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Project Profile
MBA Consulting Team: Sunburst
Hospitality
 When
Sunburst Hospitality Corporation wanted
to better utilize technology for its
human resources needs in 2000, the
company hired a consultant. However,
they didn’t contract with a global
consulting firm, but with a group of
Smith School MBA students.
Greg Miller, senior vice president of
marketing and human resources, Sunburst
Hospitality, couldn’t have been more
pleased with the result. “The team did
high-quality work,” he says.
The MBA Consulting Program offers
second-year students a chance to step
into the business world as active
participants. “This is where students
learn how to interact with clients,
manage teams, and work amongst their
peers,” says Christine La Cola,
director of the program. “It’s a very
effective real-world study for them.”
Working under the direct supervision
of a faculty member, MBA students spend
a semester helping clients solve complex
business problems and explore new
initiatives.
An MBA consulting team works for 14
weeks on a client’s project with a level
of effort equaling approximately 600
hours. “We are a real value,” says La
Cola. “Our fees in comparison to other
consulting firms are very reasonable.”
The arrangement “a win-win
situation,” with students getting
valuable industry experience before
graduation and companies benefiting from
the up-to-date business knowledge and
fresh ideas of Smith MBAs.
Since the program’s inception,
student teams have completed more than
250 consulting projects, working for
leading regional businesses, Fortune 500
companies, and government organizations.
A description of some recent projects
displays the depth and breadth of the
students’ consulting activity.
Consulting engagements have included:
working with a leading applications
service provider to introduce new
perspectives regarding strategic pricing
models; developing a marketing plan to
launch a new product for a
telecommunications company; and
designing productivity metrics to help
motivate managers and measure progress
for a leading aerospace and defense
corporation.
More specifically, the project for
Sunburst Hospitality, parent company of
Comfort Inn, Holiday Inn Express and
other brands, “addressed the use of
computer-based training tools in the
low-tech environment of a small hotel,”
explains Miller. The student team
researched a wide range of technology
options for the company, providing
executives with both technical
information and examples of how
technology had been used in similar
workplace settings.
“The project enabled us to resolve
questions about future technology
investment and design,” says Miller.
“Our technology strategy now has a
specific human resource component, both
at the hotel level and in a
corporate-wide network design.” He adds,
“The project was well designed, the work
detailed, and the presentation clear.”
In fact, Sunburst Hospitality was so
impressed that the company signed on as
a fall 2001 client. “This year,” says
Miller, “we’re working with a team to
improve our interviewing and screening
of frontline employees, with the
objectives of reducing turnover and
improving customer service through
better employee selection.”
No doubt, the group of Smith MBAs
will be up to the challenge. After all,
says La Cola, “I really think this
program is about preparing the next
generation of business leaders.”
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