Entrepreneurs-in-Residence at Lancaster University Management School
Our Entrepreneurs-in-Residence (EiR) community helps students and faculty to learn from SMEs – about how to develop ideas and deal with challenges, about the impact of change and the skills needed to succeed in today’s marketplace. Dating back to 2008 and our notion of bringing in a ‘cultural irritant’ to challenge our own programmes, this evolving initiative now comprises a network of 55 EiRs, each spending 2-3 days on campus a year, mentoring students in numerous ways. We have asked three of these EiRs, all Managing Directors and founders of businesses in the region, about their recent experiences:-
Several days in the life of a new EiR
Janie Ash
Janie is a brand strategist and has a diverse history of entrepreneurial endeavours. She started Better with Jam to create a different kind of marketing agency, built around collaboration, the active pursuit of happiness and great ideas.
Her 20-year relationship with LUMS has spanned a Masters in Marketing, leadership and business programmes, working with students on various projects and acting as a supplier. Late in 2017, she became an EiR. Her first assignment was to give a talk to students in which she discussed making business ideas a reality.
“Young people need help to bridge that transition from leaving university to starting careers in the real world,” she says. “And there’s a lot, as entrepreneurs, as businesses, that we can do to give them a practical grounding and help them find their way.”
Janie’s three days on campus were a “full on” introduction to the role. She began by running a Masterclass on crowdfunding, followed by a drop-in slot advising a mix of undergraduates and postgraduates on everything from setting up a business importing saffron to getting into the film business and how to get work experience in America.
By the second day, she was acting as a panel member judging and feeding back on students’ projects. By the third day she was assessing business plan presentations by MBA students. “I really enjoyed the opportunity to give a fresh perspective,” she says. “Even though it was really intensive, I felt I’d been exposed to a different stimulus and was energised by it.”
Going beyond the brief
Brian Gregory
Brian is the pioneering force behind Safety Management (UK), the UK’s largest independent provider of fire risk assessments. An EiR since 2013, he admits he finds it hard to say no to giving extra help, particularly when students make the effort to follow up: “I get excited by exciting young people with good ideas.”
In addition to tutoring, his EiR work includes supporting undergraduates with their dissertations – by questionnaire, Skype or face-to-face – and with the business plans that form part of their courses. A recent example, based on smart technology, had inspired the students to go beyond the programme requirement and develop it as a business idea. Brian helped them take it to prototype.
Similarly, he found himself mentoring resourceful and imaginative postgraduates who were developing an entrepreneurial global importing/exporting idea outside their New Venture Challenge.
Having built up an extensive network over the years, Brian is also happy to use this to help students – as when he brought a student studying safety and security in sporting venues together with a London-based security expert. He sees it as a two-way street that can ultimately deliver commercial benefit to his own clients as well.
“Being there at the start of the journey is exciting for me as a mentor,” he says. “It’s very rewarding watching young people flourish into their full potential.”
Looking forward to new possibilities
Andrew Moses
During an 11-year relationship with LUMS, Andrew’s business has grown eightfold. SAP logistics experts The Config Team now implement software all over the world. Interestingly, even their method for producing demos of warehouse solutions grew out of a project that brought EiRs and MBA students together with our partners Saatchi & Saatchi. “We create a tabletop immersive experience,” he says. “And that’s come from working with the School and its students to look at things in a non-traditional way.”
Clearly an ‘immersive experience’ is how Andrew sees the EiR scheme. He describes spending a whole afternoon recently, assessing business pitches from 2nd year undergraduates. “I try to give them improvement ideas in a constructive way. It’s really uplifting to see young talent – and it encourages me to bring it into our company.”
He gives the example of two students who joined him on placements. “Being a relatively small business, we let them get stuck in, across the business. They got a lot out of it, and we’re still using some of the things that they came up with. Another time, we were considering launching a product and got a group of students in to look at the benefits and challenges. That was really valuable on both sides.”
As we speak, Andrew is looking forward to being on campus next week. In fact, he envisages a future with EiRs providing a more regular presence, in a designated space where students can just drop in for a chat. “Yes, it can be a big time commitment for entrepreneurs, but we wouldn’t keep coming back if we didn’t find it really fulfilling!”
For further details please visit: http://www.lancaster.ac.uk/lums/business/community/entrepreneurs-in-residence/