Synergy students reflect on new entrepreneurial skills

Once again, the Synergy Business Challenge has come to its end for 2015. The competition, which is organised by the London Campus's Employability team, has challenged our London Campus participating students all for a good cause in raising money for Teenage Cancer Trust.

Ibiso, who is studying for her MBA in Global Business, was part of the winning team 'Innova', together they raised £855 for Teenage Cancer Trust. Innova's tactic? 'Divide and conquer'. In an interview, Ibiso said that the team's initial idea to do a walkathon didn't seem as far reaching, instead her group spread their energy collectively, taking to the streets to raise money, playing games and using social media outlets such as Twitter and Facebook to aid their fundraising.

Her advice for next year's contestants?

“Make sure that the work is evenly spread across the team members, don't let one or two people carry the team across. Be innovative. Make sure you appeal to everyone; it's easier to share the vision and share the passion for the event. Most importantly, keep your eyes on the prize!”

'Alba' team member Farrah who is an undergraduate studying BA Global business said that she and her team were able to raise £200 for the Teenage Cancer Trust through movies and karaoke nights.

“Patience was the thing I learned most. As a group, everyone has different timetables, so a lot of effort had to go into when to meet and the organisation and planning of things.”

Martin had similar words of wisdom 'teamwork, patience and communication' were the skills that he was able to most utilise during the business challenge as part of team Alba.

“It'll definitely look good on my CV and if I want to go into working for a not for profit organisation it was great to have an insight into it. Essentially we learned how to make money from scratch.”

Shantel, who was part of team 'United We Stand' is currently in her final year of BA Finance and Accounting. Together with her team she raised £410 in aid of charity. She and her team raised their funds via cupcake sales and a Breakfast Club, selling coffee, tea and waffles. Regarding her experience with Synergy Shantel said

“I learned how to run a business, I gained entrepreneurial experience. We started with nothing and at the end of it made money. I was also so much more aware of the cause. Every day 7 teenagers die from cancer. I had no idea about that, and I had the opportunity to help spread the word in aid of teenagers battling cancer. We were lucky on my team that everyone had an existing friendship; we had really good morale and productivity. My advice to future participants is that balancing this with academic studies is extremely difficult. But when you're motivated for the cause and have a good team, it makes things so much easier”.