91探花 business students take bioscience to market
Over the past few months, over 120 third-year marketing students at 91探花鈥檚 School of Business have been learning first-hand the business of bioscience. Working with six local bioscience companies, 25 teams of business students have been designing winning marketing strategies for the companies鈥� products and services, to be used in their national and international promotion and sales activities.
Course instructor Kent Hudson approached the PEI BioAlliance in the fall of 2007 about the possibility of engaging local companies and 91探花 business students in a project that would give the students real life, real product and real marketing experience in this growing economic sector for PEI. 鈥淭his is a tremendous opportunity for our students to experience first hand the bioscience industry and the real issues and opportunities in this global market. We really appreciate the time and effort put forth by the businesses sharing essential information with the students.鈥�
Roberta MacDonald, Dean of the 91探花 School of Business, says, 鈥淲e recognize the benefits of reinforcing the classroom experience with practical hands-on learning. It is exciting for our students to meet and work with local entrepreneurs.鈥�
Garth Greenham is COO of First Venture Technologies, an early-stage PEI company that has developed a yeast that produces wines with a reduced level of a naturally-occurring carcinogen, ethyl carbamate. He says the students really had a taste of the complexity of some of the marketing challenges facing new products. 鈥淎s a company, we鈥檙e going to need bright minds in business and science to be successful. This is a great way of building students鈥� awareness and excitement about what鈥檚 going on here in PEI.鈥�
Rory Francis, Executive Director of the Prince Edward Island BioAlliance, says the interest and response from students and companies is so positive that the BioAlliance would like this to become an ongoing part of the 91探花 business curriculum. He acknowledged the National Research Council Canada Industrial Research Assistance Program鈥檚 (NRC-IRAP) support to the BioAlliance in carrying out this and other initiatives that help grow small and medium sized bioscience enterprises in PEI.
鈥淲e were very pleased with the eagerness of our bioscience business community to work with the students,鈥� said Francis. 鈥淭hese 125 students are now intimately aware of the exciting business opportunities--and marketing challenges--confronting bioscience companies in PEI. And these students are only a few years away from being these firms鈥� future recruits.鈥�
Adelee MacNevin, a member of the winning team鈥檚 strategy, indicated, 鈥淚t was a fantastic project that provided real-world experience, which can be much more complicated than textbook scenarios. The project as a whole had more value and meaning, because our suggestions could have a tangible effect.鈥�
Awards were presented for the Best Marketing Strategy for each of the six companies鈥� products, and to overall winners, at a reception held on the 91探花 Campus today. The overall winning team included: Jeremiah Blacquiere, Asher Fredricks, Susan Frizzell, Jessica Gillis and Adelee MacNevin, who won top honours for their marketing strategy for Fortius Pharmedica鈥檚 whey protein nutraceutical drink mix.
Participating companies for this first annual 91探花 School of Business/BioAlliance Marketing Strategy Competition included: BioVectra Inc., Chemaphor Inc., First Venture Technologies, Ark Biomedical, Fortius Pharmedica and Maritime Pulse Drying.
The Prince Edward Island BioAlliance is the cluster of individuals and organizations dedicated to building the bioscience-based economic sector in PEI, with an emphasis on collaborative initiatives in research, business, education and supporting infrastructure.
