The showcase is more than just a culmination of academic endeavors; it’s a celebration of innovation, collaboration, and practicality. “Goizueta IMPACT is the experience we provide our MBA students to bridge the theory that they’re learning… with the practice of solving real-world problems,” says Lynne Segall, associate dean of management practices initiatives. This year’s event highlighted the transformative projects of Full-Time MBA students who tackled pressing challenges businesses and communities face worldwide.

The Final Showcase

Through a series of intensive, semester-long projects, students work closely with corporate partners, nonprofit organizations, and startups to develop strategic solutions to complex business problems. These projects not only provide valuable learning experiences for students but deliver tangible benefits to the organizations involved.

The event kicked off with a fireside chat featuring Chris Cocks, CEO of Hasbro, and Gareth James, John H. Harland Dean of Goizueta Business School. Cocks offered students valuable business and leadership advice, discussing everything from customer-centric data analytics to the leadership skills of Optimus Prime of the Transformers.

The student teams then presented their recommendations to clients, business leaders, faculty, and staff. The IMPACT Showcase brings over 300 judges to campus, providing a tremendous opportunity to connect with the broader business community.

2024 Showcase Winners

Goizueta Gold

Safe House Project – Marketing Practice elective
Members: Mariana Zindel Mundet Cruz 25MBA, Betzaira Herrara 25MBA, Andrew Nelson 25MBA, Kevin Mamaril 25MBA, Sasha McNair 25MBA
Faculty: Omar Rodriguez-Vila, professor in the practice of marketing and academic director, Business & Society Institute
IMPACT Coaching Fellow: Sai Konkala 24MBA

Runners Up

Lowe’s Team 2, Operations elective
Members: Allison Hill 25MBA, JS Yoo 25MBA, Gus Williams 25MBA, Moonseok Yun 25MBA, Alessandra Sarango 25MBA, Joonheon Kim 25MBA
Faculty: Jeff Rummel, associate professor in the practice of information systems an operations management
IMPACT Coaching Fellow: Stephanie Wong 24MBA

Chick-fil-A Team 2, Marketing Practice elective
Members: Huan Nguyen 25MBA, Tom Moak 25MBA, Oluwatobiloba Olukeye 25MBA, Joshua Copeland 25MBA, Patrice Johnson 25MBA, Diana Li 25MBA
Faculty: Omar Rodriguez-Vila, professor in the practice of marketing and academic director, Business & Society Institute
IMPACT Coaching Fellow: Akash Parthasarathy 24MBA

As the curtain closed on another successful IMPACT Showcase, the legacy of collaboration and innovation continues to inspire the Goizueta community and beyond. The projects exemplify the academic rigor and practical relevance of Goizueta’s MBA program and demonstrate the school’s unwavering dedication to shaping leaders who drive positive change in the global business landscape.

Through initiatives like the IMPACT program, Goizueta continues to push the boundaries of business education, empowering students to make a meaningful difference in the world—one project at a time. Learn More.

View more images from the 2024 IMPACT Showcase below:

The post Transformative MBA Projects on Display at 2024 IMPACT Showcase appeared first on EmoryBusiness.com.

Barron’s last role working with the organization was as director of patron services. She says the highlight of that job was interacting with visitors and donors and “seeing them experience something special at concerts.” That position also had her engaging with the fundraising, finance, and marketing departments—learning the ins and outs of a smaller-scale organization.

During her tenure at the Erie Philharmonic, Barron discovered a passion for marketing strategy. Eventually, she reached a point where she was ready to pivot her career. It seemed to Barron the only way to move into a new-to-her industry, such as hospitality or tourism, was to return to school. She decided an MBA would help her hone her business skills and continue refining her leadership acumen.

So, she moved from Pennsylvania to Atlanta to join Goizueta Business School’s One-Year MBA program.

“When looking at different MBA programs, Goizueta drew me in with its small size as well as the people I met in the process. They were welcoming and friendly, exactly what I wanted in a program,” shares Barron.

Growth Through Feedback

Pursuing her MBA at Goizueta has provided Barron with the knowledge and skillset to pivot from the nonprofit sector. Her long-term career goal is to bring her skills back to the arts nonprofit arena one day. In the meantime, her self-confidence has grown during the short time she’s spent on campus. There’s one refrain that Barron and her classmates have heard over the last year. “Feedback is a gift.” It’s through this feedback that she has been able to learn and grow the most.

“Outside of my coursework, the thing that will help me the most post-graduation is how I have grown as a person,” shares Barron. “I also believe it’s important to learn different leadership styles, especially ones that you’re not very comfortable with.”

With that in mind, Barron dove headfirst into the bevy of leadership opportunities that Goizueta has to offer. She served as the vice president of the Goizueta Board Association, which hosts the famous weekly KEGS. Additionally, Barron spent time as a Delta Leadership Coaching Fellow and Goizueta IMPACT Coaching Fellow. She also is finalizing her Certificate of Advanced Leadership. This program requires students to complete a few extra courses, activities, and a capstone in their last semester.

“I wanted to take advantage of all opportunities during my one year at Goizueta,” says Barron about her full workload.

The IMPACT experience, which she is currently involved in, has been particularly profound, says Barron. She’s been able to compile everything she’s learned over the course of her degree and practically apply it before she graduates.

“Leading a team when you’re not doing the day-to-day is a very important thing to know. It’s common in the workplace,” says Barron. “IMPACT has been one final learning opportunity, helping a first-year student group work with a real client. It has given me real-life experience.”

This May, hundreds of Goizueta graduates will walk through our doors ready for the workforce. Learn more about the celebration and register for Goizueta’s Commencement activities. Continue to check out the stories of our amazing students all month long.

Whether you’re looking to accelerate your career or make a career pivot, our full-time One-Year MBA will prepare you to challenge business as usual and become the innovators who disrupt it. Learn more here.

The post From Bassoonist to Business Leader: Finding Harmony in the One-Year MBA Program appeared first on EmoryBusiness.com.

IMPACT projects allow students to experience the full cycle of executive problem solving with a real client.

Donna Peters, adjunct lecturer

“They face a real-time business challenge. Students build skills in problem solving, executive communications, and teamwork. All of these are required for C-level effectiveness,” explains Donna Peters, adjunct lecturer for IMPACT.  

Real-World Experience

This year, the One-Year MBA students worked on a challenge from Reynolds Consumer Products (RCP). The company has sponsored multiple projects for Goizueta students over the years. Reynolds manufactures plastic wraps, aluminum foils, and other single-use plastic products. The company has been facing challenges due to increasing environmental-related regulations and shifting consumer preferences towards more eco-friendly products.

