One of the latest programmes to be added to Westminster Business School’s portfolio is the new Entrepreneurship BA (Hons) – a truly unique undergraduate experience for budding entrepreneurs. Run by Course Leader Dr Jane Chang, and Team Coaches Supin Hussain and Dr Ainurul Rosli, the philosophy of the program is based on entrepreneurial learning at the levels of the individual, the team, and the organization, with the main method of delivery being team learning. One of the key aims of the course is that each learner will develop their “Professional Practice in Entrepreneurship”, which they achieve through working together to develop a single Team Company. Within that company the participating students can do various things to generate income/profits and through the company, they will have one single vision and mission. Although assessments will be done at an individual level, no-one does anything alone when it comes to business challenges and developing their business; the students can only do well in the assessments if they learn to work as an individual within a team. For a flavour of what this course looks like in practice, I went along to the course’s opening week. What I discovered was that the new Entrepreneurship BA students were already hard at work – attending team-building activities at Google Campus London and pitching to clients through start-up accelerator, Mass Challenge…
Google Campus London
As mentioned above, the team’s first outing as a group was to none other than Google Campus London, located in the trendy area of Shoreditch. With the learning space booked out for an afternoon workshop, I was surprised to find upon my arrival, someone designated to meet and greet me. This was so professionally done that I assumed this person worked for Google…in fact this was none other than Stephanie Ginger, one of our new Entrepreneurship students. An excellent start. After talking to Team Coach Supin Hussain, it became apparent that this was all part of the programme – that the sessions, although facilitated by the Team Coaches, would be led by the students themselves as a means of encouraging them to develop their initiative, confidence and leadership skills.
The Google Campus workshop looked at Entrepreneurial Mindfulness, a key concept for our new team to explore and discover. One of the first activities of the day was called ‘The Innovation Colours’, a game provided by ‘The Innovation Consultancy’. This game is played by way of swapping cards – each card has a different personal characteristic and each player should find cards which represent themselves. The words on the cards then correlate to a different colour card and each colour is categorised. In the end, the players can see what sort of role would suit them. E.g. brown characteristics include managing, organizing and planning. The idea is to build your team with a combination of abilities and skills.
Following this the team were asked to design a one-minute presentation on ‘Opportunity Creation’. This was partly of course about team-work and it was fantastic to see how these students, who barely knew each other, focussed on their task and worked together to achieve their goal. The groups took different approaches, with one team looking at existing missed business opportunities and another at the journey from being in a safe and risk free environment towards the more unknown but exciting entrepreneurial environment. “One of the main aims of the Google Campus trip was to show the students that this could be a potential resource for them being in London in terms of networking. It was better to have them to actually experience and lead (to an extent) the event rather them just attending an event held there. The students gained more knowledge about the way we as Team Coaches operate and experienced more team coaching. As the ‘teampreneurs’ were mixed amongst public guests (the event was open to members of the public) this allowed them to behave professionally and showcase some of what they know already working in teams.” (Team Coach Supin Hussain)
Mass Challenge
Following the Google Campus visit, the new Entrepreneurship BA (or teampreneurs as they like to be called) spent two days with start-up accelerator, Mass Challenge. The main objective over these two days was to introduce the students to three start-ups and get them working on real entrepreneurial problems. The start-ups involved were Co-Founder and COO of crowd-powered travel initiative Vieni Global Ltd – Joseph Tefler; Founder of the “SkyScanner for Trains app” Reroo Ltd – Haider Khokhar; and Director of Little Riot – Joanna Montgomery.
Following presentations and introductions, the students were split into three groups, each assigned to a different startup. They were given a brief and required to solve a specific and very real problem within 24 hours. They were also joined by MBA alumna and Founder of Wearable Tech company, VersaStyle.com, Chimeren Peerbhai, who delivered a workshop to help them with their task on Customer Personas.
At the end of the 24 hours, everyone regrouped and presented their solutions to a panel of judges which included the start-up teams, and Westminster alumna and Owner of the East Meets West Club, Eve Li. Many thanks goes to Eve Li for sponsoring the event lunch. The judges found it very difficult to choose a winner, but it was decided that the Reroo group had the edge, with a fantastic re-launch campaign.
Why Mass Challenge? The Team Coaches designed this workshop with Mass Challenge, because they wanted their new cohort to experience the ‘world of entrepreneurship’ and to be aware of the players in the entrepreneurship ecosystem – in particular mentors, accelerators, tech startups. They also wanted to challenge them to work with a real business, which has real problems, see first-hand some of the problems faced by start-ups, and finally, to get a glimpse of the three year course, which is all about applying theoretical knowledge to solve problems for their clients. “The process should help them understand a bit of business but most importantly the value of working together (the new cohort was only two days old at this point!) as a team and learning from each other. The students were very reflective when we debriefed the following week. This was also a perfect networking opportunity for them as well. In fact, a couple of our teampreneurs were commended and the startups certainly would have hired them!” Team Coach, Supin Hussain.
Wanting to find out how the students got on with this new experience, I asked a few of them to describe their first week for me:
As first impressions go, the students seem to have had a great start to the term. It’s been challenging, but rewarding and it was truly a privilege to watch our new Entrepreneurship BA students grow as “teampreneurs.” Hopefully you’re looking forward to seeing what comes next, but in the meantime, here are the rest of the photos for you to enjoy 🙂
Thanks goes to Eve Li of the East Meets West Club for sponsoring the event lunch, and to Google Campus London and Mass Challenge for being such fantastic hosts. Many thanks also to Dr Jane Chang, Supin Hussain and Dr Ainural Rosli for their contributions to this blog. If you would like to find out more about the Entrepreneurship BA, please visit our website.
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