LMU MBA students Fahad Al-Khaled, Jose Garcia, Christian Ortiz, John Sherman, and Isabella Tcherkes Zade, along with M.S. in Entrepreneurship and Sustainable Innovation student Estelle Potdevin, won first place at the IDEAcorps MBA Consulting Challenge hosted by Loyola University New Orleans on March 6-10, 2024.
The team was awarded $5,000 for LMU and $20,000 for their client, entrepreneur Janice Meredith, owner of the New Orleans-based company Patch Princess, which makes customized bling patches. Jason D’Mello, associate professor of entrepreneurship, served as the team’s coach and faculty advisor with support from David Choi, Conrad N. Hilton Chair of Entrepreneurship, and the Fred Kiesner Center for Entrepreneurship.
The IDEAcorps MBA Consulting Challenge gives students the opportunity to apply their knowledge and skills to help small and/or early-stage businesses averaging $250,000 in revenue develop a robust scale-up strategy. “The program instills the Jesuit mission of ‘setting the world on fire’ by working with an incredibly diverse group of founders to take their businesses to the next level,” said Sam McCabe, program director for the Center for Entrepreneurship and Community Development at Loyola University New Orleans. “It’s not always about changing the world but changing processes and tweaking ideas to make an impact on that founder’s business and the ecosystem as a whole.”
The LMU team spent several weeks working remotely with Janice to understand Patch Princess business model and her motivation behind starting the company. Students created a robust scale-up strategy with the goal of growing the company by at least 50% over the next 18 months. The plan aimed to help Patch Princess leverage repeatable processes and rapidly grow sales without drastically increasing costs or losing margins. During the project, students were also given instruction on best-in-class consulting techniques, understanding minority business challenges, and scaling strategies.
D’Mello is proud of the students’ dedication, leadership skills, and ability to unite as a team. LMU was the last team to enter the competition, and as a result did not receive course credit like some other schools. “Their motivation for competing at the highest level was to support a wonderful entrepreneur we all felt connected to,” said D’Mello. “The team took initiative from the beginning and quickly built trust with their client by showing up on time for weekly meetings, patiently working through onboarding the client, and analyzing the entire business.”
The students rebuilt financial statements for Patch Princess, did a deep dive into its customer data, revised the company website, created a brand book for marketing, programmed a SQL database search tool to help their client gain valuable customer analytics, created a savvy social media and marketing campaign, did due diligence on manufacturing equipment, and negotiated prices with suppliers to save the company thousands of hours per year in production by automating parts of the manufacturing process.
“Our investment was not just in the competition, but in Janice Meredith and her vision which was very much in line with our values,” said Jose Garcia. “The experience was a reminder of why it is important to approach challenges with empathy. It was an incredible learning experience for all of us.”
When LMU won, D’Mello filmed the students’ reactions. “They all lit up, smiled, and immediately looked at their client, Janice Meredith, who was screaming in joy.,” he said. “That was one of my favorite moments as a professor, to see true happiness in the faces of our students, knowing that they had just been a part of business for good and helped change someone’s life.”
Meredith was equally elated to win the competition and stated, “I was paired with an awesome team, and my gratitude to them is unmeasurable. The LMU students were engaged, listened to my pain points, and learned about my business processes. Each week, they shared resources and strategies I could implement for growth and further business development. Everyone was patient and kind. I will never forget this shared experience.”
While in New Orleans, the LMU team visited innovation hubs such as NASA, The Port of New Orleans, and The BioInnovation Center, and engaged with innovative businesses at New Orleans Entrepreneur Week.
“This was a world-class competition that the organizers put a lot of effort into,” said D’Mello. “All the teams were fantastic and added a tremendous amount of value to each of the nine companies. New Orleans has an exciting entrepreneurial community and welcomed us with open arms, great food and music, and genuine soulful hospitality. We are very thankful to David Choi and the Fred Kiesner Center for Entrepreneurship for sponsoring this team to participate and travel for this competition. I can’t wait to invite more students in the future to join our team as we compete again!”