My Business in Practice journey

Our MSc Marketing & Strategy student ambassador Sybil- Amanda shares an insight into her Business in Practice (BIP) journey.

Why Business in Practice?

I chose Business in Practice because I liked the idea of applying and testing the concepts and skills I had learnt in my Marketing and Strategy module. The concept of being a director, and running a virtual automotive company appealed to me because I knew it would take a few more years for me to reach the directorship level in a real company.

BIP structure

Though the Business in Practice simulation occurred in the final term, we were initially informed about what the simulation would entail in our first term to give us adequate time to decide whether to take the BIP or Dissertation route. Subsequently, we commenced team formulation in term 2, assigning roles based on interest or experience. Multi-disciplinary teams were encouraged because each team would be made up of eight board directors who would lead the five different departments namely, Human Resources, Marketing, Finance, Innovation and Operations and so it was important to collaborate with people who were studying different courses to draw on their strengths.

To form a team, we were encouraged to write a short pitch describing our experiences and strengths on MyWBS platform to attract people to join our teams. Additionally, two networking sessions were organised to encourage in-person meetings to aid in team formulations.

BIP two-week schedule

The intense two-week BIP schedule commenced with plenary sessions. These sessions were held to provide detailed introductory knowledge about the simulation and deliver role specific tutorials. Daily virtual and in-person insight sessions were held with industry experts in various professional spheres such as strategy, sustainability, marketing, finance etc. to aide each team’s personal and executive decision-making abilities. There were also team dynamic activities to improve motivation, mutual trust, and efficiency. The base of operations for the business simulation occurred via the my.wbs platform, where teams received information related to the simulation, communicated with each other, created a bank of information for the individual reports, and reviewed the performance of their team. The actual business simulation occurred over a period of 6 days, with each day representing a hypothetical year for the company, thus in total we built and run the automotive company for 24 quarters. The entire team was tasked with creating strategic frameworks to successfully run the company, however each director had specific duties. For example, as the Human Resources director, I was responsible for making decisions on hiring, motivating, and managing staff.

My key takeaways

I would say my biggest takeaway from BIP was taking risks! This is because there were several instances where I was uncertain about the impacts of my decisions, nonetheless, I still managed to make decisions that contributed to the successful performance of the company.

BIP was an enriching experience. I learnt first-hand the importance of how working seamlessly as a team affects the performance of a company, the importance of time management, making collaborative decisions, understanding other departments and how individual decisions affects the team.

Find out more about the student experience at Warwick Business School by reading our Postgraduate blog.