Beedie School of Business News

For many people, the notion of investing in a business involves an eventual return of capital and ultimate profitability. However, financial gain was the last thing on the mind of Beedie School of Business lecturer and PhD student Adam Mills when he made his latest investment in BBA student projects – ultimately leading to funds raised for children with chronic illnesses and disabilities.

In his Business 478 strategy class, Mills tasked his students with starting up their own businesses. He gave five groups of undergraduate students $100 each from his own pocket as start-up capital in exchange for 15 percent of each business, and told the students they could keep any additional profit.

Mills decided early in the process that hands-on experience was a more engaging way for the students to learn about business strategy than the traditional approach of writing a business plan as a capstone project. Keep reading…

Tags: Adam Mills, Business Strategy, entrepreneurship, Fruit Dealers, PhD

A group of undergrad students from the Beedie School of Business have taken it upon themselves to feed their fellow students – with a focus on healthy eating.

The Fruit Dealers are providing hungry staff and students with healthy and nutritious fruit cups delivered throughout SFU. Each fruit cup is priced at $4, contains three portions of fruit, and is made with the team’s special secret sauce for added flavour.

The team consists of BBA students Ed Wong, Kiran Dhinsa, Steven Ruggles, Jeff Phung, and Jacky Zhang and was formed as part of their Business 478 (Strategy) class with Adam Mills. At the beginning of the class, Adam suggested that each group start a real business on campus. Since then, with support and guidance from Adam, the Fruit Dealers have been working to turn their idea into a sustainable business.

When trying to decide on the nature of their class business, the team wanted to solve a problem faced by lots of students on campus. “During our initial meeting Steven got hungry and pulled out slices of fruit and vegetables,” explains Kiran. “The rest of the team said something to the effect of: ‘That looks really good, I wish I had time to prepare that kind of healthy food every day.’ That was our eureka moment!” Keep reading…

Tags: Adam Mills, Business 478, entrepreneurship, Fruit Dealers, sustainability