SDU student: ‘Business collaborations are a way of showing companies what we can do’

By Asta Holst Bach

- It was really great to get out there and work with a company and not just solve tasks in class, says Alex Martin Jensen.

He has just started the third semester of his bachelor’s degree in Economics and Business Administration, HA – Human Resource Management in Slagelse, part of SDU’s Business School.

Last spring, together with his study group and in connection with their marketing project assignment, he had the opportunity to go behind the scenes at the conference and events hotel Rørvig Centret in Odsherred.

A joint project

Alex Martin Jensen and the study group could choose from a number of companies that had made themselves available for the collaboration, and the three young people decided to reach out to the director of the Rørvig Centre, Pernille Ottesen.

This was during the corona lockdown, and the first connection was established via Zoom. But director Pernille Ottesen was very accommodating, Alex Martin Jensen remembers.

- Pernille was really prepared for it to be a joint project and that she was available to us, because there was potential for her to get something really good out of the collaboration.

Insights and new ideas

Pernille Ottesen gave the students access to most things. They were sent the Centre’s customer lists and accounts and were invited to Rørvig for a free weekend stay, says Alex Martin Jensen.

Pernille Ottesen was interested in the young people’s ideas on how she could attract more conference customers. So Alex Martin Jensen and the study group started mapping the company’s marketing and contacted previous guests to ask about their experience of the place.

Among other things, the group concluded that the Rørvig Centre’s website needed to be revised.

- The website was very nice, and it was mostly aimed at private holidaymakers. But what about the business customers? There was a lack of content on the website that targeted them, says Alex Martin Jensen.

- We suggested splitting the website in two so that they wouldn’t lose private customers in the attempt to acquire more conference customers, and Pernille could actually see the logic in that.

Brave youngsters

Pernille Ottesen is very impressed with Alex Martin Jensen and the study group’s commitment to the project.

- They look at marketing in a completely different way than I do, and they’ve spent a lot of time calling current and future customers, she says. - They’re more forward than I am and maybe a little more courageous.

According to the Centre’s director, several of the ideas in the report submitted by the three SDU students after the collaboration were so good that she wants to make them a reality.

- I have read their paper and it was really good. Many of their ideas are definitely ones I will keep in mind.

Specifically, Pernille Ottesen has started to investigate the possibilities of making changes to the Centre’s website. She is following up the group’s proposal to split the website so that one part is aimed at private individuals and another at business customers.

Showing what you can do

For Alex Martin Jensen, the project for the Rørvig Centre has given him the courage to try his hand at other business collaborations.

- It’s definitely been an opportunity to go out and test yourself and at the same time show companies what you can do.

- I think that collaborations with companies are a great way to learn, and I hope that we can do it in more courses, he says.