The Babcock MBA Cohort 1 and Weir MBA Cohort 1 groups completed their final class Strategic Consulting in Practice (SCiP) at the Centre for Corporate Connections at Strathclyde Business School in January 2016.
SCIP is a distinctive learning experience; the group is separated into four consulting teams working completely independently on a highly uncertain and ambiguous strategic issue with the same live client over a 4 day period. These issues are exacerbated by limited information, an unfamiliar business context and a highly compressed time period.
The Babcock teams worked with CHAS, a charity that provides the only hospice services in Scotland for children and young people who have life-shortening conditions for which there is no known cure. CHAS runs two children’s hospices, and a home care service called CHAS at Home. CHAS supports over 380 families across Scotland.
Following publication of the “Regulating Fundraising for the Future: Trust in charities, confidence in fundraising regulation” report chaired by Sir Stuart Etherington in September 2015, growing fundraising aspirations and ambitious objectives continue to be features for the future of charities like CHAS. The need to balance ambitions and ethical practice appropriately in order to maximise opportunities in the short and longer term require strategic decisions associated with fundraising and broader activities focused on creating optimal value to channel into delivering CHAS objectives.
The Babcock consulting groups were requested to analyse current practices within CHAS and across the charities sector to propose strategic options that are aligned to CHAS aspirations and culture.
On the final day, the teams presented their findings and recommendations to Sarah Secombes, Head of Community Fundraising and Stephanie Bungay, Public Relations Manager at CHAS. Stephanie commented, “It was a really interesting process – so many different takes and styles, and we were absolutely overwhelmed by the care and compassion for CHAS. There are so many ideas presented that we can use or adapt and we’d like to thank everyone for their time and energy.”
Meanwhile, the Weir Group teams worked with Edinburgh Airport Limited (EAL). Edinburgh Airport is Scotland's busiest airport. More than 40 airlines serve over 100 destinations and 10 million passengers travelled through the airport in 2014. A Masterplan has been produced in support of the continued development of Edinburgh Airport, and this will lead to a future requirement to purchase land outside the current airport boundary. The Weir Group team explored a range of strategic options for the development of airport access; considering infrastructure funding/contribution models and engaging and managing the requirements of a diverse range of stakeholders to support the continued expansion of the airport.
On the final day, the teams presented their findings and recommendations to Gordon Dewar, Chief Executive of Edinburgh Airport and Jim McHarg, Group Head of Learning at Weir.
A spokesperson for the Weir Group said, “This was an interesting and challenging problem and very different from their normal business experience. There was agreement that it tested and challenged them and encouraged different thinking and exploration of wider perspectives.”
All the Babcock and Weir MBA participants are now working on their Masters Dissertation which is due for submission by September 1 and plan to graduate at the November 2016 Awards Ceremony.