School of Business
Business Consultancy Competition
Introduction
The University's Director of Procurement and the Procurement Unit are delivering an exciting new consultancy challenge, exclusively for School of Business (ULSB) students.
The competition is a bidding exercise where you will form fictitious companies in groups of two to five and competitively bid against each other. The subject of the bidding exercise is for the team's company to devise a consultancy service to review and recommend improvements to 'Made-up University's' (MUU) purchasing function.
About the competition
MMU is looking to improve its purchasing performance. It is a large research-based university which spends approximately £120 million per annum on goods, works and services. The central purchasing team is made up of a purchasing manager and two purchasing officers which are involved in less than half of all purchases made across the university. MUU's attitude to purchasing is very reactive which often results in the university not achieving value for money. There are other leadership concerns associated with the central purchasing team's lack of involvement in MUU's purchases. For example, there is a risk of non-compliance with public procurement regulations, as well as risks associated with data protection and insurance. The university is also not taking the opportunity to leverage wider sustainability benefits and impact society in a positive way.
MUU will invite the teams to bid to deliver a report to:
- Detail the risks and issues created by its current purchasing operations.
- Make recommendations as to how to mitigate and resolve these risks and issues, including setting out an improvement plan.
- Outline, with costings, the further support their company could offer to deliver the improvement plan.
As with any tender exercise, there will be peaks and troughs in bidding teams' workload throughout the process. The initial bidding phase will take place during November with those teams shortlisted undertaking the presentation phase in mid-late January. As a very rough estimate, it is anticipated that the maximum amount of time a team member might spend on the competition is 24 hours, over this time period.
Why get involved?
This will be a great opportunity for you to build your transferable skills and get a feel for your future career by working in real-life scenarios.
Skills that can be developed or strengthened include teamwork, leadership, financial planning, data analytics, project management and communications - essential skills in today's workplace.
This project allows you to network and build solid relationships with like-minded students and professionals.
There is a reward for the winning team with each member getting £50 in vouchers!
How will the teams be supported?
You will have a wealth of support including:
- A bidder's conference to share further details and answer any initial questions.
- Regular check-ins to check progress and answer any ongoing questions.
- Access to resources to support decision making.
- Access to a senior procurement professional from organisations, including: other universities, Leicester City Council and the National History Museum.
How will you be assessed?
The bids presented by each group will be evaluated using the criteria which is split into four categories, the overall price, quality, terms and conditions and sustainability or benefit/social value. The competition will be assessed by:
- James Trotter, Director of Procurement and Projects
- Stewart Brewer, Category Manager for Professional Services
- Dennis Pepple, ULSB Associate Professor and Director of Employability
- Linda Ralphs, ULSB Deputy Dean
Your team
You just need to form a team of two to five ULSB students and give yourselves a company name.
If you want to get involved but do not have a team just email us and we can see if we can link you with a team member who is also looking.
The competition is limited to 10 teams and so you will need to register your teams ASAP.
The deadline to register your team is the 28 October 2022.
Before you sign up please ensure that your team are fully committed to take part in the competition as numbers of teams are limited.
Any questions contact ulsb.careers@le.ac.uk