EXCLUSIVE REPORTS
From the September 5, 2003 print edition
UNM students get into the thick of the consulting biz
Andrew Webb
NMBW Staff
When graduate students from the University of New Mexico's Management of Technology program set out in the mid-90s to hone their business skills by offering their services to startup companies, they learned an interesting lesson.
It was hard to get either side to take it seriously when no money was exchanged.
Not only would students be tempted to do just as much work as they needed to get by, but companies would quickly lose interest and fail to interact with the students, says Anderson Schools of Management professor Suleiman "Sul" K. Kassicieh, who co-founded the program.
"The commitment of a business to support the activity, in a large measure, is relative to its investment cost," he says. "I can't help you if you don't spend some time interacting with me."
Management of Technology program Director Steve Walsh agrees.
"Businesses don't value anything they don't pay for," he says. "We had students do projects, but they didn't care."
That in mind, they redesigned the program so that, like any hired consultant, businesses pay for the help they receive. With the help of relative UNM newcomer Andres Salazar, the PNM Chair of Microsystems, the Management of Technology program recently set up an official nonprofit organization, the TechnologyManagementCenter. The center is aimed at putting skilled students to work building business plans, studying markets and helping to solve the headaches that go along with starting a small business.
Since its humble beginnings, the program's graduate students have authored more than 80 business plans and provided nearly 100 other business services to companies, Kassicieh says. The students' work has helped those business raise some $250 million in funding, Walsh says.
The Anderson Schools' Management of Technology program was founded in 1995 by Kassicieh and Ray Radosevich. At the time, such programs were relatively new, says Walsh, who joined the program in 1998 when Radosevich retired.
The Massachusetts Institute of Technology founded a similar program in the early 1980s. Now, Walsh says, nearly one-third of all business schools have some program focused on preparing students for the touch-and-go world of startup technology business.
By 1999, students in the program had handled projects for major government laboratories, the state, the Department of Defense and about eight companies.
The program's biggest hit, Walsh says, was a business plan students developed in 2001 for a company called Total Microproducts Solutions, which helped it raise $400 million before being purchased by French telecom giant Alcatel.
The nonprofit, which is overseen by the Management of Technology program's board, was formed as a sort of clearinghouse that companies can approach for help, Salazar says. It also helps clear up any misconceptions about where the money clients pay for the center's services goes.
He describes it as working much like a hospital, in which a team of doctors and interns assess a patient's needs.
Since its founding students have developed business plans and industry studies for a range of technology companies, assessed the state' broadband infrastructure and developed a microelectro-mechanical systems (MEMS) marketing plan.
Businesses and organizations pay anywhere from $4,000 to $20,000 for such services, Kassicieh says. The money is used to pay students, purchase supplies, and cover the cost of conferences and other events, he says.
If clients don't want to keep the results of the contracted work, they don't have to pay, Walsh notes. No one has yet taken them up on that offer, he says.
| 348-8324
© 2003 American City Business Journals Inc.
Web reprint information
All contents of this site © American City Business Journals Inc. All rights reserved.