Business Consulting at LeBow in Full Swing

As part of the student consulting initiative through LeBow’s Dana and David Dornsife Center for Experiential Business Education, one team of undergraduate students and two teams of graduate students are currently engaged in 10-week consulting projects with major corporations.

Twenty-two undergraduates are enrolled in a 4-credit consulting course where they are working on a project for Chevrolet. They are helping create a marketing strategy for three of its poorer-performing brands that are being targeted to college-aged students. The project is actually part of a national competition, and eight other schools across the nation are also participating in the same program. The school with the winning idea will see its plan implemented by Chevrolet, and will win valuable prizes, such as computers and other electronics.

A group of MBA and MS students are also lending their expertise to two large corporations. The 18 students enrolled in a graduate-level business consulting course have been divided into two groups: One team of 10 students is working on a project for a major pharmaceutical company, and another team of eight students is working on a project for Comcast Corp.

All three projects provide an opportunity for students to work with corporate executives and faculty on a consulting project that has significant business implications for the client. All teams will be presenting their findings to executives from the client companies at the end of the fall term.  

Paul E. Jensen, Ph.D., associate dean for experiential learning, says LeBow’s Business Consulting Projects offer clients data and analysis in a concentrated timeframe. “Student teams, with the support of advisors and faculty, focus their energy on helping clients achieve new insights to business challenges for which there aren’t off-the-shelf solutions,” he says. “The program provides client organizations with a report that will capture fresh thinking from an external viewpoint.”