Nick Thorne was Business Manager for the Technology Faculty at Southampton Solent University from Feb 2009 to June 2010. He divided his time into several phases.
1. Observe and learn university systems [2 months].
2. Skills, facilities and capability audit [3 months].
3. Report to management and seek mandate for change [2 months].
4. Report results of change management process and further actions [9 months].
The principal deliverables of the 16 months were:
- Capability audit report for the faculty.
- New finance reporting systems (crawl chart based).
- Installation of new set of business resources. NDAs, contracts, quotation template, facilities hire agreements, business T&Cs. Developed in conjunction with Bond Pearce LLP.
- Audit of the University IPR systems and implementation of new policies, procedures and guidelines, with a roadmap to full IPR exploitation systems.
- Analysis and reporting of future shape of the enterprise activity to make optimal use of HEIF4 funding.
During the course of the 16 months, Nick learned a great deal about the differences between private and public sector operations. He also built a large network of contacts in the HEI sector in local and other UK universities.
Enterprise development activities overview