First WBS students complete Science Park placements

Enterprising students from Warwick Business School have helped tenants at a Midlands science park gain valuable insights into sales data, customer satisfaction, and more as part of a new placement scheme.

WBS students completed a series of placements with The University of Warwick Science Park (UWSP) and its tenant companies for the final projects of their studies.

Each student worked with companies in the Science Park for three months to assist with a particular aspect of their business and achieve a clear goal.

And after excellent initial results, the Science Park is hoping to continue these collaborations with Warwick Business School into the future.

Why University of Warwick Science Park was a great fit

Chemical engineering graduate Darren Kurnia worked with life sciences firm CryoLogyx, whose products form a ‘shield’ around living cells to protect them during freezing and thawing, to improve its marketing strategy and lead generation.

Darren said: “As part of my MBA, I was looking to assist a company with its marketing, and CryoLogyx was a great fit for me due to my chemical engineering background.

“Their products are incredibly innovative, but the team needed advice on how best to market them.

“I looked into their sales data, the profile of their current and potential customers, and spoke to similar biotech companies to assess the market as a whole and come up with recommendations.

“My analysis has found that CryoLogyx would be best served by focusing on trade shows, as they have the highest concentration of potential customers and suppliers. I’m due to present my findings formally soon.

“The whole experience has been great for me too, as CryoLogyx really welcomed me as a member of the team, and the project will stand me in good stead as I look to progress in my career.”

Fellow WBS student, Tiffany Mi, helped the Science Park directly by surveying its tenants around how satisfied they are with the service they are receiving and analysing the results.

The survey results were positive overall, with high levels of satisfaction reported by tenants, and UWSP is set to use the written feedback to further improve its services.

Tiffany said: “The Science Park needed to understand what its tenants thought about the service they were getting in greater depth. While conservations took place between centre managers and tenants, this feedback was not collated and analysed to help the Science Park make informed decisions.

“I met up with many tenants across all of the Science Park’s sites in Coventry, Warwick and Solihull, to get their feedback, and achieved an excellent response rate to my survey.

WBS students deliver "tangible results" for companies

“The project allowed me to gain valuable experience working with many B2B companies, as this is something I had little knowledge of before.

"I’m really pleased to have worked with the Science Park and I’m confident they will find the result of the survey useful.”

Victoria Lynch, head of commercial at UWSP, added: “Our tenants and the Science Park itself have greatly benefited from welcoming Warwick Business School students into their respective teams.

“Not only has it enhanced the students’ business acumen, but has delivered tangible results for the companies they were placed in.

“The survey of tenants that Tiffany led has been very insightful to us when considering future decisions for the Science Park as a whole, and we plan on running Tiffany’s survey again in subsequent years. The team at CryoLogyx were also incredibly impressed with Darren’s thorough research.

“We look forward to welcoming another cohort of WBS students next year as we continue this fruitful partnership.”

Discover more about our Change Makers at Warwick Business School.