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Real Life. Real Business.

June 2009

Dear Alumni and Friends,

Last month I told you about our in-house consulting firm, the Butler Business Accelerator. This team of five professional consultants, with the assistance of our faculty and students, help mid-market businesses solve problems, grow and prosper. The results speak for themselves: a new marketing strategy that increased one company's sales 25 percent and cash flow by a factor of four; a growth-focused profit plan resulting in a 25 percent increase in first quarter sales for a second company; and identification of $1 million in inventory reductions for a third. In all, the Accelerator has worked with 23 clients since its startup in January 2007. The complete list can be found on the Butler Business Accelerator website.

Yet, in addition to consulting with businesses with $5- to $50 million in revenues, the Accelerator was developed as an extension of our real life, real business mission to transform the way we deliver business education. So, this month, I want to tell you how the Accelerator is affecting student learning through internships and how our faculty are transforming learning by involving our students in live client classroom projects.

Student Impact

While the Accelerator helps businesses solve key problems, from a student perspective it is a living laboratory that promotes learning through hands-on experience and interactions with businesses and their challenges. Here are two examples of student learning.

As one of 10 undergraduate Accelerator interns, Rachel Buetens, a senior marketing and MIS major, worked on three different client projects in one semester. For one of those clients, Rachel partnered with marketing professor Dan McQuiston to interview customers and sales representatives to complete a competitor analysis. Based on the results of that analysis, she then developed a database system that allowed the company to track sales calls and make notes about any important follow-up that needed to be done for that particular client. Because of her Accelerator experience, Rachel is now considering a career in consulting.

As a sophomore, economics major Alex Fenton worked on one of seven teams in Professor Pam Rouse's Managerial Accounting class to calculate cash flow projections for a previous Accelerator client. Each team then presented their results to Accelerator consultant and project manager Chris Stump who had worked directly with the client company. Because of his positive experience in Managerial Accounting, Alex joined the Accelerator as an intern the following year. Because of what he learned in professor Rouse's class, his first client project was a successful cash flow projection. Alex then partnered with Chris Stump to present that case to Pam Rouse's Managerial Accounting class, sharing his client experience and helping teach the class about cash flow forecasting. Talk about coming full circle!

Faculty Impact

The Accelerator is also providing unique opportunities for faculty research and classroom innovation. For example, Tom Gjerde, Visiting Professor of Finance, collaborated with Accelerator consultant, Chris Harlow, to develop a project valuation case for graduate and undergraduate finance students based on an Accelerator client in the restaurant equipment industry. Over two semesters, students in Dr. Gjerde's class analyzed the case in groups and presented their results to Harlow. Harlow provided key insights based on his knowledge of the company and shared knowledge developed from years of experience as a consultant. The case was such an effective learning tool that it is now in the second round of peer review for publication. 

The Accelerator also provides faculty with opportunities to interact with the business community and hone their skills within their discipline. 

Pat Rondeau, Assistant Professor of MIS, developed a classroom collaboration with a business connected to the Accelerator.  Under his direction, student teams competed to develop a website for Royal Food Products that is currently live and in use. The students not only learned about web design and development but also had to understand the company's business, its customers, marketing opportunities and strategies. 

Royal Foods was so pleased with the project that it is supporting additional research by Dr. Rondeau on business-to-business website effectiveness. According to Dr. Rondeau, the project helped him re-balance his perspective on what material is most important to emphasize to his students. He said it was an exciting opportunity to "practice what we preach" and get out in the real world again to gain new experiences that will enrich the courses he teaches.

More Classroom Collaborations

Select students in Dr. Peg Padgett's MBA class worked with Accelerator Managing Director Brian Landis to develop a training tool for the International Center of Indianapolis. The training tool is a "cultural assimilator" for Saudi Arabia, Brazil and India. The tool presents people with a number of cultural issues they might encounter if they were living and working in another country and asks them to determine which option would be the most appropriate response. By working through all of these situations, students gain keen insights into the key cultural do's and don'ts which can make or break business success. 

Dr. Bill Templeton's MBA finance class designed a diagnostic process for the Accelerator to evaluate potential clients. Students developed a set of spreadsheets that calculate ratios and other financial measures to help evaluate the condition of potential Accelerator clients. The students' proposals competed against one another and the winning entry was adopted and is now used by the Accelerator as a starting point for client work.

Since the Accelerator became operational in the fall of 2006:

• Fifteen professors have worked on client projects.
• Nearly 50 graduate and undergraduate students have participated in internships.
• Five hundred students have been touched through Accelerator classroom collaborations.

The Butler Business Accelerator is one more example of our hands-on approach to real life, real business. If you would like to know more about what the Accelerator can do for your company, please email me or visit the website. I welcome your comments and suggestions and hope to hear from you!  Have a great summer.

Chuck Williams, Dean
College of Business

P.S. If you're interested in finding ways to get involved with the College of Business, please download the document, How to Partner and Get Involved, and review the 20 options available to individuals and their organizations. Specific contact information is available for each option.