The University of Sheffield: Management School

The Management School is a multidisciplinary School that offers a vibrant and varied environment for research and teaching employing over 50 academic staff, who are assisted by a part-time teaching team and dedicated support staff. The Management School aims 'to maintain the highest standards of excellence as a research-led institution, whose staff work at the frontiers of academic enquiry and educate students in a research environment'.

Academic Profiles:	Market/Industry Expertise:
Prof Kamel Mellahi:	Turkey
Dr Mehmet Demirbag:	South East Europe
Prof Keith Glaister:	Utilities
Dr Rob Huggins:	Aerospace
International Students:	China, India, SE Asia

Working with Business:

How our management students and staff can give you a competitive edge.
At The Management School we want to provide the best possible opportunities for local businesses and organisations. Our relationships with the local business community are mutually beneficial and contribute to the social, environmental and economic development of the region. We have two aims:

• to give local companies the chance to tap into the innovative ideas and expertise of enthusiastic, talented staff and
• to give our students real business experience.

Ways of working with us:

Undergraduate group projects:
Students work on a variety of topics and issues related to business, management or accounting on a part-time basis; usually run through one semester, either autumn or spring.

Undergraduate individual dissertations:
Undergraduates study a variety of topics and issues, on a smaller scale than the undergraduate group projects. Usually run through one semester, either autumn or spring. Both group projects and dissertations enable you to examine an issue relating to your organisation in depth.

Postgraduate group projects:
These modules offer opportunities for a small team of MBA or Leisure Management students, who often have considerable international work experience, to handle a short company-based project, supervised by their tutor. This allows your organisation to look at a particular issue or problem independently before committing any resources. The students produce a report and present their recommendations to you. The modules run in the spring semester.

Masters Dissertations
Masters students work on management problems important to your organisation. Usually three months of full-time work during the summer vacation from June to September. To gain maximum benefit the team benefit from making contact and developing relationships from starting work during the spring semester. Again this enables you to examine, in-depth, an issue relating to your organisation without committing resources.

MBA Summer Projects
These are designed to allow a group of MBA students to work in collaboration with your organisation to gain an insight into a particular area or issue, initial scoping begins in April and  the students will work with you for six weeks in the summer, before presenting  you with a solutions based report in August. They then develop key themes, as individuals in an academic dissertation.

Events Management:
Postgraduate students on the Leisure Management programmes are available to organise and run one-day events for local businesses or organisations. The event needs to be scheduled for May or June and the teams work with you to plan the event from February.

Assignment Case Studies:
Leisure Management students base their autumn semester assignments for Finance, Economics and Marketing around a real organisation as a case study. Organisations find the marketing plans particularly useful.

Company Visits:
We would like our students to experience the business world as much as possible before graduation and welcome any suggestions or offers for company visits.

External Speakers:
We welcome managers of businesses and other organisations to come and speak to our students on any topic related to business or management. The spring semester module Management Principles and Practice for the Leisure Management Programmes is entirely based around outside speakers.

Internships:
Internships, paid or unpaid, are invaluable work experience for our students and a great opportunity for you to try out a potential employee. Usually these take place during the summer vacation. We would be delighted to meet you to discuss any internship opportunities you may be able to offer our students.

Meeting the Objective:
Gripple, a local innovative engineering company took on a number of MBA students for the dissertation stage of the MBA programme. Gripple used the three months of intensive activity from these students to tackle new and strategically important areas of business. The students worked on market research, operational improvements and designed a new factory. All of these initiatives enabled the business to gain Objective 1 business development funding.

All our Masters programmes offer similar project opportunities, including Environmental Management, Leisure Management and all areas of Business and Management.

Looking East:
A group of MBA students working on the Experiencing Enterprise module conducted an analysis of Far Eastern markets for Mandalls, a local engineering company. The students, who were native speakers of a number of languages including Chinese and Thai, identified new markets for the company´s products, and sources of some specialist raw materials. Mandalls has actively pursued these contacts, leading to considerable business growth in the last three years.

The Experiencing Enterprise module is an ideal opportunity for companies to test ideas or carry out initial investigations. By working together, we can educate and train the businesspeople of the future. If you are interested in working with us on any of these projects, we´d like to meet and discuss the opportunities with you.

How to contact us:
For more information or to discuss potential projects please contact Dr Mike Simpson:
t: 0114 222 3450
e: m.simpson@sheffield.ac.uk

Website: www.shef.ac.uk/management/4business

Key:

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