Students at the Tuck School of Business have been using their classroom and work experiences to contribute to the Upper Valley community through a consulting club, Tuck Student Consulting Services. The club, designed to provide Tuck students with real-world experience in consulting, has been helping various companies and non-profits throughout the area, such as Carrie Cahill Mulligan’s Heirloom Handknit Hats, non-profit Positive Tracks and workforce development program WorkReadyNH. In total, the program works with 10 to 20 businesses per year, with each project being 40 to 60 hours in scope.
The program trains Tuck students who wish to work, or who already have worked, in the consulting industry, as well as to provide an opportunity for Tuck students to give back to the community. The club contributes pro-bono advice to participating companies. Around 20 to 40 percent of each class participates in the program, which has a competitive application process, TSCS co-chair Annu Kayastha Tu’15 said.
Kayastha said that there are many different benefits to participating in the program.
“This organization is open to everyone who wants to do it for volunteer purposes, leadership opportunities and anyone who is interested in consulting,” she said. “I used it for all three and it helped with my consulting interviews.”
Vincent Accurso ’06 Tu’16 said he appreciated the opportunity to help various businesses. He said the program is set up such that students apply to the program in the fall, then are assigned to a consulting group that is specific to a company in the region.
“It really allows you to build a relationship with people in the area,” he said.
Accurso was assigned to help Canaan, New Hampshire, resident Carrie Cahill Mulligan, who owns a niche business selling heirloom hand-knit hats that is trying to grow in scale.
“They made me question: what makes my business special?” Mulligan said. “I hadn’t really considered what I appreciated about my business, or what I really wanted from it, so they’ve really had me question that.”
Prior to her work with TSCS, Mulligan sold her high-end felt hats at various New England craft fairs. Her hats, which go from $135 to $250 each, are intended for a high-paying consumer, she said. One suggestion made by TSCS was for Mulligan to increase the price to $275 per hat.
“They said that the type of person who spends $250 will probably spend $275, which is true,” Mulligan said. “It’s not that big of a difference.”
She said that she had not heard from the consultants recently, but attributed the recent lack of communication to heavy job recruitment during the past few months. She said her experience with the consultants has been beyond positive, as they have forced her to reevaluate her business model.
Positive Tracks and WorkReadyNH are two non-profit organizations that have used TSCS. Positive Tracks was founded in 2009 by Nini Meyer to raise money for a nine-year-old leukemia patient named Cameron Marshall. The organization holds fundraising athletic events and gives the proceeds to various causes. Their events have spanned 35 states and four countries, and they raised nearly $4 million in 2014 alone. Meyer reached out to TSCS to help her non-profit receive a $1 million grant.
“We haven’t landed the deal yet, but Tuck has helped us make a list of the best potential corporate partners,” Meyer said. “Basically, they’re helping us present ourselves in the best possible way to potential donors.”
She explained the importance of pro-bono work in the non-profit sector, since she would have had to pay for five consultants had she not utilized Tuck as a resource.
“Tuck is in our backyard, it only made sense to reach out to Tuck and the College to help our mission,” she said.
She added that she would recommend the program to any business in the Upper Valley.
“The [consultants] were enthusiastic from the get-go, and were full of ideas,” she said. “A lot of the guys have already worked in consulting before business school, so they really know what they are talking about.”
Martha Mott, program director of WorkReadyNH, a tuition-free workforce development program under the Community College System of New Hampshire, also said her work has benefitted enormously from TSCS. Her hope is to fill all of the available spots in the program, since only half of the available spots have so far been filled. TSCS’s main suggestion for Mott is to build a social media presence, since in the past the organization has depended solely on print advertising.
