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LOST OPPORTUNITIES:
DISCOVERING THE PATH TO CONSISTENT PERFORMANCE
AT OPPORTUNITY CONSULTANTS, INC.
Darden’s Opportunity Consultants, Inc. provides pro bono consulting services to small businesses and non-profits in the Charlottesville community, which cannot afford “traditional” consulting services. By volunteering for OCI, students can learn about consulting or any functional area in a real-world situation. Past projects have involved marketing, operations, finance, strategy, and business development. No matter what your background, by getting involved with OCI, you can make a contribution to the community. OCI is a non-profit, student-run corporation.
—from “Student Clubs and Organizations” in the Darden Student Handbook 1997–98
Setting the Scene—One Student’s Perspective
It was September, and I was a first year. I was excited, innocent, and yet somewhat worried about the challenges and stresses that business school might bring. “Club Day” seemed to promise that we would have more than enough free time—a few hours a day—to participate in a club or perhaps several.
“Membership has its rewards,” I recall one e-mail message saying. There seemed to be something for everyone—the Finance Club, Outdoors Club, Entrepreneurs Club, Black Business Society, Cold Call Chorus, and many others. It seemed reasonable to focus on just two or three clubs—membership in more than that would surely invite disaster. So I considered carefully, spoke to many students and faculty, attended lots of introductory club sessions, and finally made my short list of choices. Yes to the International Business Society, yes to the Consulting Club, and yes to Opportunity Consultants Inc.
Like many others, I wanted to land a rewarding consulting position after Darden. Although some joined clubs to be social, physical, or just to escape, I was more calculating. The International Business Society would help convince employers I had a global perspective—this would help me get a job in Europe, I hoped. The Consulting Club was a no-brainer—for your $25 membership fee you would receive the club’s case interview guide and could sign up for mock interviews. Finally, Opportunity Consultants, Inc. (OCI) seemed, well, like a real opportunity.
At the initial meeting, we were told we would be “consultants” to small local businesses, applying our developing MBA skills and experiences to help clients solve business problems and/or revitalize their businesses. It sounded like a great way of learning and giving back to the community. Perfect!
Following the first OCI meeting, we were instructed to make our top three choices among a long list of potential projects. After finding out that I would get my first choice—working for a local theatre company—I waited…and waited…and waited.
It took two months for my team to have a meeting, and another month or so before any of us had concrete ideas of what we needed to do for our “client.” By this time, my enthusiasm was waning. And at each meeting, I was disappointed at the display of leadership by the second years that were leading the project. They didn’t show up for meetings, didn’t seem to care about what was going on, and didn’t help us become a real team with a clear goal.
Needless to say, the project didn’t end very well. I understand the client was not particularly impressed. They had paid nothing and had received about as much. As for me, I felt frustrated. What seemed like such a great opportunity to test my skills and gain experience deteriorated into an embarrassing failure. All that initial enthusiasm and excitement was squandered. Needless to say, when I was asked to be a team leader in second year, I refused.
OCI’s History and Mission
Started in the late 1960s, OCI predates Darden’s current clubs. It was founded partly on idealism—a ’60s generation attempt to help minority businesses—and partly on pragmatism—students coming to Darden straight from military service (remember the draft?) wanted to get business experience on their resumes. This early OCI lore comes from C. Ray Smith, the former Darden professor and current associate dean who was faculty advisor to OCI until 1995. Club records are spotty at best and go back no further than 1991.
OCI was always much more than just a club at Darden. It was the only continuing connection the school had with its surrounding community. In a city where “town” and “gown” didn’t always get along, OCI demonstrated that Darden was a good corporate citizen that cared about the community. As a result, Darden’s administration paid attention to OCI and provided some guidance and oversight. It had a strong interest in making sure OCI didn’t hurt the school’s reputation.
According to Smith, OCI did fairly well until the 1990s, though it generally had more student volunteers than projects. It didn’t advertise its services much and chose to work on just a few projects a year. Its best advertising came from the occasional local newspaper articles describing its projects in the community and its successes in helping businesses.
The Problem
In the 1990s several trends affected OCI’s operations. Students were pushing for greater self-governance in their clubs. As a result, the faculty advisor’s role became less important just as OCI officers began taking on more ambitious assignments.
Student free time, especially in the first year, had become thinly stretched as clubs proliferated and as on-campus job recruiting became a month-long process during the school year. Yet, first-year students were increasingly interested in OCI as a way to boost the experience sections of their resumes and soon made up the bulk of the club’s members.
Problems started arising. Occasional OCI projects were not getting finished by year’s end. Darden officials received several nasty phone complaints about the quality of the students’ work and commitment. The administration grew concerned about OCI hurting the school’s reputation and considered closing the club.
In 1997 the newly elected officers of OCI asked for another chance. Given a reprieve, they created an advisory board composed of Darden faculty and staff to oversee OCI’s projects. But the problems ran deeper than just lax quality.
Surveys of OCI members revealed deep dissatisfaction. Membership was fluctuating dramatically. The number of community business applications for OCI work was declining. And OCI found itself competing with the second-year Independent Business Projects (IBP) program and losing some of the most interesting community work to students who were getting credit under the IBP program.
Membership is unstable
OCI has been unable to attract a consistent membership base from year to year. OCI’s project capacity depends squarely on its volunteer base, so the club’s ability to satisfy demand for community work shifts each year. This makes it difficult to consistently meet expectations, both within Darden and in the community.
Project applications are decreasing
Not only is the membership base unstable, but also project applications from the community are falling. OCI wants to have enough applications so it has the flexibility to select the best projects for its members. This means choosing projects that are the most interesting to work on, have a scope that can be completed effectively within the time constraints of volunteers, and involve clients who are committed to working with the student teams.
