MBA Students Help New Orleans Entrepreneurs Become Greener
MBA Students Help New Orleans Entrepreneurs Become Greener
Volume XVII • Issue 22 • March 31, 2008
B2B, B2C, B2G.You’ve heard the terms, and if you are a student at MIT Sloan, you know what they mean and probably use them quite frequently. There is a new term you should add to your vernacular – BS2E- business students to entrepreneurs.
A group of 19 first-and second-year MBA students recently traveled to New Orleans to work with The Idea Village, a local economic development organization driving innovation by allocating strategy, talent, and resources to local entrepreneurial ventures. Kyle Maner, MBA ’09, and Gary Schmirer, MBA ’09, members of the MIT Sloan Leaders in Service, put together a trek to help several entrepreneurs develop EcoPark, a New Orleans-based hub of green industries poised to drive the city’s rebuilding efforts toward green and sustainable products and services.
Last fall Kyle and Gary were sharing ideas about leadership and what it meant to them, when the idea for a service trek idea first surfaced. As the discussion progressed, Kyle said that she thought leaders should give back to their communities and use their talent, skills, and knowledge to help others in need. At the end of the meeting Gary approached Kyle and said he wanted to work on a project with her—and asked if she had thought about an off-campus project that might have a large impact. “We needed to use all our connections in the non-profit world to help us find the right project. Ultimately, we got the idea from a New York City cab driver. His son had gone to Tulane and suggested we contact the university,” Gary says.
Students talk strategy for EcoPark
(photos courtesy of Patricia Bamber, MBA '08)
They contacted Tulane University’s Entrepreneurship Center, which put them in touch with The Idea Village. The two groups aligned in what has been a perfect union of ideas and action through The Idea Village’s IDEAcorps program. Lauren Baum, Director of Marketing at The Idea Village, likens the program “to a Peace Corps for entrepreneurs.” Founded pre-Hurricane Katrina, The Idea Village has become a key driver of business innovation and entrepreneurial development. Kyle and Gary worked with The Idea Village to find a well-defined project that MIT Sloan students could work on together and use their management tool box effectively. Trek members spent three days in New Orleans over President’s Day weekend.
“In conversations with Gary and Kyle, we learned of their interests in working on a green or sustainable project. Coincidentally, we were in the process of developing our Green Initiative at The Idea Village. It was a natural marriage and the perfect impetus to begin our program,” Lauren said. Many ideas have been implemented by the entrepreneurs as a result of the MBA students’ work.
In an effort to put the pieces of their trek together, Kyle and Gary first approached Sharon (Snaggs) Gendron in the MBA Student Affairs Office for advice on how to approach some of the logistics needed to get a group of students with a common cause to New Orleans. Snaggs suggested they contact Sally Susnowitz in MIT’s Public Service Center. They met with Sally who advised them to really think about the goals they wanted to accomplish while in New Orleans. She also put them in touch with MIT Chancellor and Professor of Urban Planning Philip Clay; Dean of Graduate Students Steve Lerman, and Assistant Dean for Academic Counseling Gail Staton, and MIT Coop representative Alan Powell, all of whom supplied the group with funding.
MIT Sloan Senior Lecturer Sarah Slaughter was the trek’s advisor and both Gary and Kyle said she was invaluable. “She helped us so much with assistance and guidance. I don’t know where we would be without her help. We met with her once every two weeks. Five minutes with her saved us five days of work,” she said.
Kyle Maner, MBA '09
Once the group was in New Orleans they took a tour of the city to see some of the destruction firsthand. They saw that the French Quarter was humming with tourists, while other parts of the city were empty. The group then met with The Idea Village to go over their ideas for the project. The plan had a long list of goals to accomplish in just three days, but the MBA students had completed significant work beforehand and were ready to begin. “We had interviewed some of the key people before the trip and made links to other people in Urban Planning at MIT who had already visited New Orleans—all in an effort to be as prepared as possible. Getting all the entrepreneurs together in the same room and at the same was very important to begin the project. They’re all very busy people with other jobs, but we needed to get them all on the same page to start,” Gary said.
After listening to the entrepreneurs’ requests and ideas, all 19 MBA students went back to their hotel and strategized. They quickly broke into groups with each taking on a different component of a business plan. “The next day we met with the entrepreneurs and told them how we were going to approach the problem and then we broke into smaller groups. Two groups worked on business plans of two different types that later came together as one. We had another group working on financing, and another group profiling companies around the world in ecological industrial parks,” Kyle said. Both Kyle and Gary agreed the MIT Sloan students accomplished more in one day than they planned for the entire weekend. In an effort to streamline the process, the students also wrote 60-second elevator pitches for the entrepreneurs to use when speaking with investors.
