Chapter Four
Grape Software
Junior Business Consultant (Project Manager)
Northumbria University Business Clinic . Jan to May 2026
An academic consultancy, run like the real thing. Through Northumbria’s Business Clinic I led a team building a 5 to 10 year plan for Grape Software, a UK food-safety SaaS company, to enter the GCC market.
Less about polish, more about thinking through the whole arc: who it’s for, why it exists, and how it should travel.
- Managed the engagement end to end: team, timelines, and delivery across every workstream.
- Audited the business internally using RBV, VRIO, and SWOT.
- Ran market research across four GCC markets, covering market sizing, regulation, enforcement, inspection cadences, and digital readiness.
- Turned the research into strategy: entry mode, tiered country priorities, a pilot plan, marketing, financial projections, and a 10-year roadmap.
- Built risk analysis and mitigation around the data limits caused by regional instability at the time.
What was delivered
- 5 to 10 year strategy
- 4 GCC markets
- Internal + external audit
- Financials + pricing model
- Risk analysis
- Entry-mode + pilot plan