A project undertaken by MBA students as part of their degree has been commended by the company for which the students undertook their research - Polaroid Eyewear - and has assured that this company will be returning to work with MBA students in the future.
Polaroid first got involved with SBS when they contacted Irene Aitkenhead Taylor, Career and Corporate Development Manager, at the end of 2009 and they were invited to present during the SBS postgraduate careers fair in February.
Approximately 60 students attended the presentation and were then given the opportunity to ask questions of the Polaroid representatives.
Rebecca Harwood Lincoln, sales manager for Polaroid Eyewear, said, "Due to the popularity of the project, students were given a month to write a proposal, from which we chose a final group to work with." The project team - Chandra Shekhar and Mohammad Obaida - produced a proposal which Rebecca says was 'simple, clear and concise and suggested a methodology that we felt would work."
The students, plus their academic supervisor Dr Michael Marck, visited the Polaroid factory in Dumbarton to learn about how the company make their sunglasses, and attend a further meeting to discuss the brief - how to increase the brand awareness of Polaroid sunglasses in the UK - in Mohammad Obaidamore detail. The students then presented their results to the company in September.
"The students exceeded our expectations. They showed that they had clearly understood the brief and gave recommendations that were achievable and easily implemented," said Rebecca. "We are already planning to implement a number of their suggestions for the 2011 season and have promised to feed back the details to the students as soon as some of the projects go live.
"We really valued having an objective point of view and it was very rewarding to see how much the students became involved with the products and the brand."
The students' successful work means future students will benefit too from Polaroid Eyewear projects. Rebecca confirmed, "We are keen to continue working with SBS in the years to come. This has been a very worthwhile experience and it's great to be able to support a local university."
Chandra said, "The project has given us the opportunity to implement the theory and knowledge learnt from the MBA programme in a practical business situation. It was a challenge to develop recommendations which were practical, easily implementable and sustainable for the next 2-3 years. I strongly believe that a business project like this bridges the gap between the business and academic worlds. It equips the budding manager - like us - with the necessary skills and knowledge required in the business world."
Dr Marck said, "It was very encouraging to see Chandra and Obaida apply their academic learning, research skills and prior work experience to the Chandra ShekharPolaroid project. The learning for the students, our partner Polaroid and me was very rewarding."
