Earlier last month, marketing major students from Curtin Dubai’s School of Business and School of Arts carried out a team-based consultancy project for Hunter Foods LLC a leading superfoods and snacks manufacturing and distribution company that is headquartered in Dubai.
As part of the assignment developed by Curtin Dubai’s Head of the School of Business, Dr. Khyati Shetty, students were required to innovate and produce new product concepts for the Hunter Foods brand. This consultancy project involved thorough research which focused on identification of markets, product design, development and conceptualization of the new products.
“It was amazing to watch students from two different schools working together in teams, prioritizing different parts of the product, exploring tradeoffs of different approaches in a process that lead to the development of some great products for Hunter Foods. Moreover, having this project extended to the other Curtin campuses truly made us feel like being a part of the ‘One Curtin’ vision,” Dr Shetty said.
Every group presented their concepts to the family-business entrepreneurs Mr Ananya Narayan, Managing Director and Ms Yan Narayan, Marketing Director of Hunter Foods just as they would be required to do in the corporate world. The business owners were impressed with the high-quality work produced by Curtin students.
“I would like to thank Dr Shetty for conceiving this idea and the students for these in-depth case study presentations. The students experienced a taste of the real business world. We most definitely look forward to hearing from the students of the other Curtin campuses,” Ms Narayan said.
Curtin Dubai Student Ms Kate Roska who is enrolled in the Bachelor of Arts degree in Web Media and Marketing thoroughly enjoyed her first real-world consulting experience as her group and others received spot assessments and constructive feedback from the entrepreneurs themselves.
“Ms Yan Narayan and Mr Ananya Narayan complimented the design of our brochures and the way we created them to appeal to our target market. Through these presentations, we practiced our soft skills, and were also able to experience a little of what it like is to create their own products”, said Ms Roska.
Hunter Foods was established in 1985 by Mr Bharat Narayan, a well know entrepreneur and business magnate. Hunter Foods distributes its range of specialty and gourmet snacks into all major retailers and food service establishments including airlines, hotels, restaurants, and catering companies, whilst exporting to over 25 countries on 7 continents.
The Hunter Foods – Curtin Dubai Consultancy Project is now also being extended to all other Curtin Campuses, through the support of the Unit Coordinator for the course, Siobhan Hatton-Jones.
