a very practical way, and the module was superbly tutored and planned. The competition itself really got our adrenaline going and it was fascinating on the day to see everyone's work and extremely valuable to hear what the 'investors' were looking for and interested in. As much as we were proud to win, it was just a great experience of building a mini-business; the teamwork, attitudes, ideas balanced with pragmatism. Very hard work, but thoroughly enjoyable. If you like business - this is what it’s all about.’
Notes for editors
The MBA Entrepreneurship in Action Competition follows on from the Entrepreneurship in Action MBA module.
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Liz Alvey, Marketing Officer
School of Management
University of Bath
Claverton Down
Bath BA2 7AY
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Tel:+ 44 (0) 1225 386856
Email: pr@management.bath.ac.uk
General Notes For Editors:
The University of Bath School of Management has consistently achieved both top research and teaching ratings in the UK's Higher Education Funding Council for England (HEFCE) assessments. In the 2008 Research Assessment Exercise (RAE), the School was rated 5th in the UK for management research.
We are one of a select number of international business schools accredited by EQUIS, the European Foundation for Management Development's quality inspectorate and the Bath MBA has been accredited by the Association of MBAs (AMBA) since 1976. The School is consistently ranked among the top UK business schools by The Times, The Sunday Times, The Financial Times and The Guardian.
The centrality of research to teaching is an essential feature of all our programmes. The School offers a full range of programmes from undergraduate to postgraduate up to PhD level and post-experience programmes including the world-ranked Bath MBA. The School also provides tailored executive development programmes for middle and senior management.
The School of Management has a faculty of around 90 teaching and research staff, including visiting academics, with a support team of around 70 managerial and administrative staff. Research income averages £2 million per annum. There are approximately 2,100 students in total comprising some 200 MBA students, 460 Master’s students, 210 full- and part-time research students, and over 1100 undergraduates following BSc degrees. The School also runs joint undergraduate programmes with Departments in the Faculties of Engineering and Design, Science and Humanities and Social Sciences.
