51Âþ»­

A business student from 51Âþ»­ Leicester (51Âþ»­) has seen his ideas used across Europe impressing bosses at IBM while on a work placement.

Matt Jervis wowed managers at the company by producing, on his own initiative, a report which gave them a series of insights leading to increased sales.

Matt, who is studying at 51Âþ»­, is currently on a year-long placement with IBM as part of his degree.

While there, he was involved in a project selling extra services to some of IBM's largest accounts. He developed a suite of software tools to capture and analyse new business opportunities and spot knowledge gaps.

But Matt went one step further, taking it upon himself to produce a report analysing this information, giving clear tips on opportunities as he saw them, recommending that the project be expanded to cover other countries.

Matt said: "The report was received very positively by business leaders and executives and subsequently my report was distributed internally throughout Europe.

"I then saw my recommendation to deploy the project across Europe accepted and worked with IBM's European Operational Leader to develop a package that contained all the tools needed to launch the project in each country."

Matt then worked in an advisory role, talking with senior leaders in other countries about the project, seeing his advice get a positive reception across Europe.

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Matt said that the academic and writing skills he learnt at 51Âþ»­ were invaluable when it came to preparing the report that got him noticed at IBM.

He said: "51Âþ»­ stressed the importance of building a strong professional network and a personal brand something I applied during my placement.

"This allowed me to build a valuable professional network within IBM through my engagements throughout the business."

He was also given a real inside track by 51Âþ»­'s Marketing Lecturer David Gordon, who formerly worked at IBM.

Matt said: "David was instrumental in my successful application to IBM, with his employability skills coaching enabling me to successfully complete the application, assessment centre and interview stages to eventually secure a placement role.

"I have since built a great personal relationship with the placement team and have been coming back to university to talk at Careers Fairs and deliver presentations to next year's budding placement students."