Students worked to develop a sustainable solution for a traditionally non-recyclable, single-use product line.

The IMPACT course is a unique, challenging learning experience for students. It presents students with a question that does not come with multiple-choice responses or a yes-or-no answer. In fact, students first must figure out exactly what the question is before they can start trying to solve it.

The IMPACT curriculum gives our students a chance, in this relatively safe environment, to experience the real-world challenges of problem solving.

Lynne Segall

“They start with what problem are we trying to solve, and then work through how to resolve the issues. They must determine what information is needed. Then they figure out how to do the analysis,” explains Lynne Segall, associate dean of management practice initiatives and associate professor in the practice of Organization & Management.

Real-World Challenges

In many MBA courses, faculty use case studies and business scenarios to apply theories. The cases include the relevant data and exhibits to use in their problem-solving. However, in the IMPACT course, students apply these learnings to real-world business challenges. They must determine which analyses to conduct and what information they need in order to do so. As a result, students become familiar with navigating unpredictable terrain in their problem-solving processes. This practice prepares them for their future jobs, career pivots, or increased responsibilities.

This is really all about giving our students a bridge from theory to practice. We want our students to hit the ground running, and IMPACT is all about giving them that running start.

Lynne Segall

Real-World Impact

Evan Birns 24MBA, a senior associate at Insight Sourcing Group, admits that the most challenging aspect of the project was the vagueness of where to begin. “This class placed an emphasis on the structure of the problem-solving process. They identified aspects that I had already been doing in my career but not as organized or in-depth. I will take many learnings from this class back to my work,” he says.

However, the most exciting part of the summer project for Birns and his teammates—after months of extensive research—was Reynolds’s reception to the group’s idea. The company was impressed with two student groups in particular, for proposing ideas the company had not thought of yet. Reynolds hopes to take these “realistic and actionable” ideas and implement them in the near future.

“Goizueta has been an excellent partner. Reynolds has done several of these projects with Goizueta. We have been impressed with the organization of the program, the quality of the presentations, and the engagement of the students,” shares Christopher Evans, vice president of operations, Tableware BU, for Reynolds Consumer Products. “We learn and grow as an organization by engaging with young people from varied backgrounds. They bring experience and fantastic ideas to the table. As such, the impact goes beyond the specific presentation recommendations.”

About Goizueta IMPACT

Goizueta IMPACT provides an opportunity for students to accelerate career readiness. They learn proven problem-solving principles, tools, and frameworks. Then, they apply this knowledge to real-life business situations. Client partners span a wide range of industries, and projects offered vary each year. Learn more about this invaluable experiential learning opportunity.

The post A Bridge Between Theory and Practice: How the One-Year MBA IMPACT Course Prepares Students appeared first on EmoryBusiness.com.

This powerful formula continues to produce astounding results. Evolving from a student initiative into a signature Goizueta program, IMPACT provides a significant learning opportunity for more than 350 MBA students annually and a meaningful platform for engagement of alumni and other business leaders. For example, MBA teams benefit from coaching and evaluative feedback through “Reality Check” panels of business executives who help teams stress-test their recommendations. Hundreds of alumni representing every class from the last 25 years, business leaders, faculty, and staff serve as judges at the Spring Goizueta IMPACT Showcase where MBA teams compete.

Goizueta IMPACT offers our MBA students the chance to put their MBA coursework into practice, which prepares them for interviews, internships, and ultimately, career success.

Associate Dean of Management Practice Initiatives and Senior Lecturer of Organization & Management Lynne Segall

Segall continues, “Working on these projects requires students to integrate organizational realities and people dynamics into problem solving and analysis, something that can’t be replicated in a traditional classroom setting. As a result, these experiences accelerate their career readiness.”

Celebrating Successes and Real Impact on Business Growth and Outreach

Results speak volumes, and Goizueta IMPACT teams have empowered very real change through the years. Guided by faculty members, small teams of MBA students work on ambiguous problems approximately 40 hours a week over the course of the semester. In turn, project sponsors benefit from more than 500 hours of brainpower and hands-on work.

Kore Breault, IMPACT program director, points out that recent teams estimated market size, revenue, pricing, and ROI to develop a business strategy for an electronic medical records company to market its system to mental health providers. Another team provided recommendations to an automotive company on how they should integrate and use sustainability efforts and investments to compete for the next generation of luxury car buyers. For another client, teams evaluated an interactive voice response system for a large retail chain to improve customer experience and help relieve the stores of non-value-added calls.

“The breadth and scope of these individual projects provide valuable impact to the project sponsors, which explains why many sponsors return,” Breault says.

Recently, for The Nature Conservancy, a student team worked with Bola Olusanya 03MBA, chief investment officer, to build a framework to analyze its investment strategies using ESG (environmental, social, and governance) principles. Olusanya has officially completed the “team buildout” phase for the evolution of the investment office, increasing staff from four to 12.

We were able to codify a decarbonization approach for the portfolio that we’ve been putting in place (and continuing to iterate on) over the past year and a half. The culmination of our approach factored in many different perspectives and a ton of research, and the Emory team’s work was certainly a very helpful part of the information mosaic.

Ian Smith, director of investments, The Nature Conservancy

With strong emphasis on personal coaching, earned scholarships, and financial assistance for high school students participating in the Greene College and Career Academy, the Thillen Education Foundation collaborated with IMPACT just two years into their nonprofit journey. Needing to scale operations and raise funds to ensure long-term sustainability of their business model, the foundation partnered with Goizueta IMPACT teams.

The teams focused on scalability and immediate problem solving. We implemented their recommendations to great results: a 62 percent increase in operating funds, a 400 percent rise in donor engagement, and a 63 percent boost in volunteerism. Our Goizueta experience was deeply rewarding for our foundation.

Dave Thillen, Founder and CEO, Thillen Education Foundation

Segall shares an additional benefit for program participants: “Many of our students forge relationships with sponsors and organizations that extend beyond the project duration.”

15 IMPACT Projects Launch Spring 2023

This spring, 15 new IMPACT projects will focus on strategic management, operations, strategic valuation, healthcare, and marketing practice. To create balanced teams and ensure a positive experience for teams and sponsors, including organizations such as PAWS, lululemon, Converse, The Coca-Cola Company, and Lowe’s, IMPACT evaluates MBA student interest and specific skills.

“Project sponsors gain valuable insights and actionable recommendations through their engagement with Goizueta MBA teams,” Segall notes. “They appreciate working with this generation of business leaders and find that the team’s fresh perspective on their issues helps them see their business in a new light.”