Student volunteers are dissatisfied
In the 1998 OCI First-Year Student Survey, volunteers gave their OCI experiences an average rating of 2.7 on a scale from 1 (terrible) to 5 (great). If 3 is a neutral rating (not bad, not good), that means volunteers, on the whole, were slightly more negative than positive about OCI. Also, many volunteers expressed disappointment with second-year team leaders. Membership rolls showed that more than half of all first-year members dropped out in the second year.
Student comments include:
I didn't really learn very much, and there were many frustrations involved with the project. We had a really tough time getting started. Our second-year project leader was really reluctant to lead in the beginning. The requirements of the project that had been negotiated by the project leader (alone, without us) were pretty unreasonable—we all lobbied to have the contract changed into something achievable and succeeded in doing so. It worked out in the end, but it was a very rough start.
It was not a very robust project. There was not much opportunity for impact.
I didn’t feel our project fully utilized our talents. I guess it’s what the company wanted, but there wasn’t much to it.
The OCI projects should be given out to those [leaders] who can somehow persuade others that they are committed to doing a good job. This means committed to participating in the work and meeting preconceived deadlines and communicating to the other group members. If there are more projects than there are committed second-year leaders, then I’d recommend the extra projects be turned down. I will not be involved in OCI next year.
Some clients are dissatisfied
Though OCI doesn’t survey its clients to determine their satisfaction, there is anecdotal evidence that some clients are frustrated about the lack of contact with student teams, and that others experience long waits for study results and recommendations. Some recent clients have complained about the quality of work delivered. Student comments include:
The project was poorly defined, and we spent most of the winter just trying to figure out what the client really wanted before we could get any valuable work done. It was very frustrating to have to rewrite the contract 4 times. I think the people who wrote the contract to begin with forced the client into a box of deliverables they didn’t need and didn’t really listen to their needs to establish what the students could do that would best help the organization.
We just didn’t get too much done before or after meetings. Few were committed. We still haven’t completed the project.
OCI Operating Systems and Processes
Client recruiting
The OCI year begins in the summer when the club runs an ad in the local newspaper offering consulting services to local businesses. The ad emphasizes the Darden brand to attract customers (though recently the university tried to restrict the club’s use of the Darden logo in the ads since OCI is not “backed” by the school).
A typical ad attracts about 30 inquiries. Other inquiries come from word of mouth marketing. These person-to-person referrals are based mainly on the number of completed projects during the prior year and the quality of OCI’s reputation. A couple of word of mouth inquires are generated each year from OCI’s long history of work.
When OCI receives inquiries, it sends out applications, which are just a page or two long and ask the company to describe the help sought. Companies have until September 30 to submit applications. Only about half the inquiries actually turn into applications.
OCI officers and the OCI advisory board (composed of faculty and administrators) then review the applications and reject those that don’t meet the club’s criteria. At a minimum, a company must be either a non-profit or a start-up, and the proposed project should involve roughly 100 hours of student work. The minimum acceptance criteria become more stringent as the application pool grows. At fewer than 20 applications, about 70 percent of the applications are accepted. At 100 applications, just 20 percent are accepted. Therefore, the more applications OCI receives, the fussier it can be, and the more attractive the projects tend to be to the student volunteers.
Volunteer recruiting
Concurrently with client recruiting, OCI develops its volunteer base so that it will have the people it needs to allocate to the selected projects. Volunteer recruiting is different for first-year students and second-year students.
Recruitment of first-year students starts with Darden’s Club Day in late September, where student leaders (second years) of each club hand out literature, explain the benefits of the clubs, and sign up members. Clubs quickly follow up Club Day with their first meetings of the year, and that is when most students hear a full presentation on the club and officially join.
At its first meeting, OCI hands out the list of accepted projects and asks students to rank their top three choices. The club works to assign everyone to their first or second choices, though occasionally some students get their third choice or are asked to work on an under-subscribed project.
From year to year, first-year student interest in OCI rises and falls. The club can do little about this since interest is based on external factors, such as whether first years are attracted to pro bono work or to consulting as a profession. Anywhere from 25–35% of the first-year class joins OCI.
The one factor in OCI’s control, however, is the first-year dropout rate. First-year students who join the club are less likely to dropout if the selected projects are highly attractive (which is linked to how many applications are received and thus OCI’s ability to be selective). When project attractiveness is high, very few first years quit. However, as many as 10 or 20 percent may quit as the project pool becomes less attractive.
In theory, OCI should have more influence over recruitment of second-year students. The club can offer incentives to attract second years (e.g., course credit, leadership experience to put on a resume, opportunity to get training from professional consultants, etc.) In recent years, however, OCI has offered few incentives and has only attracted about 2 percent of the second-year class.
On top of attracting new second-year students to join the club, OCI has a certain number of its first-year volunteers who stay with the club to be leaders in their second year. The level of returning volunteers, however, is fully dependent on the level of volunteer satisfaction in the prior year. The higher the level of last year’s volunteer satisfaction, the higher the rate of returning volunteers. This “return rate” varies from 10 to 50 percent and greatly affects the quality of leadership in OCI teams. The “returnees” bring knowledge from their experience as first-year volunteers and are usually the most effective team leaders.
Resource allocation
Once applications have been accepted and volunteers recruited, OCI assigns teams to the projects. The “ideal” number for a project team is a policy decision set by OCI’s officers. In recent years, OCI officers have chosen to assign eight students to each project. One or two of these are second-year students who serve as the team leaders. If OCI doesn’t have enough projects to occupy all its members, OCI officers increase the team size so every volunteer has a project to work on.