Students celebrate Entrepreneurship Consultancy Project success
Students from the MSc Entrepreneurship, Innovation, and Management course recently showcased their consultancy projects, developed as part of the Entrepreneurship Project module. This module enables students to act as consultants for real-world businesses, tackling live challenges and developing practical, strategic solutions.
This year, 12 student groups collaborated with 12 start-ups and local companies, each presenting unique business challenges aimed at expanding and increasing visibility in competitive markets. Over three months, students gathered market insights, engaged with stakeholders, and analysed to create comprehensive reports, with recommendations based on their findings.
Working closely with academic staff and Professors of Practice at the Haydn Green Institute for Innovation and Entrepreneurship, students gained valuable skills in consulting, problem-solving, and collaboration enhancing both their entrepreneurial capabilities and employability.
At a final event held on Tuesday 6 May 2025, students presented their projects in a poster showcase attended by some of the participating businesses, the academic team and members of the Business School. The event was led by the module convenor, Dr Sahattaya (Pai) Achtzehn, Assistant Professor in Inclusive Entrepreneurship and Sustainable Innovation. Pai explained:
“The Entrepreneurship Project is a unique, challenging, and rewarding module for students, participating businesses and the module convener. Students enter the module with varying levels of business knowledge and experience and learn how to build relationships professionally, negotiate and manage expectations with participating businesses, tackle ad-hoc problems, and devise creative methods to collect market and stakeholder data entrepreneurially. This module is critical and highly customised, requiring students to apply everything they have learnt from the course and their past experiences to solve business problems.”
Following the showcase, prizes were awarded.
Winners of the Entrepreneurship Consultancy Project 2025
Winners were announced in various categories:
Outstanding Social Media Management Award:
For teams that actively promote their experiences from the module on their LinkedIn.
Mytender.io project:
Harsh Kadu, Jayesh More, Jiayan Shen and Satyesh Pai Kakode
Outstanding Consultancy Presentation Award
For teams that produce sophisticated presentations for participating businesses.
FAR UK project:
Bingnan Zhang, Junwei Hao, Tzu-Chien Hsu and Yuqi Zhen
Eyre Harvester project:
Feng Han, Shihao Zhang, Tianyi Guo and Xiaonan Liu
Outstanding External Engagement Award
For teams that maintain an excellent relationship with their participating businesses.
International House Bucharest project:
Arian Lawer, Oliver Phillips, Quim Borrell and Zehan Li
Research Excellence Award
For teams that conducted excellent research, providing in-depth insights and critical recommendations.
ShopWiser project:
Abhay Khandelwal, Bhakti Ayalane, Ishneet Kuar and Kabeer Mehrotra
Ellis Wellness project:
Bairong Wang, Deepak Yadav, Huayue Shi and Senthil Suresh
People’s Choice Award 2025
For teams that receive the highest votes from audiences on the presentation day.
University of Nottingham Catering Services project:
Aaditya Padmanabhan, Joshua Wray, Juzer Aeranpurwala, Risheek Banerjee and Shashwat Dalal
Real-world impact for students and businesses
Local companies and entrepreneurs take part in the module to address real business challenges and gain fresh insights and solutions. Bob Eyre, Director of Eyre Trailers, shared his experience:
“We needed help identifying global market potential, for our new venture, Eyre Harvester. The four students we worked with have done an outstanding job. They visited us three times – initially finding their feet, but once they fully understood how the harvesting process works and how quickly the fruit ripens, they really took off.
“They’ve been brilliant. Researching international markets would have cost us significant time and money for a relatively small business like ours, so their work has been an incredible asset and we’re looking forward to the final document outlining a complete solution. A marketing strategy is essential when manufacturing machinery, and this project has been a fantastic starting point.”
Student team leader Juzer Aeranpurwala reflects on the experience and skills gained through consulting for the University of Nottingham Catering Services project:
“As an international student from India with a family business background, I plan to expand our business when I return home, so this hands-on experience in strategy and consultancy has been invaluable. I chose this course to strengthen my skills in operations and people management.
"For our group project, we worked with the University of Nottingham Catering Services on their transition to self-catered halls at Jubilee Campus. Our focus was on maintaining student footfall and engagement with food offers at The Atrium restaurant to help sustain its profitability.
"Through surveys and interviews, we found that meals were often repetitive and lacked protein. We recommended introducing high-protein options, partnering with sports societies to increase visibility, offering discounted tiered meal passes, and using student polls to shape more diverse menu options, including Chinese, Thai, Indian, and Vietnamese.
"As team lead, I developed key delegation, time management, and stakeholder engagement skills. It’s rewarding to know that some of our recommendations are being considered for implementation.”
Course information
Find out more about the MSc Entrepreneurship, Innovation and Management course
Posted on Thursday 8th May 2025