international aspect of the students. It provided a much broader perspective of the global business world. Working with people from different backgrounds and with such different skills brought a real diversity of ideas and approaches into the classroom.”
At all stages of the course, Benjamin was able to target his learning to help build his new company. “I wrote my dissertation on strategic networking and undertook research that was related to my business idea,” he says.
tool for busy professionals to save time and help maximise their networking potential.
“We wanted to make a product which would make life easier for people. Social media platforms were created to do this but in reality, having so many networks with different people, different information, on different channels, can make things more complicated. Handy Elephant can make things better and help businesses grow. It is an instant productivity app for relationship management.”
For Benjamin, studying at LUMS was the start of realising his dream of owning his own business and becoming an entrepreneur.
“It couldn’t have happened without LUMS. I am so glad I have studied there and it has opened many doors for me.”
“I chose LUMS as the degree had everything I wanted in the course and because of the great reputation of the school. I loved the atmosphere at LUMS; it was very open and creative. I felt it was a place of ideas and that I could go to anyone for advice.”
In the first few weeks of the Masters in E-Business and Innovation course at LUMS, students have to come up with a potential business idea and create a business plan. It was at this point that Ben began the journey towards creating Handy Elephant. The Masters degree builds students’ understanding of both business and technology areas and aims to help students maximise the potential for new information technologies to aid innovation in business.
“The hands-on approach of the course was perfect as was the
Up until now, Handy Elephant has been entirely self-funded, but now with the Silicon Valley investment, Benjamin hopes to increase the profile of the free app. His latest figures show there have been over 3,500 users and over 25,000 user sessions since its inception in early 2011, and Benjamin hopes this will increase hugely over the next 12 months, as Handy Elephant is currently working on a web application for non-Android users. “At the moment the main audience is in the sales or recruitment sectors, where effective relationship management is vital. I think as the product grows it will be a great tool for business professionals in general. It is a timesaver. You don’t forget to chase up people; you can tell when the best time to approach a contact is. Using Handy Elephant could save those who network regularly about half an hour a day, which can be used to concentrate on and grow other parts of the business. We think the app has great potential.”
With companies in the most competitive and innovative place in the technology world taking notice, Handy Elephant is a name Benjamin hopes people won’t forget.
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