A Strathclyde Business School student was chosen to take part in an international summer school programme for entrepreneurship in Norway earlier this month - with her business idea eventually being chosen as best project by the judging panel of investors.
Reem Al Wali, who was studying a BA in Business Enterprise at the Hunter Centre for Entrepreneurship when she applied – she has since graduated – was alerted to the summer school programme by staff in the Hunter Centre and was delighted to be successful in gaining a place. The programme is run by the 'Si tous les ports du monde' network which includes port cities all over the world. Each year the summer school takes place in one of these port cities with Trondheim the destination this year, in collaboration with BI Business School and NTNU University, and a theme of "develop your business idea".
Glasgow City Council sponsored Reem's trip financially and Reem was one of 12 students from Scotland, Ireland, Denmark, Spain and France who attended.
She explained, "The goal of the programme was to help us to learn how to develop an idea and a business plan. There were 5 'working' days. Firstly, we all pitched our business idea to the class and lecturers. Then we all got a number of points to distribute amongst the ideas and the three with the most points were chosen to become projects."
Reem's idea - a tool to make life easier when you have to manage personal responsibilities when you are away from home – was chosen as one of the three projects from a potential 12, and the students were then grouped into teams for the three selected projects.
The days were divided into lectures in the morning with team work on the projects in the afternoon to implement what had been taught earlier and then present their progress each day to the lecturer and other teams. The students also had several guest speakers, including an entrepreneur, venture capitalist and financial advisor, come in to speak to them and on the final day the students pitched the developed ideas in a team to a panel of three investors.
"I didn't think I was going to learn a lot if I'm honest because I have studied business enterprise for four years and thought they couldn't possibly cram more than I had already been taught into just a few days. However, I found that even though a lot of what was said in the lectures was familiar and I would, for example, think to use a framework in my mind before it was mentioned in the lecture, it was good to get a concise overview of everything.
"I did learn an awful lot though from working with other students from different countries and different backgrounds in a team. It was challenging at times because of some language barriers, having only a limited time to work, and everyone approaching problems with completely different insights but we managed to make it all work in the end. It was because of the team that we managed to develop the idea much further and I was very surprised to see the difference between the concept on day 1 and day 5. Furthermore, at our daily 'end-of-day' presentations our lecturer would really push us to think about doing things in a different way to what we had considered ourselves, and also the other teams would challenge us or comment. As a result, you're constantly building upon your idea, feedback and comments and so within a few days the concept is a lot more concrete. I think the programme was useful for everyone involved as the process we followed can be applied to the other students' own ideas or any future business ideas."
Reem's business idea was 'just an idea' before the programme and, because complicated technology would be what makes the idea possible - something Reem admits she has no expertise in - she thought it would be a 'long shot' to set it up. However, she now says, "Having seen how to work on it in the programme, I feel that it is a realistic option now to pursue. The panel of judges unanimously chose our project - my idea - as the winner and also gave valuable feedback.
"It was a great programme where the organisers really took care of us in terms of showing us the city and the culture through many social activities such as dining out, seeing a nearby island, hiking, kayaking, visiting a food and beer festival, city tour, visiting a music museum and a new incubator. I found Trondheim to be a beautiful city with a lot of nature and history.
"Overall, I'm really pleased I participated in the programme as I learned how to go about developing an idea in a simple manner instead of overcomplicating it, and I have seen how valuable it is to get other people's insights and that that is the best way forward. I've learned many things about my own abilities and have come away with a great sense of achievement.”