Chicago Booth Bsg Application 2010-2011

chicago booth bsg application 2010-2011

The Business Solutions Group is a practical consulting group that provides experiential learning to Chicago Booth students interested in pursuing careers in consulting, marketing, corporate strategy and entrepreneurship.

This is an exciting year for the BSG. Several of this year’s projects involve start-ups or new concepts launched by dynamic Chicagoland entrepreneurs. Our clients represent an incredible array of industries, and their challenges cover a number of intellectual disciplines, including strategic planning, marketing and branding, operations, new product development, financial modeling, venture capital prospecting, and others.

The BSG is a fun and challenging way to tackle a pivotal dilemma faced by a businessperson who seeks your perspective and insight as an MBA student. The work you do here is therefore not only a great experience to add to your resume, but a way to give back to your new hometown by strengthening the business community and effecting positive economic change. We hope you join us this year as a BSG team member!

Instructions:

1.  Fill-in the information and write the brief essay on the application.

2.  Read the attached detailed client descriptions and select the projects listed based on your interest. Rank the projects in order of preference.

3.  Check the box indicating that you have read the BSG Guidelines.

4.  Place a printed copy of the application, a copy of your RESUME, and a check for $65.00 payable to the “The University of Chicago” in the “red” mailfolder labeled “Business Solutions Group” before 5:00pm on Friday, October 1, 2010.

BSG Membership Application

A.  Your Name:

B.  Phone Number:

C.  E-mail Address:

D.  Fall Quarter Classes:

E.  Briefly describe your motivation to join BSG and what you expect to get out of it (250 words or fewer):

F.  Are there classmates you would like to work with on a project? Please include their name(s), and the name of the project you would like to do together, and we will do our best to accommodate you.
Project Preference Sheet - Please rank your top 5 projects from 1-7:

____ Agentis Energy

____ Balanced IT Solutions

____ Bolder Thinking

____ Illinois Education Foundation

____ Marbles: The Brain Store

____ Pastoral: Artisan Cheese, Bread, & Wine

____ Ready Ping

____ Sample Saint

____ Whirlpool Corporation

____ World Child Project

BSG Guidelines

1.  Throughout your BSG project, we expect that you will positively represent Chicago Booth.

2.  On average, we estimate that your project could require 5 hours/week. However, your time commitments may vary quite a bit from week to week.

3.  We expect that your project team will produce an arrangement letter, a workplan (including a scope of work to be formally presented to your client and consultants), and timely status reports for your client.

4.  We expect that your team will make a timely presentation of the final results to your client.

5.  We expect that at least one member of your BSG team will communicate frequently with your client to keep them apprised of your project progress and direction.

6.  To mitigate problems, we expect that your team will alert the BSG Co-Chairs of problems that may impact your ability to provide the client with high quality and timely results.

7.  If your team requires additional resources, we expect you to utilize the library on online research tools, 2nd-year advisors, your client, your consultant mentor, Chicago Booth alumni, and the University of Chicago faculty.

8.  Most importantly, enjoy BSG and make lots of connections. You’ll learn a lot!

Yes, I have read and understand the BSG Guidelines:

______(Signature)

Important Dates:

Scope Presentation: Friday, October 15th

Midterm Presentation: Friday, November 19th

Final Presentation: Saturday, January 15th

If you have any questions, please contact the Co-Chairs via e-mail:

BSG Co-Chairs:

