The most memorable day at Cranfield
Imagine an old man with faded white hair wearing a long overcoat and a big hat, rocking in a rocking chair in the middle of the lecture room sipping Jack Daniels Tennessee whiskey! Or imagine a full chicken sticking out of the flip chart and menu cards kept on each seat. Or imagine the board of directors of Manchester United, Vodafone and Porsche addressing the questions from audience!
Is that difficult to imagine? Strange but true as it may sound, but all this actually happened. At Cranfield MBA, everything is possible. Whosoever suggested that MBA students cannot be creative was making a faux pas. Creativity was at its best today and shall continue for the next two days.
Strategic Marketing Success (SMS) is a part of assessment for the Marketing course. Each learning team has to select a product, brand or a company and study the success story behind it. The exercise involves first writing a 2500 word report and then presenting the story before the stream and lecturers. The stakes are high as this presentation also is considered for part of the assessment in Presentation and Communication Skills (PCS) course. Our team had got the report out of our way last week and it was now time for the d-day. Red stream had all 7 presentations scheduled for the day. Green and Blue follow tomorrow and day after.
After a suspenseful locked-out period of just 5 minutes (that seemed like an hour), the lecture room was opened and were allowed in by Red 1 team. They had made up the room up in a big way, creating the ambience of Nando's chicken - a chain in Milton Keynes. Their performance was brilliant and captured the essence of their recipe for success. With the full chicken stuck on the flip board, they shared the various P’s of marketing. And what more – they even had Moira Clark – our Professor of Marketing - dancing to their chicken-tunes.
Their presentation was followed by “Manchester United” and “Bang and Olufson”. Then it was time for our presentation on Jack Daniels. We had very little props being used – just a rocking chair and a bottle of whiskey. Andrew Cox (Britain) as Jack Daniels and Charles Sincock (Britain) as GI Joe gave scintillating performances. Despite a technical snag, our presentation drew a huge round of applause.
The next three presentations were on Porsche, Unilever Bestfoods China and Vodafone. Steve Carver – Professor of PCS – gave a brief feedback on key observations after each presentation. At the end, Steve and Moira then gave an overall feedback and summarized the presentations. The day will remain etched in my memory for the balance part of the year and thereafter. The day not only brought me closer to Marketing as a subject but also gave me valuable inputs on what makes a successful brand / product / company. Over the next two days, 14 more presentations shall be happening in Green and Blue streams. These include Google, Amul India, Harry Porter, eBay, Lord of the Rings and iTunes, just to name a few.
Is that difficult to imagine? Strange but true as it may sound, but all this actually happened. At Cranfield MBA, everything is possible. Whosoever suggested that MBA students cannot be creative was making a faux pas. Creativity was at its best today and shall continue for the next two days.
Strategic Marketing Success (SMS) is a part of assessment for the Marketing course. Each learning team has to select a product, brand or a company and study the success story behind it. The exercise involves first writing a 2500 word report and then presenting the story before the stream and lecturers. The stakes are high as this presentation also is considered for part of the assessment in Presentation and Communication Skills (PCS) course. Our team had got the report out of our way last week and it was now time for the d-day. Red stream had all 7 presentations scheduled for the day. Green and Blue follow tomorrow and day after.
After a suspenseful locked-out period of just 5 minutes (that seemed like an hour), the lecture room was opened and were allowed in by Red 1 team. They had made up the room up in a big way, creating the ambience of Nando's chicken - a chain in Milton Keynes. Their performance was brilliant and captured the essence of their recipe for success. With the full chicken stuck on the flip board, they shared the various P’s of marketing. And what more – they even had Moira Clark – our Professor of Marketing - dancing to their chicken-tunes.
Their presentation was followed by “Manchester United” and “Bang and Olufson”. Then it was time for our presentation on Jack Daniels. We had very little props being used – just a rocking chair and a bottle of whiskey. Andrew Cox (Britain) as Jack Daniels and Charles Sincock (Britain) as GI Joe gave scintillating performances. Despite a technical snag, our presentation drew a huge round of applause.
The next three presentations were on Porsche, Unilever Bestfoods China and Vodafone. Steve Carver – Professor of PCS – gave a brief feedback on key observations after each presentation. At the end, Steve and Moira then gave an overall feedback and summarized the presentations. The day will remain etched in my memory for the balance part of the year and thereafter. The day not only brought me closer to Marketing as a subject but also gave me valuable inputs on what makes a successful brand / product / company. Over the next two days, 14 more presentations shall be happening in Green and Blue streams. These include Google, Amul India, Harry Porter, eBay, Lord of the Rings and iTunes, just to name a few.
posted by Sandeep Gupta at
10:30 am
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