Tackling food waste during Work Experience Week

I recently took part in a fantastic MDX Work Experience Week project. 

I spent five intensive days in a team trying to solve the 'perishable profit' gap for Yuge Savers UK. The perishable profit gap refers to the revenue lost by retailers when perishable food expires before it can be sold.

I had the opportunity to gain hands-on, real-world skills which I can reflect on in my future projects. I developed a range of graduate competencies on each day of this project which will guide my career. These include problem solving and delivery, the entrepreneurial mindset, curiosity and learning, adaptability and leadership.

Day 1

We started with onboarding and a detailed client brief from Yuge Savers, one of the UK's leading retail brands. Groups of students from diverse backgrounds and disciplines created a good team spirit. Our client, Ziyaad from Tesco, explained the challenges and problems that Yuge Savers was looking to solve.

Middlesex University alumnus Ziyaad shared his experiences, which gave us a better understanding of the retail market.

After the group was divided into teams, we delegated roles in our respective teams to establish our strategy.

I was a researcher in my team. It reminded me about my MBA classroom sessions in strategy and innovation, which focused on a case study of retailer Aldi.

My professor's advice to read more international journals and case studies was helpful to learn more insights during research. I quickly started to analyse retail strategies and how AI patterns help us to understand a range of things:

• customer preferences
• products that are about to expire or sell out
• meal deal preferences at various times of the day
• the grocery shopping preferences of perishable food products for various demographics, including Gen Z and millennials.

We also addressed reducing the visibility gap of products going out of date.

We focused on pricing gaps with cost strategies. We looked at reducing food waste to achieve sustainability goals. We also looked at increasing profit margins to both improve overall efficiency and to reach commercial goals.

Day 2: Research and insight

Each member of my team focused on specific research areas, as well as understanding customer preferences and carrying out market analysis of competitors. One of my teammates, Vladyslav, started preparing a business case. We exchanged ideas on Slack and shared our research outcomes to discuss further and arrive at conclusions to start the next day.

Day 3: Ideas and development

We started planning as a team to give recommendations derived from our research outcomes. These suggestions provided the basis for the idea of an AI app that would identify customer behaviour and arrange food products on the shelf at the right time and in the right place. As a team, we proposed a 'METIS AI Retail Solution'

On the flip side, we were thinking of ways to reduce the risk of AI errors impacting business decisions. Store managers would be able to review and approve all AI-generated recommendations prior to implementation.

Day 4: Solution, presentation, design and development

We discussed the Figma platform and our METIS AI Retail Solution app, which would identify risk products, provide data of units sold and food waste avoided. It would also display purchase and product data. We believed loyalty/membership cards could help track customer behaviour patterns with this AI retail solution.

Our presentation design on Canva was shared on Slack and discussed by the team.

There was also an amazing workshop session on the workplace by Rizwan Ahmed, Director at learning and development (L&D) specialist Glass Swan. It really helped me understand and learn more about workplace behaviour, employee mindset, controlling anxiety and developing communication.

Day 5: Presentation and the final pitch

As a team, we began planning how to present our ideas. Vladyslav presented ideas while another teammate, Vasiliki, led on the pitch. Myself and other teammates Lisa, Pinto, Asia and Aiman made suggestions and added a few thoughts of our own.

We shared a business case alongside our team presentation on Canva. Finally, we presented to our client, Ziyaad, a panel of judges, as well as Professor Shân Wareing, Vice-Chancellor of Middlesex University and Jack Tims, Head of Careers and Futures.

We received valuable feedback, as well as questions which helped us to analyse and improve our work.

At the end of the day, each participant received a certificate for completing Work Experience Week. This was a most rewarding experience.

With thanks to...

I'm thankful to Maria Olariu and the MDX Careers and Futures team for hosting such a dynamic Work Experience Week.

As an MDX MBA graduate, I want to express my heartfelt thanks to my marketing professors such as Professor Michael Kourtoubelides, Professor TC Melewar and Professor Moustafa Battor.

I would also like to thank Strategy and Innovation Professor John Ioannis Kouraklis, Global Operations Management Professor Abraham Althonayan and Professor Vinaya Shukla for sharing their knowledge in classroom sessions. This helped me to bring impactful insights into my work.

I lastly want to thank Vasiliki, Vladyslav, Lisa, Pinto, Asia and Aiman for welcoming me to their team.

I'm grateful for everything I learned during Work Experience Week.

Find out more about the Masters in Business Administration (MBA) course at Middlesex University.