Huntsman Consulting Group looks ahead
Business students gained real world experience with the launch of a student-run consulting group last semester.
Now The Huntsman Consulting Group is looking to expand its output and its membership for spring semester after working with Athlonic Sports, an athletic equipment company.
“The first semester was a phenomenal success,” said Matthew Livingston, an MBA student and president of the Huntsman Consulting Group. “The company that we consulted adopted our strategy, hired a team member to carry it out and made a $1,000 donation to the school.”
Livingston said the group’s goal for spring 2015 is to advise not just one but two businesses.
While the group is run in collaboration with the Jon M. Huntsman School of Business and professors Sterling Bone and Jim Davis, the jobs it undertakes are real advisory roles with local businesses, not simulations.
“The Huntsman Consulting Group requires students to integrate classroom knowledge in real-world application,” said Bone, a professor of management in the business school. “They apply business skills to solve business problems for their clients.”
As the group begins its second semester and undertakes more projects, it will also be looking to employ more students, including those with diverse skill sets.
“Right now we have marketing students, but we’d like to have students, ideally, from multiple departments on campus so we can consult, not only branding and sales, but also logistics or manufacturing or different aspects of the business beyond just marketing,” Livingston said.
While the group aims to provide quality service to its customers, it was created with the welfare of students in mind. It’s twofold purpose, Livingston said, is to raise money for the university and to create internships and jobs for students.
“I have been impressed with how these students develop leadership and team-building skills while delivering valuable insights and recommendations to their clients,” Bone said. “It is amazing to see when you challenge students to rise up and accept roles and responsibilities how they grow in confidence and abilities to synthesize information about their client and their business.”
The group is in the process of screening clients to work this semester. Interested companies are expected to donate a small sum to the university and allow a student from the consulting group to intern with them. The intern is tasked with carrying out the plan that the group has formulated.
“The undergraduate students who were members last semester said that this is the best experience they’ve had in, not just doing the project, but working for a real company and a real business,” Livingston said. “Students who are after some real work experience to put on your resume and possibly turn into a job, we’d invite all of them to e-mail us and let us know.”
—levi.henrie@aggiemail.usu.edu