Most small businesses and nonprofit organizations can only dream of engaging a team of consultants to solve a nagging problem. But the dream comes true for the beneficiaries of Tuck Student Consulting Services (TSCS), a student-run extracurricular activity supported by Tuck's Allwin Initiative for Corporate Citizenship.
For example, the nonprofit Vermont Center for the Book works with teachers, librarians, and parents to make reading with children a vivid and compelling experience. Last year a team from TSCS helped the center determine that it needed a specific marketing function.
"It was wonderful," executive director Sally Anderson recalls of the engagement. "The students were bright, they asked wonderful questions, and they understood exactly what we wanted—even better than we did. They brought clarity to our thinking, took the information they got from us, and came up with a model that might have been obvious to other businesspeople. But we would have spent the rest of our lives looking for it."
Last fall another student team helped Nordic Skater, a small specialty retailer in Norwich, Vt., develop a strategic plan for implementing online ordering of Nordic ice skates and cross-country skis. That project was one of 13 engagements—6 for small businesses and 7 for nonprofit organizations—undertaken by teams formed by 55 TSCS volunteers. As usual, most, but not all, engagements were in or near the Hanover area.
Student consulting engagements generally comprise 40 hours, with each student on a four-member team contributing about 10 hours. Organizations interested in working with the team can apply online on the TSCS website. Staff at the Allwin Initiative ensure that applicants receive responses even if students aren't on campus. TSCS co-chairs screen applications, meet with applicants to refine and narrow the consulting focus, and assemble teams of interested students.
What do students gain? Says Katherine Birnie T'07, one of two co-chairs for 2006-07, "Students gain a chance to engage with and get to know the local community. They gain the chance to exercise some practical, real-world learning that complements the incredibly valuable classroom experience here at Tuck. It's a chance to wrap their arms around a problem in greater depth than in a classroom case, and they need to defend their recommendations to clients. And it's a wonderful chance for students to participate in a team other than their study groups, so it furthers their teamwork skills."
TSCS attracts a wide variety of students. "You might expect just the people going into consulting," says Co-chair Anneli Schalock T'07, "but we also have students interested in other industries who also want to share their skills and contribute to the community. Of course, we have students who know they want to go into nonprofit careers. And then we have students interested in marketing careers, because many projects have a marketing focus. A lot of nonprofits need help with marketing plans."
Birnie and Schalock welcome participation by alumni, especially with preparing students. Last fall Bob Searle T'96, a partner with the Boston-based Bridgespan Group, conducted a workshop titled "How to Structure a Nonprofit Consulting Engagement."
According to Senior Associate Dean Bob Hansen, TSCS is one of two offshoots of the old Managerial Economics and Management Communication courses. Many alumni remember that those courses included several dozen student consulting engagements annually, usually with local businesses, nonprofits, or even towns. The other offshoot is a required one-credit course, The First-Year Project. The projects, chosen by students, "tend to be for organizations outside the area, and a lot of them are entrepreneurial," says Hansen, who is faculty director of the Allwin Initiative. "So there was a void, first of all in the local community, and we also have a lot of students who want to help nonprofits." That's where TSCS fits in, he says.
"Nonprofits do a lot of the work of society for people who are close to falling through the social net, so they are very important. And it's a great leadership opportunity for a team of students to go out and make a difference. I give them my full support."
