Real Life. Real Business
Oct. 7, 2008
Dear Alumni and Friends,
Last month, in Part 1 of a two-part message, I emailed you about
the College of Business Administration's mission: to provide an
experiential Real Life, Real Business education from a research
active faculty. I described our:
- Freshman Business Experience - in which first-year students
learn about all the functions of a business, use survey instruments
to learn about their strengths, weaknesses and tendencies, and
finish the semester with the Top Dawg business plan competition
that is judged by a panel of executives.
- Real Business Experience for sophomores - a two-semester course
in which student teams develop business plans, receive initial
funding to test the business concept, present their business model
to a panel of executives and then, if funded, run the business and
pay off the start-up loan, keeping any profits. (How's that for a
real world incentive!)
- Career Development Program - in which students are assigned a
professional career mentor from our Executive-in-Residence program
and are required to complete a four-year, structured career
development plan which requires that each student complete two
internships for credit.
This month in Part 2, I want to tell you how we implement Real
Life, Real Business for juniors and seniors through our Student
Managed Investment Fund, Private Equity class, and Marketing
courses - and for our MBA students through our Gateway and Capstone
courses.
Part 2: What Real Life, Real Business Means for our Juniors,
Seniors and MBA Students
Other colleges have trading rooms to simulate investing (fake
bucks and fake markets) or generally allow students to manage
$100,000 to $200,000. In our Student Managed Investment Fund, our
undergraduates invest $1 million. (Yes, those are real dollars and
imagine what our students are learning given today's markets.)
Since the fund's inception a year ago, our students have beaten the
performance of the S&P 500. Our finance students also have the
opportunity to work on actual private equity placements. Last
semester, they worked on a live project for Schoolcraft Development
Company and had visits from prominent business executives such as
Bristol-Myers Squibb CEO Jim Cornelius.
For the last two years, our marketing students have studied
different aspects of Finish Line's marketing strategy by analyzing
the company's merchandise and pricing strategies, going undercover
as "secret shoppers" to examine product layout and store service,
touring Finish Line's state-of-the-art distribution center, and
developing ways for the company to attract college-age customers.
Our students' recommendations were presented to Finish Line's top
company executives to see if they met the "Real World" test. Finish
Line Senior Vice President of Marketing Kevin Flynn said students'
research confirmed some of Finish Line's findings while also
bringing new insights. "The fact that these students happen to be
in our core target audience (ages 18-24) lent credibility to their
findings and made their opinions valid and relevant to us," said
Flynn. "It energized us to continue the research on our own. Butler
is a great school, and this class is a terrific way to give
students a view into a real company. It's a great win for both of
us."
MBA students kick off their graduate studies with the Gateway
Experience. During a one-day intensive experience (similar to what
happens on "The Apprentice"), student teams are presented with a
business problem from a local company and have one day to gather
research and make recommendations. Students have worked with
companies such as Steak 'n Shake, HH Gregg, Aero Technologies and,
most recently in August 2008, Adidas. For more information on the
real challenges that our MBA students face, view this 2-minute
video, in which Dr. Kathy Paulson-Gjerde, Associate Dean for
Research and Graduate Studies, describes MBA Gateway work with
Steak 'n Shake. Additional videos explain how MBA student teams
gather information and analyze problems with a four-hour site visit
(click here), and how
they formulate and present their analyses and solutions to company
executives (click
here).
While our MBA students start the program with the one-day
Gateway course, we up the ante by the end of the program. The
Butler MBA concludes with the Capstone course in which students
work on a semester-long case with a local company. The partner this
semester is Rolls Royce North America. Last spring, the partner was
Second Helpings, an organization that rescues prepared and
perishable food, re-prepares it into nutritious meals, and then
distributes those meals to over 50 social services organizations
that feed hungry people. Each month, Second Helpings turns 100,000+
pounds of rescued food into 50,000 meals.
Get Involved with Real Life, Real Business
As you can see, the CBA provides an unparalleled educational
experience for our students. We are also a resource for businesses
and the local community. To make this work, we need the involvement
of local companies and dedicated alumni like you. If you want to
get involved in Real Life, Real Business, please contact me directly. I'd be
glad to email you a brief document that describes 20 different
opportunities for partnering with the CBA. I look forward to
hearing from you and exploring how we can further our involvement
with you and your business.
Chuck Williams, Dean
College of Business