Abingdonian 2018

34 The Abingdonian Young Enterprise Young Enterprise is an organisation focused on teaching young people valuable business skills. For many years now, Abingdon School has entered teams into the scheme, and yet again this year many took an interest. Boys who signed up to the weekly other half sessions were split into four teams of around 12 people, and prescribed a Business Advisor to guide them through the process. First and foremost teams chose roles for each member. These included titles such as Operations Director, Marketing Director and Finance Director. Most prominent of these roles is the Managing Director, who is responsible for designing the meeting structure and keeping everyone on track with their tasks, among other things. Deciding the name was the first group choice that had to be made. This year’s decisions were: XYLO, ZERO Degrees, Woodworx and Global Chef. The first item of business was brainstorming a product/service idea. The general consensus of all was to go down the route of products. After a few sessions of idea sharing, thoughts were narrowed down into two or three concepts. After making business plans, it was swiftly time for the teams to start manufacturing for the Christmas season of sales. A range of products were produced to a very high quality. XYLO made laser-engraved, wooden notebooks, etched with their bespoke designs. ZERO degrees got winter clothing items printed with their logo. Woodworx handmade lots of different products, ranging from bug-homes to stress balls. Global Chef produced a cookbook compiling recipes from around the world. The Christmas markets and trade stalls were all very popular, all teams having many customers. This was overall the period where each company tended to make most sales, meaning things were off to a flying start. Having many fairs in a short period forced everyone to learn how to approach possible customers and learn appropriate sales techniques with much haste. St Helen and St Katharine School and Abingdon Prep School were just some of the selling opportunities that the companies secured during the season. In the New Year there were two more events attended by all teams: the Cowley Trade Fair and Banbury Trade Fair. Both of these were very important as they were Young Enterprise organised. These were also the first times that the companies had been judged by the official Young Enterprise adjudicators, so tensions were high. The Banbury Trade Fair took place during the harsh weather of early March; temperatures reaching below zero and