Global Pet Foods PEI receives valuable input from UPEI business students
Global Pet Foods PEI, a division of the largest Canadian-owned chain of specialty pet food and supply stores which carries a selection of natural, organic, holistic, and raw pet foods was UPEI's most recent client for Business 391: Strategic Management's annual case presentation.
'Having students work with real clients in developing strategies allows them the opportunity to demonstrate knowledge from all business disciplines,' said Gary Evans, associate professor in UPEI's School of Business. 'Having clients like Global Pet Foods helps engage our students and the research done by the student teams is always impressive. My sincere thanks to Global Pet Foods for the opportunity to work with them and congratulations to all of the teams for their outstanding work.'
Three teams-J.JABS Consulting, Strategy Gurus, and Core Consulting-were chosen to compete in the class competition on April 4 where they presented their ideas and strategies to Global Pet Foods PEI clients Linda Keane and Josh Blinder.
Blinder appreciated working with the business students as it gave Global Pet Foods PEI value and the opportunity to think outside the box. 'We received some creative and innovative ideas that we can implement within our business,' said Blinder. 'It allowed us to step back and look at what's going on in our business and observe what will help propel us in the future.'
Keane and Blinder presented the winning cheque of $1,000 to the Strategy Gurus team whose objectives for Global Pet Foods PEI included increasing consumer education, loyalty, and competitive advantage; using online advertising and social media opportunities; decreasing operating costs; and increasing growth in sales. The team, consisting of Aniqa Zahoor, Emonigho Abamwa, Carol Craswell, Dominic Avishigh, and Manoj Khandavelli, provided insightful recommendations for the clients and provided a short-and long-term timeline for consideration.
'I'm a pet owner and current customer of Global Pet Foods so it was interesting to work with Josh and get totally inside the business,' said Craswell. 'We were excited to be selected as one of the final groups to provide our recommendations to the client, and as a group, we used a lot of the strategies, tools, and techniques we learned in Gary's class to come up with our final recommendations. The most satisfying part was hearing that Global Pet Foods was happy with our work and was actually going to be implementing some of the strategies we had suggested.'
