A group of MBA students at the University of Bath have supported local charity Julian House with consultancy services, inspired by a gift of socks.
James Ovia, Rachel Avent, Matt Rusling, Madhumitha Anand and Robby Fadila | Photo © University of Bath
Students joining the MBA (Master of Business Administration) degree receive a welcome pack from the university, which includes MBA-branded socks supplied by ethical socks company Stand4socks, which donates one pair of socks to a chosen charity for every pair bought by customers.
Paula Hawkins, MBA Marketing and Communications Manager at the University’s School of Management, said: “Of all the items in the welcome pack, the socks really fire up the students’ enthusiasm! This year we nominated Julian House to receive 300 pairs of socks.
“Then, we thought, let’s take this further and asked Julian House to be part of our ‘Big Team Challenge’, where our MBA students – who already have extensive business and professional backgrounds, careers and experience – use their skills to help the charity solve their business challenges.”
On Friday 30th September, around 50 new MBA students took part in the ‘Big Team Challenge’, an exercise that introduces them to the importance of working effectively as a group and gets them working on a client-based project, both of which will feature regularly over the course of the year’s MBA.
Julian House staff opened the session, presenting the students with a short ‘sprint challenge’ – a real business issue that the charity is facing and which provides the students with the opportunity to act as consultants and provide real-world recommendations that will be of value to the organisation.
Rachel Avent, Senior Community and Events Fundraiser at Julian House, said: “After partnering with the School of Management earlier in the year, with the Stand4Socks donation scheme, we were excited to be invited to take part in the MBA Big Team Challenge as their first ever charity to set a challenge for the students to tackle.
“To see them work effectively as a group as fundraising consultants was fantastic and the quality of work they produced and then presented was impressive.
“They sparked some original ideas, which we at Julian House will look to explore further.”