Goizueta IMPACT provides an opportunity for students to accelerate career readiness by learning proven, structured problem-solving principles, tools, and frameworks and then applying them to real-life business situations. Client partners span a wide range of industries, and projects offered vary each year. Learn more about this invaluable experiential learning.

The post Problem Solve, Research, Analyze, Deliver Value, Repeat: 30-Year-Old Goizueta IMPACT Tracks Success of MBA Student Recommendations appeared first on EmoryBusiness.com.

Giving thanks for 2022, Asa Griggs Chandler Professor of Finance Wei Jiang says, “I was thrilled to become a faculty member of a premier university in a booming city. I am thankful for the warm reception extended by Goizueta and by the amazing greater community in which our family is already thriving.”

Always goal-oriented, with big aspirations, including a research position with Goizueta’s marketing department, Scott Masterson 24C appreciates a close network. “I’m thankful for my friends who have pushed me to be a better version of myself,” he says. “We seek to motivate and help each other improve every day.”

As a former Goizueta teaching assistant to Nikki Graves, associate professor in the practice of Organization & Management, Masterson aspires to foster even greater faculty-student interactions. “This year, I’ve established relationships with some of my professors, and it’s made learning more enjoyable and rewarding,” he says. “Emory can inspire this connection through social media and by offering events specific to establishing the faculty-student relationship.”

Allison Burdette, professor in the practice of business law, was delighted with “the return to student activities including Emory athletics, musical performances, and student events,” she reflects. “Our students are so exceptional on so many different dimensions, and I have been excited for them and have enjoyed following all the amazing things these students do. I’m also so very thankful for my family!”

Looking forward, Burdette wishes “that the Emory community will continue to charge back into all the extracurricular—sporting, music, student events, even Dooley (who is banned from my class)—activities that had to be put on hold during COVID-19 and regain some of the spark that we lost over the last couple of years,” she says. “That one-on-one personal contact is so important to the college experience and to life in general.”

Benn Konsynski, George S. Kraft Professor of Information Systems & Operations Management, welcomes for Goizueta “growth in programs and community reach that continues to serve commerce and society in new ways in the post-pandemic reality.” Through technology and innovation, he shares, “We’re changing the art of what’s possible in public and private sectors. We are a light and an experimentation zone.”

Connecting campus to community is a vital component of Goizueta’s IMPACT program, which pairs student groups to leading businesses to solve issues of strategic significance. Kore Breault serves as the program’s director. She builds on Konsynski’s goals for Goizueta.

I hope 2023 brings more opportunities for our students to engage with business leaders and tackle issues of strategic importance to a variety of organizations. I am excited so many of these interactions are in person and students are getting out into the ‘field’ to see firsthand issues organizations are facing!

Kore Breault

Burdette also issues a campus challenge for growth and support of all things Emory in 2023: “I believe that the more we all invest in Emory and in our students, the more we all can grow together and become a stronger university. Talons up!” 

What do you wish to see for Goizueta and our community in the year to come? Let us know on social media. Share your thoughts on Instagram and tag us @emorygoizueta, or follow us on Goizueta Business School’s Facebook page.

The post Welcoming 2023 with Positive Reflections and New Beginnings appeared first on EmoryBusiness.com.

The people at Goizueta are like my family. I’ve been working around some of the same faces for over 20 years. I’m inspired by just being around them. I’ve always wanted to work in an environment where people are supported, where you can be the best human, and Emory has given me that.

In her early years at Emory, while working in the MBA Program Office managing the One-Year MBA program, Breault created very strong bonds with faculty, staff, and students and helped to launch the Goizueta Advanced Leadership Academy. Breault transitioned into the realm of development and alumni relations.

“At Goizueta, I focused on a small segment of the student body. I had a very micro-view of Emory, and moving into development opened my eyes to the vast network, education, and research taking place at Emory–a more macro view,” she explains. “I so enjoyed traveling with colleagues and meeting alumni from all schools and programs, and this experience enriched my appreciation of the good work happening across Emory University.

As a major gift officer who empowered Emory’s strategic priorities, Breault experienced many points of pride. She cites raising money for Dean James (Jim) Hund’s portrait as a highlight. “This allowed me the unique opportunity to engage with many faculty and alumni who were so fond of him and meet the artist at a pre-reveal with Jim and his wife,” she recalls. “I’m also proud to have secured the lead gift for the Scholarship of Excellence, Goizueta Business School’s first scholarship for underrepresented MBA students.”

Expanding on her desire to help others, Breault joined IMPACT, Goizueta’s project-based, experiential learning program. She sources projects from organizations for students, making certain that students provide actionable recommendations, and ensuring organizations experience a meaningful partnership. Through IMPACT, students have the rare opportunity to solve real-world problems and gain invaluable professional skills they can apply in their future careers.

Education is a transformative experience. I’ve seen it over and over again. It’s something no one can take away from you. I am always impressed with and excited to be around people who want to grow, learn, and give back to the world. I’ve learned so much about myself through my time at Emory.

In her spare time, Breault enjoys spending time with her family and running. She runs almost daily and is currently training with a group of friends for a 208-mile relay race. Breault is passionate about health and wellness and is one of Emory’s 140 wellness champions.

Learn more about Goizueta IMPACT.

The post Making an IMPACT: Goizueta Program Director and Wellness Champion Draws Inspiration From Others appeared first on EmoryBusiness.com.

IMPACT is an experiential learning program that has universal appeal and staying power. Alumni from every graduating class back to 1990 joined members from all classes once again to support our student teams and share their insight.

Lynne Segall, associate dean of management practice initiatives and senior lecturer of Organization & Management

Sharing wit, wisdom, and from-the-trenches stories of her iconic brand’s road trip comeback to profitability, Stephanie Stuckey, CEO of Stuckey’s Corporation, engaged in conversation with Interim John H. Harland Dean Karen Sedatole. After a successful career as a litigator, Georgia State Representative, nonprofit leader, and sustainability champion for Atlanta, Stuckey leaped into entrepreneurship to revive the ailing-yet-once-loved Stuckey’s candy business and Pecan Shoppes. “I spent my life savings buying the company,” she says proudly of the bold career move. Leveraging her assets and offering life insurance collateral, Stuckey jokes that she “bought an 85-year-old startup.”

Stuckey spoke of engaged leadership, corporate debt repayment strategies, brand awareness and pivots, and ultimately, the importance of nurturing the customer relationship. “We’re boot-strappy, thoughtful, and maintain small growth to stay true and remain connected to our customers,” Stuckey said during the question-and-answer session. “We may be a small company, but we are a big brand.”

