Los Angeles here I come!

Every year Manchester Business School send 8 students to compete against the best business schools in the world in what is called a “case study competition“.

In such a competition you are given 24 hours to read through a pretty thick report on some company, analyse their strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats and then propose a corporate and marketing strategy using the latest business models and with supporting financial information – think of it as what consultants get paid millions to do in several weeks, we have to do in 24 hours. No one sleeps, and 24 hours later your team has to present to the directors of that company and then get grilled with some hardcore questions.

In preparation our team will meet every Wednesday this year for 5-7 hour sessions where they are going to teach us some really cool stuff – how to talk to large crowds, how to use our voice and stage presence, how to answer corporate questions, working under extreme pressure, analysing company data, preparing effective presentations and a lot more. This is going to be really useful stuff and I am super excited.

What’s even more awesome is that they pay our flights, accommodation and once the case study competition is completed, we get to party even harder than we worked. LA… Los Angeles… the city of Angels… CALIFORNICATION!!!

I’m excited, can you tell?!

£3000 Innovation Voucher

Hooray!

I’ve won a £3,000 innovation voucher from the North-West Development Agency (NWDA). With this voucher I submit what professional work I need done to the NWDA, they then send out my request to all the businesses affiliated to them and these businesses decide whether to bid for my project.

I now have two companies competing for my project (which is very top-secret at the moment… but I can let you know that it is related to fashion and the internet… and innovation). I am currently communicating with these companies, describing the requirements of my project in detail and looking to see which one of the two is most likely to do a better job.

So, if you have just started up your business and want to develop some innovative idea, consider applying for the next round of vouchers, presumably near the end of the year. You can go for the £3,000 option as I have, or if you need a bit more money, they have a £10,000 voucher where you commit £3,000 and they give you the other £7,000.

Innovation… a word which sits comfortably in the top 10 of my business vocabulary.