The latest edition of London Global Classroom has come to an end. Fittingly, the 41 students that made up the Oct/Nov 2011 batch brought down the curtains with some excellent displays of showmanship, as seen during the final group presentations.

The 41 students were divided into four groups and worked on various briefs of Malaysian brands. The last group to take centre stage was Group 4, calling themselves Apex. They said that the name “described them as working in a team to achieve the highest outcome.”

Group 4, or rather, Apex, decided to promote Malaysian hospitality to foreigners in their home countries and thus, entice them to visit Malaysia. They wanted to answer the call by Malaysia’s Ministry of Tourism to have the big players in tourism make their presence felt abroad.

Apex decided to study Berjaya Hotels & Resorts, a company which already has a presence in London and which plays a key role in the Malaysian hospitality sector. Apex worked on a proposal that sees Berjaya Hotels & Resorts heed the government’s call for expansion by expanding its presence in London to other European cities.

A well-organised site visit carried out in the early stages was accompanied by a thorough SWOT analysis. Moreover, in order to have a better understanding of Berjaya’s business, Apex also conducted market research on the Berjaya Eden Park London Hotel and its contemporary back in Malaysia. They gathered extensive data and conducted massive amounts of research to produce a business sustainability plan for the Berjaya Hotels & Resorts brand.

With the sustainability plan, Apex looked at food miles and assessed how much Berjaya can reduce its environmental impact, doing their bit to reduce the impact on global warming in the process.

The group also proposed a redesign of the Berjaya logo, coming up with a more globally-appealing logo in its stead. They also produced a new motto and labels for Berjaya Hotel & Resorts to reach out and attract more people around the globe.

On the architectural side, the group proposed to convert the dull and plain Berjaya Coffee Shop into the Sarawak Lounge. Showing that they picked up more than a few pointers on visits to leading architectural firms such as ‘Foster + Partners’ and ‘Kohn Pedersen Fox (KPF) Associates’ as well as the world’s largest independent design consultancy, Pentagram, the new design aims to expose Malaysia to the Sarawak Lounge’s customers and position the country as the travel destination of choice by showing them glimpses of the state of Sarawak that is located on the island of Borneo—the same island that is home to one of the oldest rainforests in the world.

Apex also produced a promotional video targeted at highlighting the concept of 1Malaysia and its call for unity in diversity.

Overall, the one-month Global Classroom programme equipped the students across a plethora of disciplines with the knowledge, skills, confidence and ambition to be the leaders of tomorrow.