Career-building consultants

MBA students in the Alfred Lerner College of Business and Economics are providing a valuable service to the local business community and getting hands-on experience at the same time as they serve as consultants on a wide variety of business problems.

In the Business Consulting Practicum, students pursuing master's degrees in business administration work in groups to apply the knowledge they've gained in classes to real-life organizational problems or to a set of needs for companies.

Recently, for example, three students from the program presented the findings from their consulting projects to an elite gathering of biotech business representatives at the Delaware Biotechnology Institute.

Anil Duriseti, a full-time MBA student, presented market research his group conducted for W.L. Gore & Associates as the company contemplated new applications for its Gore-Tex® fabrics. After collecting and analyzing data and formulating a market entry strategy, the team of student consultants presented findings showing that market saturation and intense brand loyalty were significant barriers to entry into the market Gore was considering. The group's findings were influential in redirecting the company's business development efforts.

At the same meeting, student Mark Perri, who graduated last semester and is employed at Davis Technologies, presented the risks and benefits of Cara Plastics entering the housing market in India. Perri's group explored the possibilities for Cara to help revitalize India's slums by providing low-cost housing materials engineered from plant oils.

Although India could supply the raw materials to make such inexpensive housing, the students found that distribution channels would be difficult in light of the Indian government's own low-cost housing materials and political constraints.

A third group of students conducted a market validation study for the Genomics Division of NaPro Biotherapeutics Inc. In a presentation by Patrick Smale, a student employed as a corporate associate at Endo Pharmaceuticals, the group assessed how NaPro's technology fits into the biotechnology industry. The team's research pointed to significant market potential and identified business models for the company's technology.

While not internships, the student-consultant experiences provide students with excellent résumé items, according to John E. Sawyer, professor and chairperson of the College's Department of Business Administration. Sawyer says the consulting projects also give students valuable career contacts, as well as experience researching new products, conducting marketing studies and working in areas of finance, operations and information technology.

"I thoroughly enjoyed the program and found it extremely worthwhile," Smale says. As a full-time MBA student, he says he gained an immediate benefit by being part of a consulting team that included two working professionals who were pursuing their MBAs part time and could share their experiences from the "real world" of business.

"The project acts as an opportunity to apply the academics covered in the classroom and, more importantly, allows the student to integrate all of the separate subject matter, from marketing to finance to corporate strategy," Smale says. "It is also an incredible résumé booster."

During job interviews, he says, he always was asked about the consulting project, and he credits the experience with helping land him his current position at Endo Pharmaceuticals.

Sawyer oversees much of the practicum, along with faculty members from other concentrations, and uses his contacts in the business community to ferret out interesting projects for students. Generally, he says, the students are able to participate in assignments that dovetail with their career interests. Other faculty members who have been involved in mentoring projects include Erwin Saniga, Dana J. Johnson Professor; Rick Andrews, professor of business administration; and John Kmetz, associate professor of business administration.

During the first few weeks of the course, students meet as a class to discuss team management, problem-solving strategies, project management and how to interact with clients. They learn how to be effective consultants and how to identify problems and solve them through a carefully developed plan.

For the rest of the semester, each team meets biweekly with its supporting faculty member. At each meeting, the team reports on its milestones, charts its project plan, shares where it is on a proposed timeline and outlines who is doing what and how time is being managed. In turn, the supervising professor raises issues, suggests readings and references that might be helpful and challenges the team on its plan's assumptions, while staying out of direct management of the client relationship.

"The projects empower students to design and implement solutions," Sawyer says. "It's a win-win situation for the business and the students."

--Beth Thomas