THRICE

OBC has launched a new initiative called Theory and Research in Practice (THRICE). Undertaken to further the interests of our students & local businesses, THRICE would also serve to demonstrate the relevance of theory & research to actual business problems.

The College’s learning and teaching framework has an innovative and applied approach as its foundation to enhance learning by integrating theoretically informed research into practice. The primary objective of THRICE is to provide the local small & medium-sized businesses with solutions to their key problems. The solutions are arrived at by embedding theory & research into the problem-solving process. A student-led approach is adopted wherein they are allowed to implement their learning by applying the latest theoretically informed research to real-world business problems.

The challenges faced by small & medium-sized businesses have been aggravated by the havoc wreaked by the COVID19 pandemic. During the lockdown, non-essential businesses were either forced to entirely close their doors to the public or change their modus operandi. Reduced footfall continues to take a heavy toll on local shops and restaurants as the country recovers from the economic impact of the pandemic. To climb up the ladder, small businesses have to channel their resources towards increasing brand awareness, ensuring customer satisfaction, & recruiting the right people. Furthermore, consequently, they mostly find themselves short on budget to hire business consultants.

As a socially responsible organisation, we pride ourselves on giving back to our local communities, and thus we offer consulting services at no additional cost to the businesses. THRICE, therefore, provides the Oxford Business College students with opportunities to apply theory and research to real business problems and enables the College to expand its reach to local businesses, helping them improve their prospects by addressing some significant obstacles to their growth.

We plan to focus on small and medium-sized businesses and start-ups located in the vicinity of our campuses in Oxford, London, Coventry, Slough and Nottingham. Business owners will present their main problem or concern in the form of a short (one-minute) video. Students from OBC will then produce a well-thought-out business report as part of their coursework that identifies the root cause of the problem and provides research-informed solutions.