Undergraduate SBI Team Places Second Nationally

Once again a Rider Small Business Institute (SBI) student team basks in the national limelight.
     Just last week, the SBI Directors Association announced that Rider's undergraduate consulting team placed second in the nation for best consulting project.
     In December, Ron Cook, associate professor and Rider's SBI director, reported that both the undergraduate and graduate teams had advanced to the final ten and would be considered for the national title. It marked the fifth straight year one of Cook's undergraduate teams were among the ten finalists and the second straight year for the graduate team. (The graduate team first competed two years ago.)
     The undergraduate team of Julie Roslowski '01 management, Benjamin Walker '01 computer information systems (CIS) and entrepreneurial studies, and Miss Harmon '01 entrepreneurial studies, conducted their small business consultation project for Meeting Dimensions of Princeton, a meeting and production planning company. The team's work was done during the 2001 spring semester.
     "For a school with a small SBI program, the Rider students have compiled an outstanding record going up against much larger SBI programs. Some schools conduct 30-40 cases per year and then chose their one best case per division from that pool. We conduct four or five cases a year and then submit one case per division. All cases in the competition are disguised and blind peer-reviewed," Cook said.
     Since the program began in 1994, Rider's SBI program has won several awards sponsored by the directors association. The 1998 undergraduate student team won the SBI national Consulting Case-of-the-Year Award. In 1998, the Rider program received the Showcase Award as the outstanding SBI program among the 200 SBIDA members.
     "The SBI program offers students critical experiential training, which supplements textbooks and classroom knowledge, and allows them to gain hands-on experience with small business – the economic sector providing the most new jobs," Cook said.
     What Rider's program allows small businesses to do is use a student consulting team instead of hiring a business consultant to analyze a company's given need. The types of assistance vary. It can range from business plans, accounting needs, marketing research, financial analysis to managerial studies. Cook carefully matches the student team to the firm's needs.
     For further information, contact Cook at cookr@rider.edu.

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