Iskandar Aminov

Rachel Gross

Ines Hubler

David Ward

Lance Cottle

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PROJECT LIST 2010-2011

Client / Project Summary / Type of Project / Industry /
Agentis Energy / Agentis Energy is a startup that provides innovative solutions to manage energy, reduce electricity costs, and develop sustainability practices. Agentis customers can reduce electricity costs through: using smarter, consuming less and buying cheaper. Agentis will act as an energy advocate providing continuous monitoring and analysis to deliver opportunities for savings. The University of Chicago has installed the system in the Medical Data Center.
With deregulation in certain states, Agentis sees an opportunity to provide consumers software to purchase electricity online with a system similar to Expedia. Agentis is looking to determine if there is a market opportunity for the new product for clients in Illinois in one of several chosen verticals (i.e. hospitals, office buildings).
Agentis is looking for a team to develop a market segmentation for different customer verticals. The team would meet with Agentis to discuss which is the most viable vertical and conduct research to determine the requirements of the customer base to see if they match with the product capabilities. Research is expected to include articles, discussions with experts and customer interviews. However, exact scope and project milestones will be determined by the team and second year mentor. Great opportunity to get involved in a sustainability project with a dedicated client! / Product Strategy / Green-Tech/
Internet/
Entrepreneurial
Balanced IT Solutions / Balanced IT is a startup which began as way for airline companies to ensure they comply with FAA regulations electronically, a topic that has been in the news a lot in the recent years. Their product integrates compliance into one simple point of access to improve processes with any regulatory entity. In addition, they introduced a training module that allows employees to complete their training on sight via iPad or laptop and the real time report capability updates the master database in minutes. Their product is currently being employed by companies, such as one airline with more than 12,000 employees.
Balanced IT is looking to expand into the food industry. This product could help incidents such as the recent Salmonella outbreak! The project will determine if there is a the market opportunity in one of the chosen verticals food industry, i.e. large egg farmer, ingredient manufacturers. This would involve developing a market segmentation for into different customer verticals. Then the team would meet with Balanced IT to discuss which is the most viable vertical. Consequently, the team would conduct research to determine the requirements of customer base and see if they match with the product capabilities. Research is expected to include articles, discussions with experts and customer interviews. However, exact scope and project milestones will be determined by the team and second year mentor. Be involved in a product that is could help prevent potentially devastating outbreaks! / New Product Development / Software/
Regulatory
Client / Project Summary / Type of Project / Industry /
Bolder Thinking, LLC / Bolder Thinking is a Chicago-based start-up that provides next generation business telephone systems (telephony). Utilizing a SaaS cloud-computing model Bolder Thinking is able to provide full-featured, reliable telephony systems at affordable prices. Bolder Thinking's Cloud Telephony Platform is delivered through strategic relationships with channel partners who provide turnkey solutions for contact center customer care needs. The founding team includes alumni of both the GSB Executive MBA and Full-Time MBA programs.
Bolder Thinking won 3rd place in the 2010 Edward L. Kaplan New Venture Challenge and was recently selected for the Chicagoland Entrepreneurial Center’s (CEC) Cluster Acceleration Program (CAP) portfolio of entrepreneurial ventures. The CAP clients include 100 of the most innovative companies in Illinois.
Bolder Thinking’s cloud based architecture makes it easy to deliver enterprise-quality telephony services to any company at a fraction of the cost of competitive solutions. While they are continuing to push sales of their commercial solution, they believe that there is an excellent opportunity to provide online telecommunication services in the social networking space (LinkedIn, Ning, Facebook, etc.).
Bolder Thinking would like a team to perform an analysis to identify the primary features and associated value that customers and/or users would recognize in such a solution. The BSG team will engage directly with Bolder Thinking to devise a strategy around how a free or paid telecommunications service could be leveraged in the social networking space.
Please note: Bolder Thinking will retain all rights to the work products. All team members will be required to enter into non-disclosure agreements. / Product Development / Entrepreneurial/ Software/
Technology
Illinois Education Foundation / The Illinois Education Foundation (IEF) is a public/private partnership that broadens opportunities to low-income, high-potential community college students by providing a comprehensive scholarship program. IEF scholarships combine “last dollar” financial assistance along with a full set of academic supports services-including mentoring, tutoring and academic advising-to empower more Illinois college students to achieve their degrees and reach their full potential. The main objective is to see students through to completion of their Bachelor’s degree.
The goal of the BSG team is to create a set of objective and subjective metrics on which the program can be evaluated and then determine how effective the program is based on that set of metrics. This will include creating a survey to current mentors and mentees in the program and possibly speaking with various groups including academic professionals and successful alumni of the program. / Program Development/
Operational Effectiveness / Non-Profit/
Education
Client / Project Summary / Type of Project / Industry /
Marbles: The Brain Store / The Brain Store is a first-of-its-kind retail concept that focuses on products designed to stimulate and strengthen the brain. The Brain Store was developed by a Chicago-based venture capital fund/small business incubator and is a first-of-its-kind retail concept that focuses on products designed to stimulate and strengthen the brain. The company offers over 200 products ranging from books and travel games to family board games and computer programs. Products are developed in collaboration with the board that consists of scientists, physicians, psychologists and other therapists
Marbles seeks to have a student team analyze sales and expense data from its current stores and recommend profitability characteristics on which to base further expansion. / Growth Strategy/
Operations Development / Retail/
Board Games
Pastoral: Artisan Cheese, Bread, & Wine / Pastoral is an award winning specialty food and wine Chicago-based company with three brick and mortar retail locations, an online store, and a wholesale cheese business to over 45 fine dining restaurants. They are a cut-to-order boutique retailer with a focus on providing exemplary service and consumer education. While European-inspired, they place a particular focus on small production, locally and regionally-sourced artisan cheese, wine craft beer and accompaniments that reflect their authentic ambient “from the land” concept.
