On 30th November two teams of students attended the LanciaConsult Enterprise Competition at QEH Bristol during Queen’s Enterprise Week. Two teams were entered into the competition, one from year 10 and one from year 12. 

The event started with an introduction from LanciaConsult, outlining what it takes to be a management consultant and different routes that can be taken into the career. 

Each team was given a mentor from Lancia Consult and set a challenge to prepare a five minute presentation to address what they believed to be the biggest challenges facing their clients and make recommendations on a solution to the problem. 

The year 10 team were Alice, Chenye, Jake, Edouard and Keira. Their challenge was the relocation of Bristol Zoo and its direction as The Zoo approaches its 200th Birthday. The possible challenges that were identified were a) transportation to the new site for visitors, b) fundraising and sponsorship to ensure sustainability of the zoo and c) marketing and promotion to ensure that branding for the new site is fun and engaging. The team agreed that transportation to the new site for visitors would be the biggest challenge because they felt that they would be able to draw in more customers by providing environmentally friendly transportation, which also enabled the zoo to increase their funding and give a focus for the marketing of the new zoo thus solving all three problems in one go. The solution they proposed was for a shuttle bus from Cribbs Causeway to the new zoo because they felt it was a more convenient and environmentally friendly way for customers to get to the zoo without facing charges for driving through the green zone themselves.   

The year 12 team were Sophia, Tim, Victoria, Martha and Angelica. Their challenge  was the expansion of Ashton Gate Stadium, a project named “Project Horizon”, encompassing a two site development. Part one involved the creation of a 4000 seater home for the Bristol Flyers Basketball team within Ashton Gate and part two  is to establish a new urban village development named “Longmore”. The expectations of the city are that these two developments were connected. The challenges that this expansion plan posed were a) economic benefits and job creation b) inclusivity and accessibility and c) community impact. After some intense discussion they settled on the community impact as being the biggest challenge for Project Horizon, because they felt that there would be less antisocial behaviour and that the local community are possible future customers. They also felt that by focussing on the community impact of the project they would solve the other problems identified. The solution the team proposed were: Fast bus lanes with direct links to the stadium and urban village leading to a broader range of customers, an app and online ticket sales with a feedback tool for residents and discount cards for residents. 

This was also Edouard’s second enterprise competition of the week, having only presented about Enterprise Skills in Chapel on Monday. 

During a working lunch both teams read through all of the information they were provided with and planned their approach to the task. Throughout the event both teams demonstrated enterprise skills including: leadership, teamwork, resilience, communication, problem solving, determination, questioning, focus and motivation, initiative to name a few. 

During the presentations students were assessed against four criteria: Core consulting skills (time management, organisation, visualisation), Managing people (Communication with the team, listening skills, communication and presentation with clients), Analytical skills (how the task was analysed and broken down by each group) and Solution (thinking critically and problem solving). 

Overall, our Year 12 team came second and Alice Tytler (Yr 10) received a special mention for her communication skills. The Lancia consultants were impressed with how she broke down the task and the team to bring everyone together. 

The challenge was described by the management consultants at Lancia as being very difficult but students demonstrated a constructive approach to the problem and acted with precision. They were extremely impressed with the solutions to the problems that students identified. Students were pushed outside of their comfort zones and really rose to the challenge. 

We are incredibly proud of both teams and the determination they demonstrated  throughout the day, all students worked incredibly hard and they were inspirational to watch. 

Alice said that she “gained a really good idea and understanding of the process of finding an idea and then expanding on how it would work in the real world as well as linking that to how it would affect real people and the environment”

Chenye in year 10 said he felt “really proud of himself because as a year 10 team, we competed against people who are studying a-level business, they are more advanced than we are”.