Celebrating Nottingham University Business School: A midwife, her memoirs and a mountain of marketing.
This article was a celebratory piece written for Nottingham University Business School (NUBS) 25 year anniversary. Despite lacking formal marketing training, Lotus Maternity Founder, Olivia's determination and network support led to admission to the school in 2021 during the pandemic. Graduation marked the validation of her unconventional path, affirming NUBS as a champion of innovation and individuality in business education.
Midwifery and the School of Business don’t traditionally marry in terms of subject matter but it rings true in this instance that the key lies within your network.
Having been the only Masters of Marketing graduate to hold a midwifery undergraduate degree, there were no surprises re the route to market in my story. It was unconventional to say the least. My success story (and I do deem it so, having stood on the David Ross stage not once but twice in the Summer of 2022, graduating with both a distinction and winning a prestigious alumni award) began with a chat to the Dean of NUBS, David Park.
Olivia with her family- mum, sister, aunty and niece at her Masters Graduation (July, 2022)
I had been affiliated with NUBS since 2017 when I first incorporated my business, Lotus Maternity and received the warmest of welcomes from Terri at the Ingenuity Lab, which has now become my second home. During the pandemic, I parked (no pun intended) business as usual however, since there was a national recall for healthcare professionals to don their PPE and I opted to return to clinical practice to help support the NHS.
At that time, David, was professor for Innovation and Entrepreneurship and feeling somewhat disheartened by having to put business operations on hold, I had a think on how I could strengthen the business whilst it was dormant.
‘You can have the best product in the world but if you can’t market it you are dead in the water.’
We have multi-award winning products and services at Lotus Maternity but I had zero formal training on marketing then. So I decided I would return to the UoN, 9 years after starting my undergrad to master (literally) the art of marketing. Only problem being that I had a 2:2 and the entry requirements were 2:1 or higher.
There’s a lot to be said in business re tenacity and I have plentiful but I also have peers and allies who appreciate that experience counts equally as much as good grades. So I called David. He put me in touch with the module convenor, we had a chat, I applied based on my business experience and got accepted.
Doing university remotely was strange, being seen as a ‘mature student’ aged 30, also somewhat odd but I think what I look back on now and smile upon is the continual support received from the school despite being the ‘odd one out’.
Olivia with NUBS colleagues and our intern Josh, shooting our reproductive health training video (Spring, 2023)
Most of my peers had graduated from business school, I’d graduated from the school of midwifery. I remember speaking to the professors on commencing the course re supporting with academic writing because a large proportion of my UG was clinical placement and I lacked experience of essay writing for HE. I remember Tassos being really encouraging and I always think of him fondly remembering when he sent a rather stern email at the beginning of the strategic marketing module, asking why I had not outlined the members for our group coursework. I was working as community clinical manager on the COVID19 vaccination programme for Nottinghamshire and our undertaking was enormous with needing to inoculate an entire population. He was wonderfully forgiving and understood exactly why it was perhaps not a top priority.
Olivia on an IWD 2024 panel with academics, Nottingham Business School colleagues and students
NUBS continued to understand that my MSc was very much a vocation, that I had chosen to enhance my business operations, when I was eventually relieved of my clinical duties. Sally, my dissertation supervisor seemed somewhat bemused when I submitted the outline for my dissertation - which focused on television marketing of infant formula milk and how it influences women’s choice to breastfeed. It’s paramount to produce work that you are passionate about and supporting breastfeeding was the genesis of Lotus Maternity. For Sally to say to me on graduation day what a fantastic piece of work it was, cemented for me the nature of NUBS and how passionate the school is on supporting business and championing innovators, who dare to do things differently.
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