School for Santas

Here is a great example of skills training to meet a seasonal need, which was reported on the BBC website yesterday . A visit to santaschool.co.uk will enable you to register for one of the latest training courses.

Run in association with Dumfries and Galloway Council, Stuart Thompson is, for the second year running, offering a training course which has a very specific objective - to ensure delivery of unforgettable, quality experience to children of all ages. The training at Mabie Farm Park near Dumfries aims to help people take on the role in places like shopping centres and children’s parties and the website says that the training syllabus includes the History of Santa, voice training, costumes, make-up, roleplay etc. They also take bookings for personal home visits and reindeer hire - and the website is very carefully worded to ensure that the integrity of ‘the one and only Santa’ is maintained.

It is a spin-off of a business called Heatherbank Promotions which is an Entertainment Agency for Parties & Events, and strikes me as a great example of entrepreneurial product development!

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Corporate and Functional objectives - how BMW uses the Mini brand

The modern, 21st century Mini may look rather different from the 1950’s original -

- but you can probably see the family resemblance there. There is an interesting article here about how BMW’s designers updated the new model by imagining how it might have looked if redesigned in 1969, 1979, 1989, and finally arriving at the 1999 remodelling which has been so very successful. The brand is being extended and the design features adapted in a range of product developments that range from the two-seater convertible shown at the top of this article to a four-door 4x4 cross-over model which will go into production this winter.