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http://whartonsbdc.wharton.upenn.edu

High Impact Growth Consulting. http://whartonsbdc.wharton.upenn.edu. Our Mission: Help businesses grow and solve problems Educate students by applying coursework to practice. Get Comfortable with UNCERTAINTY.

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http://whartonsbdc.wharton.upenn.edu

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  1. High Impact Growth Consulting http://whartonsbdc.wharton.upenn.edu

  2. Our Mission: • Help businesses grow and solve problems • Educate students by applying coursework to practice

  3. Get Comfortable with UNCERTAINTY • Uncertainty is a large part of everyday life for the entrepreneur, the investor and our consultants… Good News! You’ll learn how to approach and structure ambiguity

  4. Other Reasons Students Want to Join • We are one of the largest experiential learning programs at Wharton • Through formal consulting engagements, students use the material they learn in the classroom, as they learn it, to solve the business problems faced by our clients • Consultants are given the opportunity to work with the senior leadership teams of fast-growing businesses and turnarounds. • Consultants have the opportunity to structure the project from beginning to end, a responsibility usually held by partners in large consulting firms • If you are an Entrepreneur trying to start your own business, this is a great opportunity to learn to structure ambiguity • We are committed to promoting economic development • With all of the immediacy, ambiguity, disarray, and resource constraints of growing businesses, our ability to find practical solutions to clients' problems contributes substantially to economic development in the region

  5. What Sets Us Apart Some people tend to think that individuals are knowledgeable to the extent that they possess concepts and skills that they apply to new situations. In other words, if a person does not have relevant concepts and skills, he or she will not be able to complete a task. However, we believe that outcome is not solely dependent on individuals with specific skill sets. (How could we ever have all the skills we need in one place?) For us, it is not the knowledge of one person that matters most, but the ability of each person to draw and integrate resources from the team and surrounding context. Success is not a result of personal traits but instead reflects the use of organizational resources.

  6. What We Do Valuations Analysis Why the target customer might buy Internal processes and distribution chains How the product or service moves from the origin to the end customer Profitability by segment Sales channels and distribution alternatives How to complement the core product or expand to new markets/customers

  7. Examples of Recent Success (Client Perspective) “We are huge fans of the SBDC. We’ve asked the students tough questions and they’ve returned to us with even tougher questions. I couldn’t ask for more from a group of consultants. I’ll use the consulting services of the SBDC as many times as the leadership there will allow.” Philly.comRyan Davis, President “Wharton SBDC gave us the evidence—the outsider’s view—and caused us to put structure and an actual plan around our thoughts for a new product…this helps the partner we are trying to enlist—as well as investors for our third round of capital.” Safend Inc.DorSkuler, VP Business Development “The Wharton SBDC is really the go-to place for smart analytical minds that can help businesses understand and act on their opportunities. I’ve worked with the SBDC in several of my companies, and their recommendations were always on point and consistent with improving the long-term performance of the businesses.” Internet Capital Group Doug Alexander, Co-Founder & President

  8. How Do We Do It? You may be wondering how this is operationalized… Structure 2) Knowledge Database 3) An Extended Leadership Team

  9. 1) Structure General Management Healthcare Consumer Financial Services Practice Sponsor Alumni Advisor Consulting Firm Advisor Student Practice Leaders Internet/ IT Enabled Services Clean Tech Media & Entertainment Real Estate Commercialization Acceleration

  10. 2) Knowledge Database Folders Consistent Across Clients and Pre-Populated with Links to Templates

  11. 3) Extended Leadership Team Joe Wolf Jack May Patti Owens Carl Witonsky Peter Bressler Howie Caulfield Scott Fishman Doug Cox Erin McGowan Maame-serwaa Mensah Samuel Reeves Therese Flaherty Leslie Mitts

  12. Keys to Success • Cooperation/Collaboration • Team Player: Consultant takes a fair share of engagement work, including participation in full spectrum of engagement from high level planning to details of research, analysis, and presentation. • Analytical Strength • Application of Analysis: Consultant has chosen and effectively implemented appropriate methods for drawing conclusions from available information. • Creativity • Hypotheses Conceived and Tested: Consultant does not stop with the first reasonable idea but instead considers and tests a range of approaches and solutions during the engagement. • Client Relationship Management • Change Management: Consultant has taken a thought leadership and teaching role to allow the client to realize the implications of the case analysis and move towards change in their business. • Commitment • Contribution to SBDC Beyond Casework: Consultant realizes that SBDC is a growing organization and relies upon input and initiative from consultants for improving our processes. Such contribution could range from documentation of a best practice or data source to spearheading a new practice area. • Administrative Compliance • Meetings and Scheduling: Consultant consistently attends team meetings and promptly returns emails for scheduling.

