Making Business “exciting”at Otago Polytechnic

Wednesday 17 February

Making Business “exciting”at Otago Polytechnic

Otago Polytechnic is determined to prove business is exciting! The School of Applied Business are trialling two, day-long activities for all their students with the aim of proving that Business studies can be “exciting”.

“Most students say they find Business studies interesting and challenging but not necessarily exciting, so we’re trying to get students excited about business,” says Bachelor of Applied Management Senior Lecturer and Programme Manager Kay Lion.

On Wednesday 17 February, Applied Business students from years 1, 2 and 3 and from all programmes will be participating in an indoor challenge, ‘Business in a Bag’, in D block and on Thursday 18 February in an outdoor challenge, ‘The Great EAD (Enterprise and Development) Business Race’ (see attached for photo opportunities).

“Business in a Bag is like a mini version of Dragon’s Den, except we call it Lion’s Den, because of my name,” Ms Lion says. “Each group will be given a bag of random objects around which they have to create an idea that relates to a product or a service. Within a certain time they have to say what the purpose of the product or the service is, how it will work, who the market is, how they would sell it or deliver it to that market, what price would they put on it, and why they put that price on it. The more objects in the bag they utilise for their product or service the better, and of course it has to make sense,” says Ms Lion.

The Great EAD Business Race is a series of fun challenges and activities for each team around Dunedin’s city centre.

“It’s based on the Amazing Race. Groups will start at different times with two and a half hours of activities for them to complete. Without the students realising it this Great EAD Business Race will be teaching them all kinds of soft skills from working with people who they don’t immediately know, to having the courage and confidence to put forward ideas, and being a listener,” says Ms Lion.

“Students often say to me they want to make a positive difference to the world but if you don’t understand business and don’t have a knowledge of business then it’s difficult to do that.
On an everyday basis, your life is touched by business and these two days of fun activities will hopefully show students that in an exciting way,” says Ms Lion.

ENDS

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