Shadow day at Tripolis with Eric Minnaard

In a previous edition of Tripost, you could read about Eric Minnaard's journey via Global Exploration. Based on Eric's studies, he would like to spend a day at Tripolis. This day has now taken place and Eric is happy to report on his experience below. We are always open to welcoming students and we really enjoyed having Eric spend a day with us.

On 6 January, I had a shadow day at Tripolis Business Support. It was a day that I found very educational and interesting. I got a good idea of how economics and business economics work in practice.

The day began with a strategic session with a female entrepreneur from the travel industry. During this session, we looked at possible mistakes or areas for improvement in the current business structure. This conversation lasted about four hours and I was allowed to follow everything closely. What I found remarkable was to see up close how a female entrepreneur spoke with such passion about her business. At the same time, it was also confrontational for her. Rob, the owner of Tripolis Business Support, took a critical look at her vision and way of doing business.

Ultimately, it became clear that the extra service that the company offers, and for which it is known, can no longer be offered free of charge. Rob suggested working with two different packages. The first package includes extra service for which customers pay more, but in return they receive a fully customised travel package. The second package does not include any extra service and therefore no service charges are applied.

At the end of this session, I was allowed to help with a SWOT analysis. I enjoyed doing this because SWOT analyses are very familiar from business economics lessons at school. It was interesting to see how something we learn in class is applied in practice.

At three o'clock in the afternoon, a student from Maastricht University came by to explain a project he is working on. This project focuses on offering part-time jobs to master's students studying economics. The conversation began with questions for Tripolis Business Support. He then gave a structured presentation on possible projects that Master's students could work on for pay. I was impressed to see how this student, despite his relatively limited experience, had set up such a project on his own initiative and gave a clear, good presentation about it. Perhaps I will also be interested in a part-time job through one of these projects in the future.

All in all, I thought it was a fantastic day that gave me many new insights into how economics and business economics work in practice. I think this will be very useful to me in the future. -- Eric Minnaard