UNB Students Provide Valuable Insights For Struggling Fredericton Businesses
The city of Fredericton, like other cities across the globe, has seen a huge economic downturn during the Covid-19 pandemic. The business community has been trying to find creative ways to create new revenue at a time when money is historically tight. Luckily for Fredericton, the city has thousands of energetic, bright, students who have intelligent insight into such problems.
During the Fall semester, a group of students from the UNB Fredericton Faculty of Management partnered with the Fredericton Chamber of Commerce and Ignite Fredericton to help the hardest-hit businesses. The students were a part of the capstone Strategic Management class.
Krista Ross, CEO of the Fredericton Chamber of Commerce says having students go out into the city and help struggling businesses provided an invaluable asset for the community.
“Everything they’ve known about doing business has really been turned upside down. We’ve faced challenges that haven’t been on our radar in the past,” Ross said about the pandemic.
“We knew that we did not have the capacity to go about writing lengthy reports and that sort of thing. In the meantime, we were approached by UNB with this group of students who were looking for business projects, and it was absolutely just a perfect fit.”
One of the students who put her in-class learning to use in the real world for this project was Olivia Grace Huddleston. The fourth-year marketing major and her group were tasked with helping the food and accommodation sector, arguably the most suffering sector in Canada since the beginning of the pandemic.
“A project like this allows me to put all that experience to work,” said Huddleston. “It was really fun working on a project that was going to make a difference for someone.”
Huddleston and her classmates quickly learned that restaurants and hotels faced a variety of unique issues. Because of social distancing rules, these businesses often lack the physical capacity to make a profit. They also weren’t making enough money to keep much staff in place. To make matters worse, the pandemic has scared off a huge portion of their customer base.
“A lot of people were just too afraid to come to their restaurants and hotels because of the pandemic. So, they’ve been struggling a lot with trying to bring people in,” said Huddleston.
Huddleston and her group came up with some brilliant methods for restaurants to get their dishes to customers. The first idea was for restaurant owners to record cooking tutorials and allow customers to rent the videos online.
“This would be good for those who can’t leave their homes or are too afraid to go out and catch Covid,” said Huddleston. “So, this would be a great way for restaurants to make some income and still be a part of the community and reach their customers.”
It’s no secret that more and more people feel they don’t have the time to cook proper meals at home, or they simply hate cooking. There has been a huge rise in subscription food services that deliver easy-to-cook ingredients right to peoples’ doors. Huddleston recommends more restaurants set up a similar service during the pandemic.
The hotel industry also faces unique problems. Hotels traditionally rely on tourists and travelers for a big bulk of their business. So, what other ways can a hotel make money at a time no one is flying or driving great distances?
Huddleston and her group realized that hotel rooms provide a nice, quiet, place for people who need a break from their usual environment. So, they suggested hotels in Fredericton start offering day rates for people who would like to get away for a few hours.
“This could be a great way for students, for example, who are studying for their LSATs or a big exam, to have a quiet place to go and have a good, stable, internet connection, to go get some work done,” said Huddleston.
The group also realized that people who are doing home renovations often need a place to stay for a few nights while their house is being upgraded. So, why not have hotels partner with home renovation contractors? The contractors could inform the homeowners that, by hiring their company, they would get a great deal on a hotel room. It is a win-win for both industries.
Huddleston credits much of her ability to analyze these problems with the four years of education she received at UNB. Through her business and marketing classes, she learned certain tools that are applicable to the real business world.
One such tool she used this fall was the SWOT analysis, where you identify a businesses’ Strengths Weaknesses Opportunities and Threats. This happened to be a perfect tool during a pandemic where all four factors became amplified.
Krista Ross and the rest of the Fredericton business community were impressed with the students’ presentations, which were held virtually between December 7-11. Ross believes Fredericton, with its great student population, has an untapped resource just waiting to be fully utilized.
“We were able to utilize the skills and talents of these students. They were able to put their strengths and talents to work with a real-world problem,” said Ross.
“I would encourage businesses to give consideration to working with some of the students that are going through programs such as this strategic management program. It’s really an untapped source of exceptional knowledge and support. These are our future community and business leaders.”
Banner photo: Matt Bonnell (BBA student), Krista Ross (CEO, Fredericton Chamber of Commerce), Andrew Lockhart (Economic Development Specialist, Ignite Fredericton, Knowledge Park, Planet Hatch), and Olivia Huddleston (BBA student). Photo: Daniel Minchin (Planet Hatch).