LIVERPOOL BUSINESS SCHOOL: BUSINESS CLINIC

The Liverpool Business School Business Clinic was established to provide a range of support options to SMEs, multi-nationals, start-ups and not for profit organisations in the Liverpool city region. As a modern civic university, which aims to serve its people and communities, the Business Clinic acts as a source of support that businesses within the Liverpool City Region can access to help them address the challenges they face moving forward.

Summary

The Business Clinic is embedded across the majority of the Liverpool Business School’s full time undergraduate and postgraduate provision to provide students with the opportunity to undertake a live business consultancy project with an external host organisation. These projects provide students with the opportunity to practically apply and develop their theoretical knowledge in a real-world professional environment. The Business Clinic undertake projects in area such as Sport Business, Marketing, Finance International Business. In the coming years the clinic will expand to work with more programmes such as Events Management, International Tourism Management and Human Resource Management. Some of the projects delivered to date for our clients include market planning, strategy planning, diversify of products and services, market research, social media campaigns, competitor analysis amongst other things to help plan for new business opportunities. Our students provide research and genuine innovative and fresh approach solutions to all types of problems and challenges.

What our student are saying:

“Applying theory into practice has helped me to find a tangible solution for a business and understand how valuable my knowledge can be. It has given me the confidence to explore employment options once I complete my course.”

Final year Business with Marketing student

“The project work is very creative and to be able to work on a live project alongside a client is really interesting. The skills I am learning from this project will help improve my career prospects.”

Final year Sports Business Student

Clients who want to work with the Business Clinic are asked to outline an initial project brief. Then, working alongside one of our Business Clinic project officers the brief is developed to include not only clear aims and objective but also a set of outcomes in order that the clients’ expectations can be met. The majority of the projects are delivered over a 10-week period with student groups meeting on a weekly basis. The student groups are guided by the academic member of staff on a weekly basis. We also work with 10 Business Consultants, who are attached to a group and provide weekly support to those students to deliver a highquality project for the client.

Last year (20/21) the Business Clinic saw 225 students provide a service to over 39 organisations (public, private and third sector) across the region and beyond. The clinic ran wholly online via Microsoft Teams and Zoom calls which meant we were able to serve organisations beyond the Liverpool City region. However, within the Liverpool City region the Business Clinic supported 30 organisations.

This year 290 of our students are working across 72 projects with the Business Clinic supporting 40 organisations on a range of projects within the Liverpool City Region.