Both a visionary and a down-to-earth leader, Stuckey shared career advice along with top entrepreneurial strategies from her company’s grassroots and organic growth.

Boys & Girls Clubs of America Receives Targeted National Growth Analysis

The winning student team of Matt Ball 23MBA, Brandan Gillespie 23MBA, Diana Goodwin 23MBA, Katie Hoole 23MBA, Chase Jubinsky 23MBA, and Aiden Lee 23MBA worked with Boys & Girls Clubs of America (BGCA) to assess areas in which the organization could grow nationally. “Specifically, our team was tasked with determining which markets, or zip codes, would provide the greatest opportunity for new BGCA clubs based on geographic traits and local organizational strength,” said Jubinsky.

Using regression analysis, the team identified average daily attendance as the optimal measure to predict success at the zip code level, as well as the determinant factors that have the greatest influence or impact on average daily attendance at BGCA locations. He explained that “Our findings, which were grounded in data analysis, helped to provide structure to both our recommendation, as well as our presentation deck.”

For their IMPACT presentation, the team made additional recommendations to standardize the data collection process and measure potential funding.

This project represented a great opportunity to work with and make sense of a vast amount of data, and then translate those findings into a recommendation for our client. Our recommendation can potentially impact the lives of youth across the country, which made this opportunity particularly meaningful.

Chase Jubinsky 23MBA

Maximizing the Power of the Hybrid Goizueta Alumni Network

“The IMPACT Showcase this year was exceptional, not only because of the strength of our student presentations but also because we gathered in person for the first time since 2019,” Segall said. In addition, the 219 alumni judges participated both virtually and from the audience.

“The hybrid approach was extremely successful. We will continue to work with our alumni judges around the world for this vital community engagement opportunity for our students. The perspective, skills, and professional networking connections they gain through this experience are unmatched.”

Goizueta IMPACT provides an opportunity for students to accelerate career readiness by learning proven structured problem-solving principles, tools, and frameworks and then applying them to real-life business situations. Client partners span a wide range of industries and projects offered vary each year. Overall, projects are focused on an issue of strategic importance to the organization and provide a “messy, ambiguous problem” to be solved. Learn more about this invaluable experiential learning.

Read IMPACT Showcase speaker Stephanie Stuckey’s advice. Watch the video here.

The post IMPACT Showcase Teams Deliver Powerful Strategies for Business Optimization and Growth appeared first on EmoryBusiness.com.

Not many people would be gutsy enough to buy a deeply indebted business with an ailing brand identity, minimal assets, and endless tangles of red tape. But in 2019, that’s exactly what Ethel “Stephanie” Stuckey did. Though she was an environmental litigator, 14-year veteran of the Georgia House of Representatives, nonprofit leader, and director of sustainability for the City of Atlanta, Stuckey says she came to the CEO role with no business background. What she did have was an endless passion for this road trip revival of the company founded by her grandfather. She says with a smile, “We have a great brand, and no one knows it better than I do. I can sell this brand all day long.”

The familiar, blue-roofed Stuckey’s Pecan Shoppes that dotted American roadsides hit their peak in the 1960s, with 368 stores in more than 30 states. Ownership passed from founder W.S. “Sylvester” Stuckey to outsiders. W.S. “Billy” Stuckey, Jr., a five-term Congressman from the 8^th District of Georgia, bought the company back, co-branded it with Dairy Queen and expanded, then successfully sold both businesses as a package deal to Berkshire Hathaway.

But the corporation endured an all-too familiar if not heartbreaking scenario. By the 1970s, transfer of ownership outside the family had morphed the nostalgic American destination into an entity “trapped in a time warp.” Stores closed, facilities fell into disrepair, and the company’s popularity with road-trippers and Baby Boomers faded.

Even so, when her father’s former business partners called with the suggestion she buy back the Stuckey’s brand, Stuckey was undeterred by its flaws. “I spent my life savings buying the company,” she says proudly of the bold career move. Leveraging her assets and offering life insurance collateral, Stuckey jokes that she “bought an 85-year-old startup.”

I respect our company’s past, but I can’t live in it. The hardest part of running a family business is letting go of what’s not working because, with a family business, everything is personal.

After five straight years of losses, “I bought Stuckey’s in distress. We don’t own any stores, nor do we have the financing to run a chain operation,” Stuckey shared recently on LinkedIn. With a trusted group of advisors and a small executive team, Stuckey renegotiated the existing 65 franchise agreements into licensing deals and began making changes.

“Taking on a project this big is a sacrifice,” she says of her 12-hour workdays. And the reward for hard work? Under Stuckey’s fresh leadership, within six months, the company turned a profit.

A Distressed Company is No Match for a Determined CEO

With decisive and purpose-driven new leadership, Stuckey paid every creditor that was owed money. Creating the “Thousand-dollar Club,” Stuckey issued $1000 payments each month to delighted creditors until all debts were paid.

The way my partner and I have pulled this company from debt to profitability is by making our own sweets and snacks again. We bought a pecan shelling and candy plant, and we’re starting to see Stuckey’s products on the shelves in thousands of stores nationwide.

So, what strategy did she embrace? After taking a two-year road trip to truly understand the retail operations, license holders, and their customer experience, she studied the books. “We put all of the revenue we generated into buckets–in-store sales, online sales, etc.,” she explains. While the road trip was incredible, she realized that almost 80 percent of revenue came from product sales.

Stuckey is a savvy business leader. The company pivoted and made a compromise. They created new jobs, invested in communities, made key acquisitions to continue manufacturing in America, and engaged third-party retailers. With the ultimate goal to own three to five flagship stores as destination locations, Stuckey’s will continue to expand markets for Stuckey’s pecan products via e-commerce and other outlets.

She shares, “We’re still a road trip brand, but now we talk about it on the labeling.”

Advice to Would-Be-Entrepreneurs: Don’t Be Afraid to Start a New Career

Leaving the familiar behind, Stuckey embraced entrepreneurship in recreating the brand. One benefit for later-in-life risk-takers? “Post age 50 you have credit and financial maturity. That helped me buy the company,” she points out.

Do what you love, at a place that you love, with people you love. It’s that simple. You may have a couple of careers and work at different places, and that’s okay. We should be doing meaningful work that makes a difference.

Learn as You Go

First-time experience is gained and often comes with the help of YouTube videos and online advice from marketing gurus. “I wasn’t on Undercover Boss, but I did start from the top down and work in every job at the candy plant to gain a better understanding and commonality with our employees,” she says.

With a nod to remaining vulnerable and seeing the humor in situations, Stuckey advises, “Take feedback from people you know and trust.”

