{"id":3702,"date":"2007-11-01T11:37:28","date_gmt":"2007-11-01T15:37:28","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/biznews.fiu.edu\/?p=3702"},"modified":"2014-11-14T16:01:55","modified_gmt":"2014-11-14T21:01:55","slug":"student-consultants-and-their-client-benefit-from-case-study","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/biznews.fiu.edu\/2007\/11\/student-consultants-and-their-client-benefit-from-case-study\/","title":{"rendered":"Student consultants and their client benefit from case study."},"content":{"rendered":"


\n<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n
\n
\"\"
\nTeam members conducted some of their research on site at CCT’s warehouse. <\/em><\/div>\n<\/td>\n
<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n

As a relatively new company, CCT Global Logistics couldn\u2019t afford to hire consultants to evaluate an efficiency challenge they\u2019d encountered. Nor could they afford to take valuable staff time to deal with it. A solution presented itself in the form of four students in the Downtown MBA program, offered in the College of Business Administration\u2019s Chapman Graduate School. For the students enrolled in Distribution Channels<\/em>, taught by Fred Hernandez,<\/strong> adjunct professor, Department of Marketing, it was a real-life case study\u2014a chance to apply what they were learning in class. For CCT, it was an unexpected boon.<\/p>\n

\n

\u201cThe manner in which they presented their research was astonishingly accurate.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u2014Christian M. Ollino<\/strong>, CCT managing director, CCT<\/p>\n

\n\n\n\n
\n
\"\"
\nTeam member Lourdes Matta<\/strong> presents at CCT. <\/em><\/div>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n

\u201cWe were extremely impressed with the group\u2019s level of professionalism,\u201d said Christian M. Ollino<\/strong>, CCT managing director. \u201cThe manner in which they presented their research was astonishingly accurate concerning where we have an opportunity for improvement in our logistics and distribution operations.\u201d<\/p>\n

More work means bigger payoff.<\/em><\/p>\n

The team consisted of Alejandro Aristiz\u00e1bal<\/strong> (BA \u201901), Lourdes Mata<\/strong>, Carlos Ramos<\/strong>, and Faun Whalen<\/strong>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\n
\"\"
\nAlejandro Aristiz\u00e1bal<\/em><\/strong> shares findings from the team\u2019s efforts. <\/em><\/span><\/div>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n

\u201cWe visited the warehouse to understand the movement of products and talked to employees to feel what they were feeling, rather than coming in with just a theoretical understanding,\u201d said Aristiz\u00e1bal, a forensic social worker in a jail diversion program. \u201cNot only did we learn a great deal about the company\u2019s distribution channel in Latin America, but also we had a wealth of networking opportunities.\u201d<\/p>\n

The team\u2019s presentation to CCT elicited an immediate positive response: Ollino called a staff meeting the next day to start applying the students\u2019 ideas.<\/p>\n

The experience confirmed Hernandez\u2019s long-standing interest in taking students beyond typical case study exercises.<\/p>\n

\u201cTraditional Harvard Business School-type cases are great, and most of the students opted to do them,\u201d he said. \u201cHowever, real life experience in a new field, especially in a new subject, served for these students as a tremendous learning process. Though it was more time consuming, it enabled them to do the kind of analytical work MBAs do and to understand more immediately and first-hand the importance of supply chain management in a real situation.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\n
\"\"
\nThe student presenters, their professor, and their client celebrated the success of the presentation over a dinner party, which included, from left to right: <\/em>Carlos Ramos<\/em><\/strong>, Faun Whalen<\/strong>, Fred Hernandez<\/strong>, Christian Ollino<\/strong>, Lourdes Matta<\/strong>, and <\/em>Alejandro Aristiz\u00e1bal<\/em><\/strong>.<\/em><\/span><\/div>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n

Given the success of this initial effort, Hernandez hopes that other companies will contact him to engage students in a similar activity. Ollino, too, wants to repeat the exercise.<\/p>\n

\u201cI hope to have another chance to get a group to perform yet another efficiency project such as this one,\u201d he said. \u201cI also hope my competition doesn\u2019t have the same advantage until we are up to speed.\u201d<\/p>\n

Learn more.<\/em><\/p>\n

Downtown MBA: http:\/\/business.fiu.edu\/chapman\/mba_downtown.cfm<\/a>
\nCCT: www.cctcorporation.com<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Team members conducted some of their research on site at CCT’s warehouse. As a relatively new company, CCT Global Logistics couldn\u2019t afford to hire consultants to evaluate an efficiency challenge they\u2019d encountered. Nor could they afford to take valuable staff time to deal with it. A solution presented itself in the form of four students […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":71,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[344,388,418,4551,843,959,1613],"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/biznews.fiu.edu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3702"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/biznews.fiu.edu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/biznews.fiu.edu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/biznews.fiu.edu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/71"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/biznews.fiu.edu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3702"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/biznews.fiu.edu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3702\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":24209,"href":"https:\/\/biznews.fiu.edu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3702\/revisions\/24209"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/biznews.fiu.edu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3702"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/biznews.fiu.edu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3702"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/biznews.fiu.edu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3702"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}