Gaining real world experience

IOWA CITY - As the fall semester winded to an end, University of Iowa students Ashley Ambrose and Ryan Monkman stood at the front of a classroom in the John Pappajohn Business Building on Tuesday, preparing to give their final presentation to a semester-long project.

Ambrose, a marketing and management senior, and Monkman, an ethics and public policy senior, are part of the Entrepreneurial Management Institute. They were presenting their recommendations to the class on how Iowa-based startup Everscript should go about expanding into school districts, identifying its barriers to entry and possible opportunities.

At the end of their presentation, the class and their instructors peppered them with questions before they were able to return to their seats.

UI houses several student-run business consulting firms - overseen by faculty members - that help businesses across the state and around the country. The services give students a chance to gain on-the-job work experience while the businesses can tackle management and marketing problems they might not otherwise be able to afford.

'Maybe a restaurant wants to expand its hours or move to a bigger building or start catering,” said Phil Jordan, assistant director of economic development for the Tippie College of Business. 'Or Maybe a manufacturer wants to do more with its products or start a social media ad campaign.”

Jordan oversees the institute, which gives undergraduate students a chance to consult with small- to medium-sized Iowa businesses.

About 70 students from a variety of majors, including political science, business and engineering, take the class each semester, he said.

The students are split into groups and assigned a project and a business. Jordan said the businesses, which he recruits from around the state, receive the consulting services at no-cost. Students must come up with a proposal, conduct an environmental analysis, and present their final recommendations and written report.

Mentors work with the students throughout the semester to provide feed back and advice, Jordan said.

'I wanted real-world tangible experience,” said Monkman, who is also pursuing a certificate in Entrepreneurial Management. 'This was a nice steppingstone, where we had an adviser for help, but we were really out their on our own.

Building skills

These classes allow students to get out of the classroom and into the field, those who oversee the programs said.

'Chances are when you graduate, you're going to work for a company that offers little to no training,” said Peggy Stover, director of Tippie's Marketing Institute, a three-semester program that requires students apply. 'It's a sink-or-swim environment. And we want to help students be independent workers and team players.”

The 15 to 20 students accepted into the institute work for clients that range from start-ups and small businesses to multibillion-dollar companies, Stover said.

They also develop corporate survival skills, learning how to handle tough interviews and company reorganizations and job layoffs as well as proper business etiquette, communication skills, data analysis and presentation skills.

Stover reported that 100 percent of the students who have gone through the program, which has been around for five years, are employed.

Going Global

The business school will launch a new class spring semester that will offer consulting services to businesses seeking to expand into the global market.

Students will conduct a global opportunities analysis and a risk analysis - including financial, political and commercial, said Dimy Doresca, director of Tippie's Institute for International Business.

Tippie will offer three different consulting classes, and Doresca said enrollment is strong for each class.

'These small- to mid-sized businesses want to go overseas and have great ideas, but they don't have the resources to do an opportunity assessment or come up with an entry plan,” he said.

And with 96 percent of the market lying outside of the United States, businesses have a lot to gain by expanding globally, he said. But students also can benefit through working on an international project.

For example, students working with a company hoping to expand into Nigeria would have to analyze how a product must be adapted to sell well, research the political system and learn to negotiate within that system.

'It's a good learning opportunity and will give them specific experience interacting” on an international level, he said.

A Win-Win

There are big benefits for participating companies as well.

They get to know the students to see their abilities and work ethic, which Mark Winkler, director of the Tippie Business Solutions Center, said lets them 'try before they buy.”

About one-third of his students are offered internships with the companies they work with, he said, a benefit other instructors noted as well.

All full-time MBA students must go through the Business Solutions Center, which brings together students with different backgrounds ­in finance, marketing or technology to work with clients and apply the knowledge they've learned in the classroom.

The solutions center has worked with national clients including, Best Buy, Deere & Co., Transamerica and Principal Financial Group as well as local clients such as Goodwill of the Heartland.

It charges a fee, which Winkler said holds students accountable to their work. (The fees do not go to the students.)

'The bar is set high,” he said. 'These businesses want something in return for their money.”

The center has worked with more than 120 clients over the years - the majority headquartered in Iowa or have significant operations in Iowa.

'This is a win-win-win,” Winkler said. 'Students have the opportunity to get hands-on experience and the company can advance a critical initiative.”