Wittenborg Online News!

WiNet – the Wittenborg University Brand and Company Start-Up Incubator

In 2010 Wittenborg instigated a Brand Incubator, WiNet to manage business ideas and company start-ups in order to expose students to some real life business creation and innovation. The idea was started by bringing a number of already active brands into the portfolio, from the training and consultancy arm of the Birdsall trustees, with a view to involving students from the University at the earliest stage.

Tim Birdsall (left), Wittenborg trustee, and entrepreneur and management consultant of more than 20 years: “Key to the ideas, services and products that are brought into the WiNet organization is that they are viable running projects. WiNet is not an emulator, but a real life company with a normal balance, profit and loss!” read more from Tim Birdsall, on WiNet; http://www.wittenborg.eu/tim-birdsall-winet-wittenborg-university-network.htm

Currently, the WiNet brands include services in the field of management skills and competence training, consultancy, website development and IT support. The consultancy focusses on areas such as business plan / company start-ups, international trade (especially between European and China), and business performance improvement, through the implementation of integrated quality control systems. Last year, WiNet (Wittenborg University Network) employed a number of students working in WiNet projects.

Between the summer of 2010 and the end of 2011, WiNet’s website building and service brand ‘Lyniks Systems’ built more than 15 websites for SMEs and event organisations, all for under €2,500-!

In 2012, WiNet plans to expand its opportunities for students, in the only way it knows how: more sales, providing more funds to support more students in WiNet!  Also, WiNet is actively aiming to support students in their business start-ups by inviting external investors to join projects and work with students to make their business projects a success.

This year Wittenborg visiting lecturer, Ioana Bora, based in Romania, has been brought in to manage a team of students in three key WiNet project. She is looking forward to the challenge;

‘WiNet is the Wittenborg 100% practical project that gives the students the opportunity to test the business experience and get to work hands on sales, marketing, and business strategy. For 2012, Winet has big plans: it will give the students the actual experience of selling, creating brand awareness,  learning how to use social media to promote a brand and actually creating a brand and making it successful.

The three projects that I will lead, under the Winet umbrella are Pipeliner-Sales, SpeakerMedica and Ooopy Gloop.

For Pipeliner the plan is to actually sell training services to IT companies in Europe, so the activities designed for the students include not only the sales process from scratch, but also some focus on client relations and the development of some organizing skills.

For SpeakerMedica, the plan is to create brand awareness, preparing the ground for a big sales campaign that is going to start next year. This year, the students will start getting the message to the right people and develop a sales strategy that will be used next year. This  also involves market research activities and the study of the competition.

For Ooopy Gloop, the plan is to actually start promoting a project from scratch. That includes everything that an online project needs to become successful: using social media, search engine optimization, growing number of visitors, finding advertisers, creating a brand.’

For an overview of the WiNet Brands, and links to their individual sites: http://www.wittenborg.eu/wittenborg-university-network.htm

Debora Piancastelli Heiderich (left), a second year business student from Brazil worked on SpeakerMedica’, a training product for the international pharmaceutical industry;

"Sales, marketing, presentation skills, customer relationship management and web design are a few examples of fields on which I learned with the experience inSpeakerMedica.  Working with the Winet Group sharpened not only my sales and marketing skills, but also improved my self-confidence and willingness to build up my career path. Tim Birdsall is a very motivating and inspiring boss, who leads the team to meet objectives and set up strategies with focus and a good sense of humour."

WUP. 29/01/2012