Bulletin

Issue: October 2006

News

Doing Business: awards for free enterprise

Students from the Faculty of Law and Management have won four out of nine major national awards in this year’s Students in Free Enterprise (SIFE) competition.

La Trobe’s winning team with SIFE Executive
Director, John Thornton, second from right.
Next to him is Ms Schneider, at left is team
mentor and Coordinator of Business at the
Mildura campus, Jeremy Seward.

The La Trobe SIFE teams comprised commerce and business students, mainly from the Mildura campus. Their projects helped primary and high-school students in northern Victoria and southern NSW.

Projects ranged from small business incubation and designing websites to producing publications. The projects were judged at presentation sessions in Brisbane, by a panel including corporate executives and CEOs from Australia and overseas.

SIFE is an international organisation that operates in more than fifty countries. It promotes entrepreneurialism through direct interaction of university students with local communities and the private and public sectors.

Thirtytwo universities were represented at the Brisbane competition, with La Trobe selected in the final four groups.

The La Trobe awards were: Most Outstanding Student: Stefanie Schneider, a German overseas student in her final year on the Mildura campus, won this award from more than 250 students. As her prize, Stefanie attended the SIFE World Cup held in France in September.

EOC Consulting Best Competitive Skills Training Project: A financial literacy project in high schools, conducted with the help of local financial planners, it helped school students with such things as mobile phone expenses, simple saving and investing plans, and debt and credit card management.

Ernst and Young Best Entrepreneurial Success Project: An eight week project which introduced business and economic principles in several Victorian and New South Wales primary schools. The school students then designed, manufactured and marketed heat and cold bags for temporary relief of ailments.

Country Road Best SIFE Team Polo Shirt: A public relations exercise, where teams decorated polo shirts with SIFErelated slogans.

Helping Ford reach their customers

An innova tive industry-linked program in La Trobe University’s School of Business is allowing students to put marketing principles into practice – and helping Ford find better ways to reach their customers. The unit, ‘Marketing Principles in Practice’ is supported by tutorials based on real case studies to apply these principles. And instead of exams or essays, assessment involves preparing a situation analysis for a real industry client: Central Ford Kilmore.

Program coordinator Dr Outi Niininen says the unit is designed to give students a broad understanding of marketing as well as key marketing activities in business. ‘Such industry links mean we keep courses practical and relevant. ‘

Mr Jez Kinnear, Service Manager at Central Ford Kilmore, says he became involved because he was ‘looking for new ways to develop customer service in the vehicle servicing department, and hoping to develop new strategies in customer service and marketing’.

He and Terry Westaway, of Automotive Consulting Group Australia, a marketing and business consultant to the automotive industry, make a presentation to students about their business and marketing needs. The students then conduct a ‘situation analysis’, the early steps of a marketing plan. The student with the highest mark not only gets academic recognition, but also receives a prize of Ford merchandise.

Mr Westaway says: ‘In my life a number of people have allowed me to grow and develop through new challenges. I wish to give something back to the community and to assist my clients to achieve their goals. ‘ Dr Niininen adds that his students have been very enthusiastic about the project: ‘Who knows, some of their exceptional customer service ideas may become the industry norm for the future!’

La Trobe teaches marketing as part of its Bachelor of Business degree, as well as via postgraduate programs.