The project is a two-year Knowledge Transfer Partnership (KTP), part-funded by the Government through Innovate UK. A team of Leeds Business School academics will lead the project to boost Freight Agency’s strategic marketing and management capabilities. They will create a bespoke internationalisation strategy to drive growth in existing and new international markets.
Dr Catherine Ashworth, Senior Lecturer in Strategic Marketing Management at Leeds Business School, explained: “For more than 30 years, Freight Agency’s primary market has been West Africa. The business has already started to diversify the range of goods they ship and penetrate some new geographical markets. Our KTP will support their ambitious plans to grow their international market presence and diversify further.
“The Leeds Business School team will work with Freight Agency to embed innovative, strategic marketing and decision-making capabilities. We will underpin the growth strategy by embedding a new market-oriented culture and establishing fresh and streamlined processes throughout the business. As part of the cultural change agenda, we will also strengthen internal and external marketing communications capabilities and boost partnership management competencies.
“Key to success will be to boost coordination between the different functions within the business to support the international growth – and set up the necessary infrastructure and frameworks to support the development and changes across the target international freight network.”
Andrew Dickson, Commercial Manager at Freight Agency Limited, said: “We are excited to begin the collaboration with Leeds Beckett University, which will foster a more market-driven culture right across the business, enabling us to achieve our strategic growth ambitions and improve our service capabilities in our target international markets and sectors.
“The KTP will allow us to embed the skills and capabilities needed to develop, test, and transform our international market access and entry modes, and to improve our service level capabilities – which will be a new and innovative, intelligence-led approach for us.
“With a new, more agile and proactive business model, we will be able to respond to different, and evolving, market needs. As part of this more strategic approach to growth, we will also be able to increase our work with existing customers – and enter new markets and territories to sustain the business over the longer term.”
The project will be managed by a KTP Associate – a skilled graduate who will be recruited as a full-time member of Freight Agency, with the full support of the Leeds Beckett academic team. Alongside Dr Ashworth will be a team of experts including Stratis Koutsoukos, Course Director and Principal Lecturer at Leeds Business School.
Leeds Beckett students will have opportunities to benefit from the collaboration with Freight Agency through student projects, learning through teaching and real-life case studies.