Bootstrap—And Use Social Media to Build Your Brand

Passionate about the customer experience, she shares, “We’re boot-strappy, thoughtful, and maintain small growth to stay true and remain connected to our customers. We may be a small company, but we are a big brand.”

Rather than overinvest on consultants and advertising, Stuckey made her journey very personal and shared her experiences on LinkedIn, Instagram, Facebook, podcasts, videos, and the company blog, affectionately called the Stuckey’s Pecan Blog Roll. With no large digital budget, Stuckey began putting out original, organic content to keep it interesting. Citing Sam Walton’s advice, she agrees, “You have to distinguish yourself, be different, unique and special.”

With a goal to post organic content one time a day, Stuckey shared her own story with her followers. Being an entrepreneur, she says, works to your advantage. “Ask yourself, how do I tell the story of my brand?”  

Understand “Every Traveler is a Friend”

Stuckey’s grandfather had a saying: “every traveler is a friend.” She recommends applying this wisdom to solidifying the customer relationship. As her grandfather said, “If unthinkingly you render a disservice to a neighbor, all is not lost. You can see him or her again soon and make amends. But should a traveler leave one of our Shoppes with a feeling of dissatisfaction, then we can indeed despair. The traveler is gone. With them has also gone their respect for you and for the company you represent–and it is not likely that any of us ever again will see him or her in order to make things right.”

Advocate for Your Cause, Set Goals and Dream Big

Though Stuckeys now sources pecans from Georgia farmers, shells the pecans themselves, manufactures candy in its own plant, and boasts a fundraising business, Stuckey states, “I want us to be the go-to brand for pecans.” Her long-term ambition? “Dominate the nut aisle, produce aisle, snack aisle, and of course, the wine aisle. After all, pecans are a great snack with a glass of wine.”

Stephanie Stuckey shared her insight as part of the IMPACT Showcase. Learn more about Goizueta IMPACT, the experiential learning program that connects real-world clients with Goizueta students.

The post Stuckey’s Corporation CEO Shares Secrets from Comeback Road Trip to Revive a Famous “85-Year-Old Startup” appeared first on EmoryBusiness.com.

Their readiness has been put to the test since spring 2020, as new MBAs face new careers in industries that are suddenly trying to survive by doing business in a whole new way, and to capitalize on unexpected opportunities. “We always aim for IMPACT to accelerate career readiness, and throughout the COVID-19 pandemic, our graduates have leaned on the approach to problem solving that they learned in this curriculum,” said Lynne Segall 99MBA, associate dean, management practice initiatives, senior lecturer, Organization & Management, and faculty advisor to John R. Lewis Racial Justice Case Competition. IMPACT evolved from a club that started in the early 1990s, becoming a required class for all MBAs in 2008.

The pandemic really validated IMPACT even more through the success of our students in such an extraordinary time for business and society.

Lynne Segall, associate dean of Goizueta IMPACT

The following recent MBA alumni shared their pandemic narratives and the growth they experienced from IMPACT, in their own words.

Drew Banks 21MBA, senior consultant at Deloitte

Working virtually with a team to deliver a high-quality product more than prepared me for my current consulting role. My IMPACT360 project allowed me to better appreciate the value of connectivity (with both my team members and client) and understand that recurring touchpoints are essential for team success.

I gained an understanding of the importance of making a pointed effort in establishing and maintaining all stakeholder relationships.

Drew Banks 21MBA

It’s easy to isolate yourself in this virtual environment and doesn’t take much effort to set up time (even if it’s 15 or 20 minutes) to talk through something with a team member or client (versus resolving over email).

This was especially important and valuable to me as I am a natural introvert and have now found myself making a concerted effort to maintain connections and relationships with my colleagues and clients.

Joe Miller 17MBA and Josh Underwood 17MBA, partners, Blue Ridge Succession Fund

IMPACT was the most important class I took while at Goizueta. I apply the skillsets daily in advancing my career.

Joe Miller 17MBA

I worked at Insight Sourcing Group (ISG), a procurement-focused consulting firm that specializes in reducing costs for clients on products and services. In a post-pandemic world, factors such as inflation and global supply chain challenges make it almost impossible to generate these savings. You must change what you’re buying – change the raw materials for your product packaging, for instance. My team at ISG became experts in identifying creative solutions by utilizing the same problem statements, issue trees, and other foundations taught during IMPACT. ISG asked me to design a problem solving training program for the whole firm. Through IMPACT, a whole new world was unlocked to provide value to ISG clients.

Josh and I met when randomly assigned to the same IMPACT team. In late 2020, we began toying around with the idea of buying a business but had zero background in mergers and acquisitions. So, we went back to the IMPACT issue trees to figure out the size of business, the industry, our acquisition thesis, and funding.

We landed on acquiring and rolling up independent auto shops in the Southeast. Blue Ridge Succession Fund is our holding company that invests and partners with family-owned companies in the Atlanta Metro, and we are closing on our first acquisitions. Our lifelong friendship culminated in Josh officiating my wedding in October 2021. IMPACT has been extremely influential!

JP Ortiz 18MBA, sales specialist, Microsoft Surface

In a pandemic world, learning how to implement and affect change, especially remotely, was one of the most important aspects of my IMPACT training.

JP Ortiz 18MBA

At Microsoft, my first role was as a customer success manager where I helped Fortune 500 companies implement technology across the organization. Adding the pandemic into the mix greatly increased the scope of my work with solutions needing to be delivered in hours and days, not months. IMPACT taught me to always come back to what problem we’re trying to solve.

Luke Scheibel 17MBA, corporate strategy, experience consultant, EY-Parthenon

COVID-19 created many complicated problems for companies that turned to my consulting firm for solutions. IMPACT taught me an approach to break down complex problems and create solutions that address these problems.

For instance, my client (a Fortune 20 technology company) was refreshing their analytic and AI go-to-market approach to account for COVID-19’s impact on customer preferences and competitors’ responses. I used the lessons from IMPACT to break down and assess customer preferences using primary and secondary research. This work culminated in a data-backed business case for the new market, which principles were learned in IMPACT. 

Many Goizueta classmates were there to mentally support me throughout the long days in my home office. They provided a sounding board for career decisions, and were there to joke around and lighten the mood. 

Luke Scheibel 17MBA

Through these conversations, I gained helpful perspective and was comfortable making a lateral move from Grant Thornton Strategy to EY-Parthenon Strategy.

