Summary of the Unite with business project

Summary of the Unite with business project

Hello All,

Bellow is a summary of Unite project. When asked about the Unite project, Chris Procter said “the idea of the Unite project was conceived from 2009 and implemented by 2010 and has been in existence till date (for about 3 years now) with a success criteria geared towards maximizing the impact of business, especially small and medium enterprise (SMEs)” (Interview with Chris Procter, 2013). The Unite project was developed in order to bring economic regeneration to the part of Europe that needs economic regeneration. The Unite project comprises of six North West Universities working together in partnership towards achieving a specific target. The six Universities are; University of Central Lancashire (Lead University), University of Chester, University of Salford, University of Bolton, Lancaster University, University of Cumbria (Unite with business, 2010). The Unite project is funded by the European regional development body and the performance measures are set by this funding body.

The project provides practical work experiences to all students of about 150 hours and the student are paid a national minimum wage of £960 (Unite with business, 2010). The Unite Project permits students to work mainly in sectors like; digital sectors, manufacturing sectors, professional organisations and business to business activities. Sectors like public sectors, traditional shops, retail outlet, and government sectors are not valid sectors to gain work experience through this scheme.

Chris equally said that “Pamela Mullin is the Unite project officer/manager, she is responsible for monitoring the project and promoting the project to students like us, she is rather seen to be more autonomous in the project while I am only directing the project” (Interview with Chris Procter, 2013).

Unite Project Experience, Business Models and application to SME

Small and medium enterprise can be defined “as those companies whose personal number falls below certain limit” (Wikipedia, Small and meduim enterprises, 2008)  SME involves human and material resources operating together to achieve a common goal (that is collaboration). According to (Frost & Sullivan, 2006) there exists a general belief that the more a business firm is “collaborative” the more successful it will be.

Collaboration creates room for excellent innovative contribution and ideas. SME do not function alone. My team working skill was built upon when working with my team members from difference race, culture and groups. Completing of the team tasks was made easier with little or no mistakes through every team member collaborating with one another. I feel great managing and working with human and material resources which are a major part of SME business development. In the same way, the case study – Unite project involves six Universities working in collaboration, the all share information together and work towards a certain target and goal (that is maximize the impact of SME in the North West of England). Hence, from my research and during the course of this project with my team members’ collaboration can improve the performance of SME and remains a vital tool for business development.

Besides, SME need communication in other to grow from the top management level to the downstream level.  From the Unite project research it is evident that the linking of the student to the employers and vice versa can only be successful with an efficient communication channel. I have excellent communication skill through the communications with my team members.  A group WhatsApp, Twitter, Viber, texting and emailing were the communication channels utilized. Therefore, SME need excellent communication channels for networking and development of their business.

My Role in the Unite with business project

While working in the project, I contributed directly to the research of Chris Procter, by keeping a close contact with the lecturer, through having a drop in with him before the interview date to discuss the purpose of the interview, relationship of the interview to my course module and the likelihood of the interview. I as well emailed the interview questions to him before hand to enable him have an overview of the expected interview questions.  I was also responsible for the media asset management which was to address the audio, video and the other media content. I equally worked together with the post production colleague to ensure excellent video delivery. In addition, I assisted in uploading the interview video on our group case study blog and posted some content to the groups’ case study blog.

Personal Experience During the Unite project

Hello AIl,

I am excited, happy and proud to say that I was able to gather a handful of numerous experiences during the course of the project.

Firstly, I learnt the importance of motivating all group members and encouraging them to contribute their ideas and experiences.

Secondly, I built upon my expert level of self-confidence while learning how to couple and operate a complex digital camera for the first time in my life.

Thirdly, my flexibility and adaptability skills were improved as I was versatile to learn what I was taught when working on Media Asset Management server and Adobe Premier during the post-production process.

Fourthly, I effectively utilised my time management skills when ensuring that all incoming mails from the case study lecturer (Chris Procter) was promptly replied and circulated to my team members on time since I was the main contact with the lecturer.

Ultimately, my team members were all ’excellent team player’ as everyone contribute, shared ideas, delivered their roles and responsibilities on time with little or no motivations, punctuality to group meetings, less argument rather demonstrating spirit of unity, appreciating one another’s effort and were all working towards a common goal “being the best/excellent group”. The means of communication channels which we created like the group WhatsApp, Twitter, Viber, texting and emailing was greatly utilized. Indeed, group one was the best team to belong to and I wish to work with such colleague’s when next I have a group assignment.

Business Models and the relationship with Unite business model

According to (Doganova & Eyquem-Renault, 2009) a business model can be defined as a “market device”. (Morris & Schindehutte, 2005) argues that a business model is a bunch of resources and ability (that is the resource based-view) a key example demonstrating a business model using the resource based-view can chiefly be illustrated in (Hedman & Kalling, 2003) where IKEA’S business model is uncovered through resources such as sourcing network, design skills, cultural factor and supplier relations alternatively (Chesbrough & Rosenbloom, 2002) said that the business model is mainly seen from the transactional cost economics perspective (TCE).  (Mclvor, 2009), emphasizes on the need to merge the TCE and RBV. In the same way (DaSilva & TrKman, 2013) supports these finding which (Morris & Schindehutte, 2005) affirms that TCE specifies transaction efficiency as a source of value and the integration of resources to generate a sole value.

Similarly, (Boons & Ludeke-Freund, 2013) recently researched on 115 articles, some research papers and a handful of books whose results shows that business model is an emerging concept. Also (Osterwalder, 2004) and (Doganova & Eyquem-Renault, 2009) distinctively enumerate four elements of a generic business model concept namely;

a)      Value preposition: This is the value implanted in the product/services offered by the firm

b)      Supply chain: This deals with the way upstream affinity with the suppliers are regulated and constructed

c)      Customer service: This deals with how downstream affinity with customers are regulated

d)     Financial model: This deals with cost and benefit from a), b) and c) and the distribution among business stakeholders’.