That evening the students told the entrepreneurs to think about all that they had taken in over the course of the day, sleep on it, and come back the next day with questions. The students stressed that they could not make decisions for the entrepreneurs, only advise them. Students worked together again to tweak the business model and implementation strategy. The next morning the entrepreneurs were able to make several key decisions in a relatively short amount of time, including whether or not they wanted to become a for-profit or non-profit company; job descriptions for the staff they sought; job structure in the company; and the structure of the company, including who would have a majority stake. The entrepreneurs were to head their companies and have a steering company of 5-6 people helping them.
“The entrepreneurs were very excited to have all of us there. They gave a critical eye to what we suggested and the ideas we presented to them. But in the end they were very happy for the help. We spent a lot of time working on this project and I think it showed,” said Gary.
Gary, center, with two of his trek colleagues
On Monday, the students presented their findings to a panel that included potential investors, government officials, business leaders, foundation representatives, and financial institutions. Gary said there was a lot excitement and participation in the room with the panel asking numerous questions of all involved. “It was great experience for us,” he said, adding, “Students acted as advocates for their clients.” Kyle said, “After the presentation, two people stepped forward to ask more about funding EcoPark. It was very beneficial for all of us.”
“One of the founders of EcoPark had an intern who recently had conducted a lot of research for the non-profit. Shortly thereafter the intern left with all of this information. The entrepreneur was very skeptical of all us at first and didn’t know how much he could trust us. He later invited us out to his site to show us where his business will be and walked us through the building. He thanked us for our help and said that his trust in humanity had been restored. It was wonderful to hear him say those things,” Kyle said. Gary added that this businessman will be visiting Boston soon and the students plan to meet with him to hear how the project is progressing. “We’ve made a strong connection with him,” Kyle noted.
Because of the trip, MarketLab, a break-off group of the MIT Sloan Marketing Club, is working with The Idea Village to implement a marketing plan that will help highlight New Orleans as a new center of talent and innovation. Kyle said it was a direct result of the connections the students built while there. She also noted that several members of the MBA Class of 2009 are thinking about relocating to New Orleans after this experience. “People have definitely been bitten by the entrepreneurship bug after going on this trip. Students have also been bitten by the ‘green’ bug now. One student who had planned to go into investment banking is now a believer in green business,” Gary said.
The Idea Village’s Lauren Baum has just begun work with students in MarketLab and she hopes to have long-term partnership with MIT Sloan. “Ideally, we would inspire MIT students to consider New Orleans as a post-graduate career opportunity. But regardless of whether we engage them for the short or long-term, we have many opportunities that would benefit from the Sloan business-savvy. With this infusion of vibrant, dynamic talent, we have the opportunity to transform one of our nation’s oldest, most storied cities into one of our newest and strongest,” she noted.
Kim Powe, Development and Planning Strategist for Idea Village, said that working with MIT Sloan students for the first time was a “phenomenal experience” for all involved. “EcoPark is looking great,” she said. The Idea Village is following up with the entrepreneurs to ensure that they push their projects forward. “We now have a lot of momentum,” Kim said, adding, “The MIT students were a galvanizing force. They were unbelievably positive and professional. I was impressed with their ability to self-manage and take the bull-by-the-horns. I think they left with a strong sense of accomplishment and the experiential learning that you just can’t get in a classroom,” Kim said
“It was great experience and we learned a lot. I found my Communications and OP (Organizational Processes) classes to be very helpful while there. I found being direct when speaking with clients was very important. We were really designing an organization and I had never done that before,” Gary said.
Kyle said that another great aspect of the trip was meeting more of her first-year classmates. “I have a whole new appreciation for how smart and hard-working my classmates are,” she said. “It’s great to see each other in a whole new light.”
“This trip was the most exciting thing I have been involved in so far during my time here at MIT Sloan,” Gary said. “It was a lot of work, but it was really well worth it. The trek participants should really be proud of themselves.”
The MIT Sloan Leaders in Service group plans to go on another trip this coming fall – possibly Columbus Day or Veteran’s Day weekend. Look for an e-mail with further information next semester.