Ben Teplitzky 17MBA, director of product management, Grubhub

IMPACT helped prepare students for the physical disconnection of the pandemic. When we worked on the IMPACT project, we weren’t in the room with the company. So how do we create communication bridges, and create right inputs and outputs to get things done? The unsupervised independence of IMPACT was applicable to COVID-19, as well as being data focused. When you have a shuttered store, then you’re going to want to take deep data dives in the digital space for advertising, as well as to increase the online conversation [with the consumer] through personalization. There was a lot of chaos with COVID-19, and I was down with that.

With chaos comes opportunity.

Ben Teplitzky 17MBA

Becca Turkel 21MBA, senior manager, news marketing solutions, WarnerMedia

IMPACT training is most important when times are unconventional and you have to shift to a totally different way of working. You have to rethink the entire way that you work, and you can’t rely on getting a lot done in sidebar conversations. You are grasping for a structured way of going about things. Starting the One-Year MBA program in May 2020, I was already learning as I went. The pandemic gave an intense program an added layer of intensity. My IMPACT team spent hours and hours on Zoom to figure out the best way to work together. Even though we were online, I feel very bonded with them. We figured out how to synthesize what we were working on so that everyone was looking at the same thing.

We learned how to get things done in a pandemic, and I applied that same approach at WarnerMedia.

Becca Turkel 21MBA

My job has been remote since I started. The IMPACT project was a very real-world opportunity thrown at us, and I am grateful for the learnings during the pandemic.

Learn more about how Goizueta MBA students engage in experiential learning through the innovative IMPACT program. Find out more about how companies can benefit from multi-dimensional approaches to real-world problem solving by some of the best and brightest future business leaders.

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Enjoy these ten great stories that you might have missed.

Goizueta Entrepreneurs-in-Residence Provide Insight into Entrepreneurship, Early-Stage Investing, and Innovation

Goizueta’s 2021-23 Entrepreneurs in Residence (EiR) cohort are poised to help students translate vision into impact. The EiR program is housed within The Roberto C. Goizueta Center for Entrepreneurship & Innovation, launched in 2021 to foster entrepreneurship and innovation by offering vital support in three areas: entrepreneurship, early-stage investing, and innovation.

The EiR program plays a vital role in the Center’s efforts to support entrepreneurship, early-stage investing, and innovation. Since the creation of the program in 2017, Goizueta has selected EiRs whose backgrounds and experiences align with these priorities. Read the complete article here.

From Bean to Cup: Goizueta Balances the Scale of Financial Equity for Female Coffee Farmers

The Roberto C. Goizueta Business & Society Institute’s Grounds for Empowerment (GFE) program seeks to balance the scales in one historically imbalanced industry: coffee. “From a business school perspective, coffee represents a very important problem,” said Giselle Barrera 15MBA, GFE’s program manager for Latin America. “It’s a multibillion-dollar market where you’re not looking for consumers. You don’t find coffee; coffee finds you. And yet, if you look at the value chain, the revenue is not distributed equally.” Read the complete article here.

Full-Time MBA Ranks 18th in Nation by Businessweek 

In the recently released Bloomberg Businessweek 2021-22 Best B-schools MBA ranking, the Full-Time, Two-Year MBA at Emory University’s Goizueta Business School is ranked 18^th in the nation. The ranking evaluates Full-Time MBA programs on five key categories including compensation, networking, learning, entrepreneurship, and diversity. The diversity category is a new measure added in this year’s methodology and measures MBA programs based on race, ethnicity, and gender in their classes. Read the complete article.

Erin Lightfoot 21MBA On the Forefront of Vaccinating Georgians

Social Enterprise Fellow Erin Lightfoot 21MBA has served as a mass vaccination site operations manager at Mercedes-Benz Stadium in downtown Atlanta. The largest mass vaccination site in the southeast, Mercedes-Benz crossed the 250,000-vaccination milestone on April 30th. “It’s been a huge, orchestra-like production,” Lightfoot explained. “Multiple teams have come together to bring this whole initiative to life.” Read the complete article here.

Corporate Social Responsibility Builds Investor Trust

Goizueta faculty research delves deep into critical issues for business leaders around the world. In her latest research, Assistant Professor of Accounting Suhas A. Sridharan notes, “Earnings announcements are among the most salient and recurring areas of corporate disclosure, and managers and investors pay very close attention to them.”  She goes on to say, “We know that these types of announcements are lengthy and dense; they take time to process. So, the intuition here is that when your firm plants a flag on responsibility and accountability, investors are more likely to take your disclosures at face value – they’re more likely to trust what you’re saying.” Read the complete article.

Goizueta MBA Students Deliver Impact to Mentoring Program for Rural Georgia Teens

The Goizueta IMPACT program puts theory into practice to build career readiness. In the process, all MBA students are offered the opportunity to affect countless lives by sharing forward-looking expertise and feedback with community organizations, corporations, and nonprofits. To date, this unique MBA experiential learning program has provided action plans for local, national, and international organizations.

About 75 miles east of Goizueta Business School, Dave Thillen began realizing in 2020 that his deeply rooted, effective, volunteer mentoring program could benefit from professional consulting. For decades he had loved the frontline work of supporting hundreds of rural teenagers to set individualized life goals and begin to achieve them. Read the complete article here.

New SPAC IPOs Inspire Happy Investors to Sign Blank Checks

The current SPAC frenzy has led to predictions that the SPAC market is a bubble ready to burst, but Klaas Baks, professor in the practice of finance and executive director, Emory Center for Alternative Investments, doesn’t see it that way. He points to financial practices such as leveraged buyouts and securitization, both considered suspect in their heyday, but that are mainstream today. “We’re in the first inning of SPACs,” said Baks. Read the complete article here.

A Million-Dollar Student-Run Venture Capital Fund Focused on Empowering Underrepresented Founders

Venture capital shaped Miguel Vergara 22MBA’s path to Goizueta Business School’s full-time MBA program, where he is eager to participate in a new venture fund run by himself and other students. These students are carrying on the legacy of recent MBA graduates who sought to take action against systemic racial inequalities in business. The result is the Peachtree Minority Venture Fund of The Roberto C. Goizueta Center for Entrepreneurship & Innovation, the first student-run fund in the United States focused on empowering underrepresented founders. Read the complete article here.

Goizueta Faculty Recognized with Awards for Excellence, Dedication over Past Year

Each year, Goizueta Business School honors faculty members for their dedication to and leadership in academic excellence in teaching, content development, experiential learning, scholarly inquisition, and commitment. We are proud to present this year’s 14 recipients.

Several Goizueta faculty were recently recognized by Emory University for their accomplishments over the past year, including Assistant Professor in the Practice of Accounting Allison Kays and Associate Professor in the Practice of Marketing Omar Rodríguez-Vilá. Read the complete article here.

