Duke MBA Students Offer Small Business Consulting Services

MBA students at Duke University's Fuqua School of Business want to help small businesses in the Triangle area that need consulting help but cannot afford to pay the typical fees of consulting agencies.

Through the Fuqua Small Business Consulting Program, first-year MBA students can take a course for credit to help companies solve their business problems.

For more than 20 years, Fuqua students have assisted more than 200 local companies through this consulting program. Past activities have included improving accounting systems, analyzing cash flow, diagnosing management problems, inventory control, operations, improving information technology procedures, performing market surveys, developing market strategies, human resource issues and manufacturing.

To be considered for the program, businesses must meet the following criteria:

-- Be in operation for at least one year;

-- Be within a one-hour drive of Duke;

-- Have revenues exceeding $100,000 for the past business year;

-- Management is willing to provide financial data (one-year minimum) and operational data to the student consultants;

-- Management is willing to be available to meet with the student team a minimum of five or six times during the course of the consulting engagement (October 2005 through April 2006);

-- Management will pay a $200 administrative fee if accepted into the consulting program.

Fuqua students recently assisted PharmaDirections Inc. (PDI), a virtual pharmaceutical and biotech drug development consultancy firm. The company supplies temporary, highly educated and experienced personnel for entrepreneurial firms who have drugs under development, generally in stage one of FDA trials.

Another team of students consulted for Octagon Entertainment Inc., a developer and producer of video games. The team studied and recommended ways to project future demand for the game industry.

"Students are eager to take their classroom knowledge and apply it to real-world situations," said Bill Sax, who begins his 19 th year of teaching at Fuqua this fall. "Companies benefit from the practical advice they receive from the students, who average five years' business experience after receiving their undergraduate degree and before entering The Duke MBA program."

Non-profit organizations are welcome in the program. Past participating not-for-profit organizations are the North Carolina Museum of Life and Science, the Triangle Residential Options for Substance Abuse (TROSA), Futures 4 Kids, North Carolina Justice and Community Development Center, Duke School (grade school) and Exploris Museum.

The students select those clients that best match the experiences, interests and abilities of the consulting teams. Once selected, business owners meet with the student team to discuss the problems to be addressed.

The students begin the consulting project in October and hold five or six meetings with the client through April. It is critical that the students have access to the financial data of the company, regardless of the problems to be studied, Sax said. "Without complete financial information, it is like trying to decorate a house in the dark."

Sax regularly reviews the students' progress until they successfully complete the project with a formal oral and written presentation for the client. Every student signs a letter of confidentiality before the consulting engagement begins.

Fuqua is now accepting applications for the fall 2005 consulting program. The applicartion deadline is Aug. 31.

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Interested parties can obtain a brochure and application by calling Sax's assistant, Beverly James, at (919) 660-7789 or by email at texas@duke.edu .

The program application, brochure, and overview are also available online at < www.fuqua.duke.edu >. From the Fuqua homepage, type "sc" in the shortcuts box in the upper right-hand corner of the page. On the consulting services page, the application, brochure and overview are available for download from the column on the right side.