Final year undergraduate Retail Management students聽have聽worked on a real-life consultancy project聽assigned聽by Jamie聽Awdry, Head of Propositions at Costa Coffee.
Students were given the opportunity to put their skills into practice to聽deliver a聽business solution for a聽Costa Coffee聽business problem.听聽
The聽consultancy聽project聽looked at the role of coffee shops in a post-Covid world. Costa Coffee聽asked the students to explore how coffee shops聽could adapt to flexible working聽whilst聽thinking聽about聽the safety of customers post-Covid.听聽
Jamie聽Awdry, Head of Propositions at Costa Coffee, said: 鈥淭he world has adapted faster in the last 14 months than the 10 years prior; we鈥檙e really excited about driving new customers to our shops in a post-Covid world.
"Targeting home workers and students by providing suitable environments will be critical in achieving this. Using the skills of the business management students聽provides us the chance to learn new ideas and get quality market research.鈥澛�
One of the ideas Costa Coffee has developed from the insights provided by the students has been to create private spaces in their stores to work.听
The images聽above聽present聽a聽visual concept聽of the booths and the first physical prototype of the workspace.
Jamie Awdry added: 鈥淲e believe聽that聽in聽our聽stores near universities we can deploy these聽spaces to聽become the location for focussed study in a designed suitable environment.鈥澛�
Corinna聽Budnarowska, Deputy Head of Department in People & Organisations, said:聽鈥淚 advocate Consultancy Project units in business courses because it gives students the opportunity to engage with industry and to consolidate their academic learning in a practical and strategic setting.听Not only do students learn a lot from this,聽it聽also serves as a source of competitive advantage over other graduates entering the workforce.鈥澛犅�
Corinna added:聽鈥淚 facilitate the client-student relationship and encourage students to use me as a sounding board for generating and developing their ideas over a semester. They learn to work as a group and how to tackle 'real life' business problems.鈥澛�
Since 蜜桃AV聽Business School聽started collaborating with Jamie Awdry聽in 2003, the聽partnership has seen 12聽successful聽consultancy projects,聽15 years of industry placement students聽hired聽in his teams and 20 蜜桃AV聽graduates recruited.听聽
Jamie聽said: 鈥淭he Business School聽compliments the retail industry by ensuring聽their聽graduates are set for success and understand the market,聽including all current challenges.鈥澛�
Find out more about the Business & Management degree at 蜜桃AV.听