Mercedes-Benz USA Gains Goizueta Student Gen Z Insight in Business Communication Strategy Case Competition

Each year, BBA students at Goizueta participate in the “BComm” course designed to strengthen their communications techniques and introduce them to the skills required to prepare for and deliver client presentations.

The defining moment of the BBA program’s Business Communication Strategy or “BComm” course is the end-of-semester Professional Communications Strategy Case Competition. This past spring, executives from Mercedes-Benz USA (MBUSA) asked three-dozen BComm student teams how they would introduce Mercedes-EQA, the automaker’s new, all-electric crossover SUV, to Gen Z consumers (those born between 1995 and 2010). Read the complete article here.

Goizueta Celebrates 2021 Undergraduate and MBA Business Grads for Record-Breaking Employment Rates, Top Salaries

With principled leadership in the forefront, Goizueta is proud to report that 97 percent of 2021 BBA graduates received, and 96 percent accepted employment offers within three months of graduating. Read the complete article here. Touting the best employment rates in the school’s history, Goizueta full-time MBA graduates entered the job market in full force. Within three months of graduating, 99 percent of students received and accepted offers for a full-time job. Furthermore, at graduation, 91 percent of the class received a full-time offer, representing an 8 percent increase over the previous year. Read the complete article here.

Check out our homepage at EmoryBusiness.com for new stories highlighting faculty, alumni, and student insight into the research, trends, and current events impacting business today.

The post 2021 in Ten Great Stories (You Might Have Missed) appeared first on EmoryBusiness.com.

About 75 miles east of Goizueta Business School, Dave Thillen began realizing in 2020 that his deeply rooted, effective, volunteer mentoring program could benefit from professional consulting.

For decades he had loved the frontline work of supporting hundreds of rural teenagers to set individualized life goals and begin to achieve them. The students attend the Title 1 Greene County High School with 98% of families reporting low income and 90% of students identifying as minorities, including a seasonal migrant worker population. Thillen matched students with mentors, mostly retirees, living near Lake Oconee. As donors came forward, last year he formed the Thillen Education Foundation, a 501(c)(3) nonprofit, with a board of directors. “A starter kit,” he called it.

The need for professional consulting grew quickly with the program. This semester, 82 career coaches are working with 350 students. In the fall, 110 coaches have committed to work for years with 450 students until they graduate. Walmart, GMS, Ernst & Young, and other corporate partners are involved along with local government, schools, and community partners. 

As an incentive to learn and participate in personal coaching and mentorship, Thillen gives each graduate a minimum $1,000 “Dave Dollars” earned scholarship, so the foundation needs to function as a trustworthy steward of its donations.

“Student mentoring is like a planting a garden,” said Greene College & Career Academy CEO John Ellenberg. “You go ahead and plow because you know it’s going to rain. Now it’s raining, and we needed the expertise of Goizueta’s MBA students to show us how to scale our operations.”

How could the foundation work better to help the high school students even more? That question led the Foundation to Goizueta Business School’s IMPACT program, which tapped Modular Executive MBA students to come up with concrete answers to sharpen Thillen’s work. 

MBA Students Flex their Multi-Disciplinary Muscles for Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion

Sandy Duke 21MBA, a student team member from Macon, called the Thillen consulting project a chance to flex “our newfound MBA muscles and skills from all of our disciplines.” His team members work in finance, email integration, and academic information systems. He is a former surgeon and is now executive vice president and chief clinical officer for Atrium Health Navicent System.

“The bonus was that Thillen is a nonprofit,” Duke said. “At this point in our society, there are so many issues of disparity and equity. At my hospital, I lead vaccine distribution, and we are looking at disparities and inequity in the vaccine and disease processes. This project really showed me that we can’t solve for disparities when our basic needs are not being met. Working on this project was the cherry on top of my MBA experience.” 

The three MBA teams delivered so well that within a couple of weeks, Thillen, 76, has already implemented their recommendations for his foundation, including new roles and responsibilities for his board of directors, establishment of a board of advisors, investment in a new website, and implementation of a new customer relationship management (CRM) system. “In fact, we’re delighted to share with the teams that our funding has grown since April by $275,000, in part because of their targeted advice.” 

The IMPACT process was eye-opening. “It was really cool that so many MBA students from so many backgrounds all brought something to us,” Thillen said. “We knew we needed help reshaping our work. They understood what we are about and where we are at. They were a true group of professionals who gave us something completely unique, and so on target with what is happening in the world today.”

Every Goizueta MBA student must complete an IMPACT course, in which they solve real-life problems for businesses that have requested consulting assistance. Thillen Foundation was among 20 organizations that Goizueta MBA students consulted with in spring 2021. More than ever, the IMPACT program is addressing issues of diversity, equity, and inclusion.   

“Goizueta Business School believes that business and society working collectively can deliver a more equitable and sustainable world, and the IMPACT curriculum provides experiential opportunities for our students to get involved and make a difference,” said Lynne Segall 99MBA, senior lecturer in Organization & Management and associate dean of Goizueta IMPACT. “Working with partners like the Thillen Education Foundation, our students grapple with real-world issues, which expands their cultural knowledge and builds their skills.” 

Connecting Despite Social Distancing 

During the discovery phase of the project, the MBA teams mostly worked with the information that Thillen could provide online and virtually. Among Duke’s MBA team’s recommendations were endowment funding and strategic recruitment of board members for their legal, financial, marketing, and fundraising skills. 

Duke, however, arranged a visit that produced more targeted consulting recommendations for Thillen—and profound impact for Duke personally.  

“Consulting isn’t simply looking in a textbook and you know what to do,” Duke said. “It’s stepping into a role that balances academic work with the unique needs of the organization that needs consulting. It’s looking at the assets that the organization brings, and the limitations imposed on the organization. I didn’t feel I could do that easily on Zoom.”

On site, he understood better what was at stake for Thillen and the community. The large closet with food, clothing, shoes, and basic hygiene items for students in need hit him the hardest. 

“There are pockets in the community that do not have running water,” said Duke. “The program needed a roadmap in the near term and long term for lasting impact for generations. Being on site, I appreciated the scope of what they were doing and what the kids needed. I had a better sense of Dave and the spoken and unspoken desires for the organization, especially about making the Thillen Foundation sustainable beyond Dave Thillen’s lifetime.”

Without the recommendations, “We might have morphed eventually to what we have now, a board with a very purposeful output,” Ellenberg said. “Our impetus to change that dynamic came from having a whole bunch of MBA students saying that we need this from the get-go.” 

