What started as a germ of an idea ended up with one Whanganui UCOL student being flown to Auckland to make a presentation to the bosses of an Australasian multi-national company.
James Little, 25, is halfway through a two-year Diploma of Business course at UCOL and was part of a team that worked closely with corporate "partners" to research areas of their businesses as part of their Applied Management paper.
James' team project chose New Zealand Towel Services (NZTS), owned by Alsco, mainly because his father works for the company in Wanganui.
Their brief was to find out how the business interacted with its customers and how these customers were using its products and services.
"We looked at a number of businesses, but then I thought of Alsco, but only because my father works for them. Dad told me they'd never had customer feedback, or if they did it was never detailed enough," he said.
"They service about 40 to 50 businesses in Wanganui, so that was going to give us a broad range."
Over three months, James and his colleagues visited and surveyed 35 Wanganui customers, such as schools, restaurants and factories, and then analysed the findings.
They compiled all the data in a 62-page report, which they then presented in front of their tutors.
"Next thing, I got a phone call from Alsco saying they wanted me to deliver the paper to the big bosses in Auckland, including the company heads from Australia," he said.
"They were very impressed, and it looks like they're going to go ahead with some of the recommendations we made in our report and put them into effect next year."
One of the key recommendations called for Alsco to carry out regular customer surveys to get better feedback.
Projects UCOL students have done in previous years have involved Mega Mitre 10, Training for You (a private training establishment), Mainstreet Wanganui, and other businesses.
For James, the cake has been iced with news that he had emerged as top student in his class this year.
After completing his diploma course in 2013 he is looking at heading to Australia.