正如MBA学生Msgana Teklebrhan Zegeye所看到的, 商业顾问的工作就是学习客户需要他们学习的东西.
That’s exactly what she’s done in her job as a student consultant employed with the Consulting Lab, a new Regnier Institute initiative at the Bloch School. With generous donor support, the Lab hires students like Zegeye to serve as pro-bono consultants for Kansas City-area entrepreneurs and small businesses. Working under faculty supervision, 学生咨询团队提供一系列服务, including market research, 商业计划开发和财务建模.
The lab is designed to both provide opportunities for experiential learning and valuable consulting resources for the community, with a particular focus on entrepreneurs and small businesses from under-served communities. 它还能帮助学生培养批判性思维和解决问题的能力, 分析能力和沟通技巧.
As part of this effort, the Lab has partnered with several organizations that work with entrepreneurs from underserved communities. These partners have been instrumental in identifying clients that might bene-fit from the Lab’s consulting resources. AltCap, G.I.F.T., the Urban League, Pipeline Pathfinders and Pathway Financial Education 是否都在与实验室合作，与潜在客户建立联系.
The Lab also partnered with Vantage Airport Group该公司负责新堪萨斯城国际机场的特许经营权. During this project, Zegeye and the other students on the consulting team worked with the local businesses preparing to open inside the
new concourse.
所有布洛赫咨询实验室的项目, the consulting team must first understand the client’s business and the nature of the problem that they are being asked to address. Then they must develop a thorough understanding of any unique aspects of the client’s operation.
与机场的特许经营商合作, the consultants learned about special security precautions that affect how a business operates. They learned that restaurants can have knives, but only if the knives are tethered to a wall. They learned that employees must live at the address printed on their official ID and about other security requirements that might affect the available pool of employees. They learned about how the business model for a restaurant or store may need to change when operating inside an airport. They also learned about the challenges of attracting workers given the distance to the airport from where many potential employees live.
“我不会说问题没有出现,Zegeye谈到她在机场盛大开幕前的咨询工作时说. “但是，弄清楚如何管理它们一直是最好的事情之一.”
咨询实验室是布洛赫学院相对较新的项目，去年夏天才开放. Friends of the school have provided both philanthropic support and creative ideas about how the Lab can be most impactful, both for students and the community. Mike Plunkett, PayIt联合创始人兼Bloch顾问委员会主席, led productive brainstorming sessions with the Bloch Advisory Board about how to launch and support the Lab. Young Sexton, WingGate旅行社和塞克斯顿家族基金会的创始人, advocated for leveraging student expertise to help underserved entrepreneurs accelerate growth at key stages of the entrepreneurial development cycle. Roger Nelson, Ernst前副董事长 & Young, developed processes for the Lab to support application-based learning and to enhance the effectiveness of consulting services.
Jeffrey S. Hornsby是Regnier研究所和Henry W. 布洛赫创业基金主席, 是否有一名教师负责学生咨询团队. According to Hornsby,
“对于一所致力于社区参与的学校来说，这是一个完美的项目, 它反映了亨利·布洛赫对学校的长期愿景.”
除了他们在机场的工作, 咨询团队与其他组织确定的几个客户合作. 这包括为一个企业家提供的项目, on-going business who wanted to expand via diversification into a related line of business, a technology firm in early startup mode who needed assistance with its business plan and a new venture that needed assistance with brand development.
While working with the Consulting Lab, 学生被分配到小组，由布洛赫学院的教授指导. The Lab, 哪一家公司计划在未来几年每年雇佣30至40名学生, 是否对所有商业学科的学生开放, 这意味着实验室将能够提供各种服务.
“它确实为学生提供了很棒的体验，”小马文·卡罗莱纳说., an assistant teaching professor who worked with the team of students assigned to the airport. “This is real time. This is real business. This is real life.”
With every project, student consultants start by listening to what their client is looking for and understanding their business goals. 在此基础上，他们考虑如何最好地提供支持.
The student consulting team also highlighted how their work with other clients helped prepare them for the work with the airport vendors. Erik Klaas suggested that, “Over the summer, 我能够与处于初创阶段的企业和企业家合作. Those early experiences in working with small businesses provided me with a great foundation for taking on the airport project.”
“这些学生中的大多数都有工作，有工资，有W-2,” says Bruce Snyder, 他是实验室的指导老师，在恩斯特工作了30多年 & Young是一家总部位于堪萨斯城的商业管理咨询公司. “But to talk to a business owner and understand what it takes to succeed is not something out of a textbook where you’re given the facts and the numbers. 无论如何，这些都不是教科书上的案例. They’re very fluid.”
“Helping businesses in urban, 服务不足的社区克服了障碍, 变得更强大和创造就业机会将使社区更强大,” says Snyder. “经济增长是任何成功城市社区的关键.”
From the Bloch students’ perspectives, the Consulting Lab is also designed to provide hands-on experience that will help them compete for top jobs when they’re ready to enter the business world.
Henry Meeds, 谁主修管理和会计, says the experience he gained while working with the Consulting Lab helped him land a permanent job in New York City. When he graduates this spring, 梅兹将在普华永道担任顾问, 国内顶尖的咨询公司之一.
“我们在项目的每个环节都获得了实践经验,米兹谈到他的团队在机场的工作时说. “我们正在做的事情可能是普华永道的合伙人会做的事情.”
Nicolas Hartung, 另一个参与机场项目的学生, 他说，咨询工作让他成为了一个更自信的沟通者.
“In January, we went (to the airport) and delivered our project to all of the concession owners and opera-tors there,” he says. “这是一次非常酷的经历，因为我们看到了我们是如何直接帮助他们的, 他们实际上会接受我们的建议并从中吸取教训.”
斯奈德说，作为经验的一部分，学生们学会了推销自己. 虽然实验室不向客户收费, students need to persuade clients to give them the time it takes to provide consulting for their businesses. Some clients realize that the students’ ages and perspectives can offer perfect measure for how their business plan will be received.
“Being candid, we’ve had some businesses come to us with what they think is a good strategy or a good development, 但我们一直在挠头，想知道这是如何运作的,” Snyder says. “然后企业意识到，如果学生, 谁代表了他们可能不理解的目标人群, it’s unlikely the general public will.”
获得一个新的视角是Vantage的总经理的一个重要原因, 洛弗尔·霍洛威很高兴有机会与布洛赫的学生顾问一起工作.
“This is a once-in-a-generation opportunity and our vision was, how do we bring more people along?” Holloway recalls. “我们在招聘、经济影响研究和实习等方面都有传统行为. We wanted to break the norm.”
Holloway asked students to get involved in each of those areas as his company opened concessions at the airport.
“拥有年轻一代的观点才有意义，”他说. “他们会有新的想法，帮助我们从更好的角度看待这个问题.”