“The IMPACT teams helped accelerate our time frame for everything,” Thillen said. “This was not just an exercise. Their recommendations were imperative.”

The impact was shared: Thillen challenged the Goizueta teams to map out their own goals in a structured, thoughtful, life plan. 

Duke took stock. He had served on nonprofit community boards for scouting, health care, and religious organizations, and had selected the Goizueta Modular Executive MBA program for its rigor, reputation, and alumni network. The Thillen project sparked him to consider his own personal legacy. 

“Being in his community and talking to Dave Thillen has helped me calibrate what I want to do and the impacts I want to leave long term,” Duke said. “I was surprised at what I learned at that intersection of academia and his personal passion project, because what he has done in that community is not little. I’m continuing to contemplate what that means for me.”

Ultimately the impact of the MBA teams’ work on behalf of Thillen Education Foundation may reach much further than families who are underserved in Greene County. With businesses embracing diversity, equity, and inclusion as part of their core principles, the students could be helping change the face of business.

Through the support of Goizueta students, each day the Thillen Foundation is shaping lives and supporting kids to ignite their full potential. “Our work is a little louder now because of social justice and inclusion,” Thillen said. “The whole point of this work is that when we ask who can run major corporations, the answer can be some of our program kids. And that’s exactly why we continue to work so hard to make an impact.”

Goizueta IMPACT provides an opportunity for students to accelerate career readiness by learning proven, structured problem-solving principles, tools, and frameworks and then applying them to real-life business situations. Clients span a wide range of industries and projects offered vary each year. Overall, projects are focused on an issue of strategic importance to the organization and provide a “messy, ambiguous problem” to be solved. Learn more about this invaluable experiential learning. 

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IMPACT is a required class that matches student teams with companies and organizations to develop strategies to solve their real-world business problems. With projects in consumer products, higher education, healthcare, municipal government, communications, financial services, and energy, among other industries, the 20 organizations participating in the spring 2021 semester received fresh insights and well-researched consulting recommendations. The students were able to put theory into practice. Roughly one-third of the projects tackled challenges involving diversity, equity, and inclusion.  

“Goizueta IMPACT extends the value of the business school into the business community, and addressing diversity, equity, and inclusion is one of the most critical challenges in business today,” said Lynne Segall, associate dean, Goizueta IMPACT and senior lecturer in Organization & Management. “Because each student tackles a timely issue for a company or organization, the Goizueta MBA degree has greater value. It’s a win-win-win for the school, our students, and the community partners that we appreciate so much.”  

Among others, the projects included a major company looking for marketing solutions in a Latin American country experiencing pressure from currency devaluation; a public organization that wants to respond more efficiently to requests from people who are not proficient English speakers; and a major environmental nonprofit needing to ensure its investments align with environmental, social, and governance (ESG) best practices. 

Here is a more in-depth look at three recent IMPACT projects:

A Joint Venture to Train and Employ Homeless People and Veterans

First Step Staffing, which provides janitorial services at Emory, prioritizes employment for men and women experiencing homelessness and those who are veterans in need, so they can take the first step out of poverty and homelessness. Founded in Atlanta in 2007, First Step is now the largest nonprofit, alternative staffing agency in the country, and is 95% self-sustaining with earned revenue from business customers. 

A partnership with Goodwill of North Georgia, which provides work training, was a possibility, but the two organizations needed help hammering out what the arrangement would look like. 

“In looking for more ways to have even bigger impact, we explored a formal collaboration with First Step Staffing,” said Jenny Taylor, vice president of career services for Goodwill of North Georgia. “What it took to bring it to actionable next steps was the bright, talented team of Emory MBA students and their IMPACT project. This is the second time we have worked with IMPACT, and this is the second time the student team won first prize from the judges. It is a testament to their stellar work.”

“I had worked with a team of students from Emory before and knew they provided a professional approach to their projects,” said First Step CEO Amelia Nickerson. “The IMPACT program provided targeted, in-depth research, and potential solutions. Our goal was to have several forms of partnership vetted with budgets and timelines, which we received.” 

She went on to say, “The team from IMPACT met and exceeded my expectations, providing a thoughtful level of research and presenting conclusions and recommendations concisely with easy-to-follow next steps. I would recommend the program to anyone! Really great experience.”

A Menu of Offerings to Help Feed Autistic Children 

The Children’s Feeding Program, at Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta, helps children who have chronic and severe feeding disorders. IMPACT student teams were asked to develop a go-to-market strategy for a new, highly effective therapy to treat eating disorders among autistic children. 

“Our initial question focused on a specific treatment model, called the Autism MEAL plan, which involves a treatment manual that our group viewed as the potential market opportunity,” said Emory University School of Medicine Associate Professor of Pediatrics William Sharp.

His team asked IMPACT for recommended next steps for extending the Autism MEAL plan to families outside metro Atlanta. 

The student team saw a broader opportunity: the Children’s Feeding Program could provide training and continuing education for frontline providers serving children with feeding disorders. 

“The Autism MEAL plan could be part of this offering, but not the lone focus of our expansion efforts,” Sharp said. “IMPACT was a valuable experience that met our expectations by providing a novel perspective about the treatment landscape and how our team has the potential to provide a solution to an unmet need.”

Diversifying a Customer Base for Personalized Beauty Products

Function of Beauty is a startup that uses technology to customize skin, body, and hair care products, and offers trillions of possible formulations so each customer receives a product as unique as their fingerprint. The company recognized that their current customers are not reflecting the diversity and inclusion that Function of Beauty can serve. 

“My hope was to have some smart people, who are removed from our day-to-day realities, unpack our problems and questions and come back to us with actionable insights and plans that we could move forward with,” said Chief Marketing Officer Lorna Sommerville.

Sommerville connected to IMPACT through her friendship with Omar Rodriguez-Vilá, associate professor in the practice of marketing and academic director of education at The Roberto C. Goizueta Business & Society Institute. Both had worked at The Coca-Cola Company. 

IMPACT students helped Sommerville and her brand team understand the perceptions and needs of Black, indigenous, and people of color, and develop product changes to better serve their needs. Students also consulted on leveraging Function of Beauty’s sustainability efforts in marketing.  

“The weekly check-ins were always good discussions, with the IMPACT teams posing tough questions, pushing us to ask ourselves why we’ve been approaching things the way we have, and how we could improve,” Sommerville said. 

“The teams uncovered great consumer insights, and then provided frameworks through which we could think about the areas that needed to be addressed. They left us feeling really clear as to what we had to go and do. Now we just actually need to do it!”

Interested in becoming a Goizueta IMPACT client? Learn more about our project-based partnerships.

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