Graduate SBI Team is a Finalist
in National Competition
For the sixth consecutive year, a Rider Small Business
Institute (SBI) student team has earned national kudos.
This month, Rider’s graduate
consulting team placed second in the region and in the top ten nationally
in SBI’s Case of the Year competition.
Representing Rider was the MBA team
of Paul Rybinski ’03 and John Ianniello ’02.
The duo developed a marketing plan for Daniel Chakin, owner of EB7,
a Syracuse, NY software firm that develops a time/expense application
for palm operating systems.
“I am once again amazed and proud
of how well Rider students stack up against the best students at other
institutions,” said Dr. Ron Cook, professor of management
and human resources and Rider’s SBI director. “To produce
a top quality student consulting report this consistently is a credit
to all involved.”
Since the program began in 1994, Rider’s
SBI program has won several awards sponsored by the directors’
association. An undergraduate student team won the SBI National Consulting
Case-of-the-Year Award in 1999, and another undergraduate SBI team
came in second place nationally in 2002. Further, in 1998, the Rider
program also received the Showcase Award as the outstanding SBI program
among the 200 SBIDA members.
What makes Rider’s program unique?
Under Cook’s guidance, a Rider student consulting team is matched
with an area small business to help that firm analyze its specific
needs, and make recommendations. It is the focused, selective nature
of Rider’s SBI program that has helped produce these kinds of
results.
According to Cook, it is a win-win
situation. “The students get to apply their knowledge in a real
setting, and the companies get a level of assistance that would be
unaffordable to most of them.”
For further information, contact Cook
at cookr@rider.edu.
