Tuck Global Consultancy
Here's the pitch: Your company has an important overseas project that needs several weeks of intense consulting on-site, but largely external to the in-country office operations. A team of six highly motivated business experts say they're ready to do the job at a fraction of the market price. They're in their late 20s and early 30s, each has five to seven years of business experience, and several of them have consulting experience.
Too good to be true?
Not this time. The team is part of the Tuck Global Consultancy (TGC), the school's international consulting program. Organized and managed by Tuck's Center for International Business, the TGC signs up second-year students for consulting projects through the Field Study in International Business elective.
John Deere, Harcourt Education, Unilever, and Remy Cointreau have put such teams of Tuck students to work, and they're glad they did. So have Citibank, Disney, Asian Development Bank, Home Shoppers Network, and Save the Children.
"The quality is top-notch. The sheer quantity of output is remarkable. And the cost is a blessing to tight budgets," commented Dusty Kidd, vice president of Nike, Inc., which has engaged TGC teams for years.
Tuck alums in particular benefit from the projects because a TGC team showcases Tuck in his or her company by producing excellent results on a firm schedule. "Lots of Tuck alums like to hire other Tuckies," observes John B. Owens T'61, executive director of Tuck's Center for International Business and principal TGC contact person for corporations. "If you're a Tuckie and you are interested in seeing your company hire another Tuckie, I can't imagine a better deal than the TGC project. You get to preview six of the cream of the Tuck crop, who work on a project of considerable importance to you, you get world-class consulting results, and you get to decide which of these students might make a great addition to your firm."
Student teams prepare in the spring and fall and then spend three weeks on overseas projects under the supervision of Tuck professors with extensive consulting backgrounds. The three-week stints take place during the last two weeks in August and the first week of September or the first three weeks of December. At the end of the period, the teams report to clients with executive summaries of findings and presentations to overseas-based management. Finally, they complete full reports and present them to U.S.-based management within four to six weeks of leaving the site. The cost to clients is modest-an $18,500 fee plus travel and lodging costs for the Tuck team, so a typical project costs about $50,000.
Started in 1997, the program had completed 78 consulting assignments for 40 for-profit organizations and a dozen for nonprofit organizations in more than 30 companies as of December. "In 2003 we did 11 projects in seven countries, and we did multiple projects in Vietnam and China among those seven," Owens says. "Most of the projects involve strategy consulting, market development, and other business development activities. And most of them are for high-level management-the vice presidential level or above."
Student consulting teams are not unique to Tuck. "There are other top-tier MBA programs with consulting programs," says Owens. "But none reaches out as extensively into overseas assignments, especially in the developing world, as Tuck's."
And, he says, "We work very, very closely with alumni. It is helpful that I'm a Tuck alum and that I come entirely from the private sector-I can bridge the space between what the private sector needs and what the students can offer."
In addition to marketing the TGC, Owens helps select teams and assign them to clients. He also travels overseas to monitor teams as faculty adviser, as do half a dozen Tuck professors. He stresses that the faculty adviser is there to advise the students and manage client expectations but not to do the work.
Owens is thrilled with what the TGC has accomplished over the years. "According to recent articles in such publications as Consulting, the Tuck Global Consultancy is used as the benchmark by which all others are measured," he says proudly.
For more information about the Tuck Global Consultancy, contact John Owens in the Center for International Business at john.b.owens@dartmouth.edu or visit the center's website.
This article appeared in the Summer 2004 issue of Tuck Today, the school's alumni magazine.
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