A final-year Marketing student from De Montfort University Leicester (DMU) has secured his second X-Culture win of the year at an international symposium in Chiang Rai, Thailand.
Having been part of a winning team and demonstrated excellent leadership skills in the 2023-24 X-Culture Global Competition, Luis Polo Rey, 41, was invited to take part in the organisation’s Global Business Week, which includes a client consulting competition.
Dahla Dahla, Zara Sekeena, Isabel Benjamin Alvarado and DMU's Luis Polo Rey
Luis and his teammates Isabel Benjamin Alvarado (US), Zara Sekeena (US), and Dahla Dahla (Thailand) scooped the Best X-Culture Team Award for their work with family-owned supermarket chain Thanapiriya Public Co Ltd.
The brand, which has more than 50 stores in the north of Thailand, tasked Luis and his team with presenting ways to expand its business in the south of the country and neighbouring countries by improving its branding, website, HR practices, and online presence.
“We pushed very hard as a team to get the project completed, sometimes working until 1am, so I’m delighted that we won an award,” Luis said.
“Two weeks before we arrived in Thailand, not long before we discovered our teams, we set up a group chat and got to work straight away on the challenge, so I feel that the hard work justified the award.”
Unlike the annual Global Competition in which students enrolled on marketing courses from across the world are teamed together and meet virtually, the Global Business Week allows students to physically network with professionals, business owners, and their teammates.
Luis and the team were able to meet the company’s CEO at its headquarters, visit one of its stores and talk to locals about the company to get a better understanding of public perceptions of the brand.
At the end of the week, the team presented their ideas to the CEO of Thanapiriya and a panel of X-Culture judges, who awarded each member of the team with their own small trophy.
As was the case at the Global Competition earlier in the year, Luis was the only UK-based student to win an award at the Global Business Week.
He said: “Taking part in the symposium was a very different experience to the virtual Global Competition and a very rewarding one for me personally.
“Our team divided up the work, with some members focusing on HR. I was looking at the company’s digital and social media marketing, and analysing what their competitors were doing,” Luis said.
“We identified ways in which we could modernise their website and make it more user-friendly and visually appealing, before exploring who would be best to target ads to on social media and help Thanapiriya Public Co gain more exposure to the Thai market.
“I also loved exploring Chiang Rai, and learning more about its people and its culture.”
DMU’s X-Culture lead Ellie Hickman, senior lecturer in Marketing and Advertising, said: “I am incredibly proud of Luis and his amazing achievement, securing wins in both his X-Culture projects, first at DMU, and then again in Thailand at this exciting symposium, which DMU has helped support him to attend.
“Luis will continue to shine in his studies next year and will be a superstar to employ soon too.”
After graduating from his undergraduate in September, Luis will be bidding a fond farewell to Leicester and will be studying for his Master’s over at DMU’s Dubai campus in Academic City.
Posted on Friday 23 August 2024