New Orleans MBA Teams Help Build Local Businesses

Loyola University paves the way for MBA students to team up with major companies to support local startups. This is just one of the ways business teams are building relationships in New Orleans and fulfilling corporate social responsibility (CSR) goals.

Google, Goldman Sachs, JPMorgan, Wells Fargo, TPG Capital, IBERIABANK, and Jones Walker are among the heavy-hitters providing expert advice to facilitate small business success. “When top tier companies help new companies get ahead, and involve business students in the process, CSR is reinforced on many levels,” says David Lengyel of Venture Up, who has been running corporate team training programs in New Orleans for more than three decades.

Teamwork is the name of the game for IDEAcorps, a partnership program with Loyola and The Idea Village that initiated the event. These business innovators match MBA student teams from across the nation with local startups for an intensive 4-day consulting competition during New Orleans Entrepreneur Week (NOEW). The program also involves leaders at the big firms.

Business experts, corporate executives, investors and nonprofit professionals work with NOEW leaders to give students an experiential learning program in business consulting. Students can see how their efforts can provide real-life results impacting new business growth in New Orleans.

The program welcomes local participation, with these requirements:

-- A team of six, including a passionate leader and five entrepreneurial friends or associates. Diversity, as in all teams, is an asset.

-- A shared passion and competitive spirit to assist new businesses and help them grow.

-- A commitment to deadlines, as in the program dates of March 10-13, 2016.

-- A faculty advisor from their locale, whose presence is recommended but not required.

The learning  begins when team members act as the startup’s founding team  to see how far they can strategically develop the company in four days. Teams compete for a cash price and the seasoned pros judge their work. The judges consider such factors as each team’s ability to provide solutions and produce results in a limited amount of time, similar to the model for Venture Up’s corporate team building programs in New Orleans and across the nation.