Pastoral has grown tenfold in five years both in sales and in workforce, with projected 2010 revenue of over $4 million, growing at a rate of over 20% annually (comparable store) and over 70% in aggregate. Pastoral was awarded 2007 National Specialty Food Retailer of the Year after only three years in business and with only a 382 square foot store in East Lakeview, the youngest and smallest retailer ever to win the industry’s highest honor.
Pastoral is seeking to double its business to over $10 million in the next five years. Pastoral wishes to evaluate growth options that maintain the authenticity of the concept while providing profitable scalability. One option they are exploring is brick & mortar expansion. Pastoral would like a BSG team to take a deep dive evaluation of further brick and mortar expansion in the Chicagoland area, factoring investment, payback, potential cannibalization and logistical issues. The team will use customer data and generate new research to recommend an expansion strategy. / Expansion Strategy / Retail/
Food
Client / Project Summary / Type of Project / Industry /
Ready Ping / ReadyPing is a provider of wait list management and text message paging solutions. Its proprietary web-based software helps restaurants and other businesses manage their waiting customers more efficiently and enables them to easily send text messages to alert customers when their product or service is available. ReadyPing’s software is intuitive and easy to use. Walk-in customers or those with reservations or appointments can be easily managed from a single list. Wait times and other pertinent data are easily at fingertips. A simple click of a button will instantly send a text message to alert customers that their product or service is ready. Managing the wait list couldn’t be any easier. Customers can be alerted by text message, phone call, pager or simply by finding them the old fashioned way.
The BSG team is asked to figure out who ReadyPing is up against? Who are the existing players in the market as well as potential future entrants? The team will need to conduct research & analysis and provide a recommendation on competitive strategy. / Competitive Strategy / Entrepreneurial/
Software/
Dining & Entertainment
Sample Saint / Samplesaint, Inc (SSI) is an interactive mobile media company that provides consumer-packaged goods companies and retailers with a mobile and internet platform for delivering their coupon offers and multimedia messages to the consumer. Samplesaint has created a mobile coupon delivery system that allows a coupon barcode to be scanned by the retailer directly from the customers’ mobile device. The product UPC code is stored to a database, from where it is used to generate a barcode on request from the consumer. The barcode and associated coupon is then delivered to the phone via the consumer’s web browser. The mobile website has been designed to work on multiple phone browsers and the barcode is made small enough to fit the screen of any mobile phone or device, yet large and clear enough to scan at point of sale.
The BSG team is asked to help the company with the analysis of Samplesaint technology adoption. For example, this might involve research/analysis on the growth rate of usage of mobile applications in the US and projected number of coupon users. / Marketing/Growth Analysis / Retail/
Technology
Client / Project Summary / Type of Project / Industry /
Whirlpool Corporation / Whirlpool Corporation is the world's leading manufacturer and marketer of major home appliances, with annual sales of approximately $17 billion in 2009, 67,000 employees, and 67 manufacturing and technology research centers around the world. The company markets Whirlpool, Maytag, KitchenAid, Jenn-Air, Amana, Brastemp, Consul, Bauknecht and other major brand names to consumers in nearly every country around the world. As a part of its major initiative to develop its green technology appliance line, Whirlpool is seeking to extend it’s understanding of the Green Consumer by having a BSG team conduct a study of, “The Green Consumer”. Some questions that they are looking to understand include the following:
·  What is a green consumer? How has the green consumer demand behaved in different industries?
·  What is the evolution and opportunity for green consumer demand in the consumer durables industry? Will the green consumer pay a premium for green? Cross industry analysis and examples.
·  What does the future hold for green demand within the appliance industry?
Throughout the course of the project students will be involved in an environment of strong collaboration with Whirlpool senior leadership across disciplines, from brand marketing and management to global functions focused on energy leadership and sustainability. Project end deliverable would be a presentation and briefing, which would be used to shape Whirlpool’s Green Strategy. / New Industry Research / Retail/
Green-Tech/
Clean-Tech
World Child Project / The World Child Project (WCP) identifies gaps in the services for the direct care of orphaned and abandoned children in developing nations around the world. It provides crucial funding and human capital, consisting of both local and international specialists, to projects with the greatest potential to effect systemic change. In addition, WCP works to improve communications, planning, coordination and cooperation among existing organizations by developing stronger, more effective informal and formal networks. WCP currently has active projects in the Baja region of Mexico and is expanding operations to Brazil and Ghana.
Last December WCP held its first major fundraiser, a holiday card-making party where attendees gathered at a Hollywood club and made their own holiday cards and bid on various auction items - including celebrity cards (Brad Pitt, Jennifer Anniston, Oliver Stone, and about a dozen additional celebrities). The idea is to build on the success of this event by licensing celebrity cards as a set for sale in major national outlets (e.g., Walmart) or through a national partner like Hallmark. This idea has the potential to generate millions on a yearly basis but WCP needs to get a better idea of options for sourcing and partnering on distribution of these sets. Additional, it also have ideas for t-shirt and apparel designs which can provide additional revenue for operations while increasing visibility with potential donors. A third category of inquiry for this team would be suggestions the team has to leverage the WCP brand to raise revenue from alternative earned-income channels such as apparel and cards (for example, should we do something like LiveStrong?). What other high margin products can WCP sell to consumers who will be drawn through celebrity participation in the brand? The hope is that the team will come up with additional ideas when doing scan of projects other non-profits are engaged in as part of the research for this project. / Innovative Fundraising Development / Non-Profit/
Developing Nations

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