From the above context a business model can be seen as a plan which is used to spot how any venture can become profitable.

Unite With Business Top Water Lures

Hello All,
Here is a video link (YouTubeLink, 2011) displaying how SME improve their performance through Unite project using “Top Water Lures” and to strike a balance the student or graduate can be outstanding in a small and medium enterprise through joining the Unite project.
Reference:
YouTubeLink. (2011, November). Top Water Lures and University of salford. Retrieved October 2, 2013, from http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=SuQo-VXlIFM

Mediation for the Small and Medium Sized Business (Webinar Feedback)

In this webinar , David Liddle, talks about how enterprise and regulatory reform bill was created to enhance business resolve dispute without the need of an employment tribunal. David Liddle, also highlight that the small and micro businesses will benefit in particular from the lower costs involved in settling disputes (Department of business, 2012).

According to Liddle, “mediation is a non adversarial process of dispute resolution of which an impartial third party assist the two or diverse parties to have an open honest dialogue to identify an outcome which is mutually acceptable”.

David Liddle, also enumerated four fair mediation model as follows;

1. The joint mediation meeting
2. Separate  confidential meeting(s) with the parties
3. preparation  and securing a commitment to mediate
4. Evaluation, reflection and follow up.

David Liddle, further itemizes some of the major causes of conflict in SME namely;

• Most managers have inadequate training in basic mediation skills or handling difficult situation
• Frequently dispute resolution are sometimes ignored and kept to the end of dispute rather than being trashed at the beginning of dispute
• Inadequate resources such as money and time
• Limited human resource function, e.t.c.

David Liddle, in-addition mentioned few benefits SME leaders obtain from mediation, such as

• Enhancing customers experience
• Fostering high performance culture
• Enhancing performance management

David Liddle, finally itemized six useful link for setting up an SME mediation scheme;

Web Based Business Intelligence (BI) Systems for Small and Medium Enterprises (SME) – (Summary of White Paper)

The white paper below summarises that all businesses are concerned with the expenses the business encounters on a day to day basis, cost is the major concern to the management team of both small and medium sized enterprises.  The white paper equally opines that every successful SME business must carefully manage the base line and is always conscious of the value inherent in a business investment.  Also both small and large businesses must utilize robust IT planning tools to enable accurate, effective business decisions. In all the IT tools are of different types such as Microsoft spreedsheet, MYSQL database, computers, telephones etc.

Reference:

ElegantJ, B. (2009). The Value Preposition Of Business Intelligence for Small and Medium Enterprise. Retrieved 24 September, 2013 from http://www.tutorialspoint.com/white-papers/370.pdf

Research About Chris Procter And His Publications on “Peer mentoring to secure student Placements” and “Employability and entrepreneurship embedded in professional placements in the business curriculum”

Christopher Procter is a Senior Lecturer at the University of Salford, Manchester and he teaches Project Management to the MSc and BSc students of this University’s Business School. He has been teaching primarily Project Management for about 22 years in the University of Salford; however, he is better known for his research in higher education and management of funded projects (Procter, 2012). He has also received a Vice Chancellor’s Distinguished Teaching Award in 2012 at the University of Salford.

His previous and current research as a PhD supervisor and project management researcher boarder around project management and work based learning with a background in blended and e-learning with several publications as found on (Chris Procter Academic Profile, Salford Business School, University of Salford, 2013). He is also involved in international recruitment and partnerships and an external examiner at University of Westminster. (Procter, Christopher Procter LinkedIn Profile, 2013)

As a Director of Employability for Salford Business School, he is responsible for student placements within the university and the European Regional Development fund (ERDF) funded UNITE project to support SMEs in the North West of England. He is the Director of ERDF funded UNITE SME assist project and has a long-standing involvement in work-based learning (WBL) to enhance student’s experience in relation to WBL (Procter, 2012, p. 131). He has managed about three European Social Fund projects worth approximately £500,000 to provide ‘Flexible IT’ to people from the North West (Procter, 2013).

In one of his publication titled “Peer mentoring to secure student placements”, Chris described a case study of student peer mentors employed to motivate and assist undergraduates to secure optional professional placement positions (Procter, 2012, p. 121). In this study, he established two separate practical implications of the project funded by Centre for Excellence in Professional Placement Learning (CEPPL). First, the mentoring scheme primarily for the mentors and second, a mentoring scheme value for the mentees to aid low take up of optional placement opportunities. In this work, he expanded the use of mentoring to facilitate work based learning showing much greater benefits achieved by the mentors than the mentees compared to previous published work where mentoring is located in the “best practice” school of pedagogical research valued to examine more unexpected results of an intervention (Procter, 2012, pp. 125-129).

EON Virtual Reality

EON Reality is the world’s leading interactive 3D solution provider for business and education based on Virtual Reality technology.
The picture above shows a cross section of talented student from University of Salford, University of Manchester and Manchester Metropolitan university with Mats W. Johansson, Chief Executive Officer, EON Reality, Inc  and some staff who took part in educating and illustrating to we the ambitous student during the awareness programme of May 24 2013. I learnt during the programme that EON reality uses Information systems and specialises on visualization solutions that improve communication and knowledge transfer – from simulation based learning and safety training to the creation of interactive 3D sales and marketing materials for the business world. This is indeed an exceptional technology and cannot be overemphasised because of it’s diverse, multi-purpose and significant usage.

Reference:

EON Virtual Reality. (2013). Technology awareness program-me. Retrieved 7 October, 2013 from http://www.eonreality.com/