  13. Are We Right For You? Although we do look for certain capabilities and strive to choose the students who are best-suited to the job, we also want to promote learning by teaching students to build all the relevant skills. Education Impact This is just another example of how we balance things. Only apply if you want to make an impact and learn!

  14. Recent Student Perspectives • "The SBDC offers the unique opportunity to take the lessons from the classroom and execute on them with local businesses. What makes the SBDC special is the caliber of cases that we receive - these companies are facing critical challenges, and they require us to be a committed partner as they pursue their goals. They expect the best from us, and that pushes us to perform at a higher level." Geoff Moore, WG’10 • “In the SBDC, I had the amazing opportunity to exercise leadership while brainstorming on a real business problem, bridging perceptions of different stakeholders and team members, motivating the group to develop an action based strategy, and eventually…. influencing the client to follow through.” Ohad Shperling, WG’10

  15. Building the Team • To meet and exceed the needs of a client base operating in a wide range of industries, we recruit students with a wide range of previous backgrounds and functional strengths: Consulting Public Service/Non-Profit Marketing Venture Capital & PE Operations Engineering Military Entrepreneurial Start-Up Bio & Health Sciences Information Technology

  16. What You Can Expect: • SBDC operates a Fellowship program for 1st year MBAs • Approximately 32 1st year MBAs will be hired this semester • In November, each student who distinguishes him or herself will be awarded a Fellowship • Practice leaders for next year will be chosen from this pool • Each student will complete approximately 3-5 consulting engagements per academic year. • 1st Semester: Complete 1 consulting engagement and prepare the analysis and diagnosis for 1 consulting engagement (to be completed by other students in the Spring) • 2nd Semester: Complete 2-3 consulting engagements • The diversity of engagements provides students an opportunity to test their consulting, leadership and analytical skills in a variety of functional and industry practice areas.

  17. Fall Client Snapshot You will have the opportunity to pick your cases and will be assigned one of your top four choices after the hiring decisions are made.

  18. Fall Client Snapshot: Highlights • An international provider of translation and interpretation services that is seeking to expand consistent with a strategic sale in 3 years. • A start-up medical device company with a point-of-care biosensor to detect a multitude of infectious diseases seeking to identify key strategic partners for distribution. • An early-stage company that has developed groundbreaking, wireless recharging technology for electric vehicles getting ready to execute with a trial client. • A software developer company launching a financial application for smart-phones designed to provide actionable investment information to mobile investors seeking user feedback before going to market. • A healthy/organic/non-sweetened herbal bottled water with national distribution and strategic partnership for distribution, logistics, and marketing seeking to gain operations efficiencies and a strategic sale. • A music licensing exchange and search engine seeking funding.

  19. Key Dates Information Sessions • Aug. 10th 5pm:JMHH F85 (MBA) • Aug. 12th Noon: JMHH F85 (MBA) • Sept. 13th 4:30pm: TBD (UG) • Sept. 14th 4:30pm: TBD (UG) Resume & Letter Deadline: MBA: Noon on August 16th; UG: Noon on September 20th Interviews conducted: MBA: August 18th – 26th by invitation, UG: September 23rd - 34th Training Sessions: October 2nd; October 3rd; October 5th

  20. How to Apply If this opportunity excites you please submit your resume and cover letter covering your background, skill-sets, and passions. Again, you will have the opportunity to pick your cases and will be assigned one of your top four choices after the hiring decisions are made. MBA’s please submit resume and cover letter on Career Path*: http://mycareer.wharton.upenn.edu/student/index.cfm If you have additional questions, please email: penelopemitts@gmail.com More information on our practice is available on our website: http://whartonsbdc.wharton.upenn.edu (Look for the High Impact Growth Consulting link) * For Life Sciences & HealthCare MBAs seeking to work in the Commercialization and Acceleration Program, please look for email application from June Kinney. Additional questions to Therese Flaherty, flaherty@wharton.upenn.edu

  21. Practice Leaders: 2010-2011: Feel Free to Contact • Clean Tech: Geoff Liu & Jessica Luk • Consumer: Marina Nekrasova & ShauliRozen • Healthcare: Matt Schwab & Renee Vaughn • General Management: Lindsey Matthews & Cameron Rouzer • Media & Entertainment: Tricia Chandiramani & Nikhil Chaturvedi • Financial Services: Katherine Janes & Francis Doumet • Internet and IT Enabled Services: Sabina Sequeira & Katie Rohacz • Real Estate: Isis Ward & Daniel Curtis • Commercialization Acceleration Program: Mark Chin

  22. Wharton SBDC Sponsors www.whartonsbdc.wharton.upenn.edu

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