SBI Teams in National Case Finals Again

Rider University’s Small Business Institute (SBI) consulting teams continue to shine on the national level despite much larger programs from major universities.
     The undergraduate team of Julie Roslowski '01 management, Benjamin Walker '01 computer information systems (CIS), and Miss Harmon '01 entrepreneurial studies is among the ten finalists for the SBI National Consulting Case-of-the-Year Award. It marks the fifth straight year a Rider undergraduate team has advanced to the finals.
     The graduate team of Livinia Rotaru '98 CIS/'00 MBA , Dennis Mahoney '00 MBA, Fred Williams '01 '00 finance/MBA, and Mike DeBronzo '96 finance and current MBA '00, represent the second straight graduate team to make the final ten.
     "We again showed Rider can match up with much larger schools with much larger SBI programs," said Dr. Ron Cook, professor of management and Rider's SBI director. "Such schools have 30-40 SBI cases per year to submit. We submit one per division. This speaks volumes about our quality and ability of our University to compete with the best."
     Cook said national winners will be announced at the SBI national conference in February.
     Roslowski, Walker and Harmon, all May 2001 graduates, conducted their small business consultation project for Meeting Dimension of Princeton, meeting and production professionals. The team's work was done in the spring 2001.
     The graduate team did a market study for La Principessa Ristorante in the Kingston Mall north of Princeton. They did the study in fall 2000 when the restaurant opened a cafe and pizzeria. Ironically, two of the co-owners, John Procaccini ’97 management and Rob Kaiser '97 accounting, formed one of earlier award-winning SBI teams. Procaccini's brother, Tino, operates the restaurant and cafe. He is scheduled to graduate in May 2002 with a business administration degree.
     Cook launched Rider's SBI in 1994. Central to the program has been student teams going into the field to conduct a variety of consultation projects for area small businesses. Through the first five years those teams were composed of upper-level undergraduate business majors carefully chosen by Cook. Graduate-level teams joined the mix two years ago.

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