Making connections & meeting with local businesses

As an international student from Vietnam I really enjoy any kind of opportunity to broaden my understanding of business in the UK.

Naturally, I’m thinking about my future career and how to make the most of my time at the University of Lincoln.

My course is MSc Marketing with Luxury Brands, and I love the fact that we are encouraged by programme leader Jialin Hardwick to be a professional producer and not just a passive student.

We recently met representatives of Gusto Homes, who design and build family homes in Lincoln, Southwell and Collingham. This was for a project for a course module, and I think it will really help to broaden my understanding of how things are done in the UK because I have previously worked in architecture design in Vietnam.

Gusto CEO Steff Wright and marketing consultant Sarah Bird gave us a guest lecture at Lincoln International Business School and it was very interesting to hear them share their successful experiences of how they developed their business.

We then went on a field trip to Collingham to visit their construction site and get a better understanding of what they do.

We saw how Gusto are using solar panels for heating and hot water, as well as harvesting rainwater for the toilet system. Since I am concerned about the environment, it was great to see practical ideas like this to help solve the problems.

We met the managers and the staff of the company to discuss everything.

Now we have two months to get the marketing project done! This involves researching the market, investigating customer demographics and reading academic journals for theories and new concepts. We then need to propose strategies for the project.

This is a difficult and challenging assignment and we will work in groups of four or five people so we can be a team and learn how to use our time most effectively.

At the end of the module, we will have a meeting. It will be held as a professional networking event. There will be food and drinks, and we will need to be professionally dressed to present our proposal to Gusto Homes’ board of directors.

I feel truly lucky and grateful for this opportunity. These activities will help me to gain knowledge and confidence to use after finishing the course.

Written by Ann, MSc. Marketing with Luxury Brands student from Vietnam

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