http://whartonsbdc.wharton.upenn.edu

High Impact Growth Consulting

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Our Mission:

• Help businesses grow and solve problems• Educate students by applying coursework to practice

Get Comfortable with UNCERTAINTY

Good News!

You’ll learn how to approach and structure ambiguity

Uncertainty is a large part of everyday life for the entrepreneur, the investor and our

consultants…

Other Reasons Students Want to Join

• We are one of the largest experiential learning programs at Whartono Through formal consulting engagements, students use the material they

learn in the classroom, as they learn it, to solve the business problems faced by our clients

• Consultants are given the opportunity to work with the senior leadership teams of fast-growing businesses and turnarounds.

o Consultants have the opportunity to structure the project from beginning to end, a responsibility usually held by partners in large consulting firms

o If you are an Entrepreneur trying to start your own business, this is a great opportunity to learn to structure ambiguity• We are committed to promoting economic development

o With all of the immediacy, ambiguity, disarray, and resource constraints of growing businesses, our ability to find practical solutions to clients' problems contributes substantially to economic development in the region

What Sets Us Apart

Some people tend to think that individuals are knowledgeable to the extent that they possess concepts

and skills that they apply to new situations. In other words, if a person does not have relevant concepts and skills, he

or she will not be able to complete a task.

However, we believe that outcome is not solely dependent on individuals with specific skill sets. (How could we ever

have all the skills we need in one place?) For us, it is not the knowledge of one person that matters most, but the ability of each person to draw and integrate resources

from the team and surrounding context.

Success is not a result of personal traits but instead reflects the use of organizational resources.

Value Proposition,

11%

Value Chain Analysis, 15%

New Market Entry, Growth

Strategy Assessment,

34%

Distribution Strategy, 11%

Profitability Analysis, 7%

Operations Analysis, 11%

M&A Analysis, 11%

What We Do

Why the target customer might buy

How the product or service moves from the origin to the end customer

How to complement the core product or expand to new markets/customers

Sales channels and distribution alternatives

Profitability by segment

Internal processes and distribution chains

Valuations Analysis

“We are huge fans of the SBDC. We’ve asked the students tough questions and they’ve returned to us with even tougher questions. I couldn’t ask for more from a group of consultants. I’ll use the consulting services of the SBDC as many times as the leadership there will allow.”

Philly.comRyan Davis, President

“Wharton SBDC gave us the evidence—the outsider’s view—and caused us to put structure and an actual plan around our thoughts for a new product…this helps the partner we are trying to enlist—as well as investors for our third round of capital.”

Safend Inc.Dor Skuler, VP Business Development

“The Wharton SBDC is really the go-to place for smart analytical minds that can help businesses understand and act on their opportunities. I’ve worked with the SBDC in several of my companies, and their recommendations were always on point and consistent with improving the long-term performance of the businesses.”

Internet Capital GroupDoug Alexander, Co-Founder & President

Examples of Recent Success (Client Perspective)

How Do We Do It?

You may be wondering how this is operationalized…

1) Structure

2) Knowledge Database

3) An Extended Leadership Team

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Healthcare

Consumer

Financial Services

Internet/ IT Enabled Services

Clean Tech

Media & Entertainment

Real Estate

1) Structure

Commercialization Acceleration

2) Knowledge Database

Folders Consistent Across Clients and Pre-Populated with Links to Templates

3) Extended Leadership Team

Doug Cox

Joe Wolf Jack MayPatti

OwensCarl

WitonskyPeter

Bressler

Leslie Mitts

Howie Caulfield

Erin McGowan

Therese Flaherty

Samuel Reeves

Maame-serwaa Mensah

Scott Fishman

• Cooperation/Collaboration

o Team Player: Consultant takes a fair share of engagement work, including participation in full spectrum of engagement from high level planning to details of research, analysis, and presentation.

• Analytical Strengtho Application of Analysis: Consultant has chosen and effectively implemented appropriate

methods for drawing conclusions from available information.

• Creativityo Hypotheses Conceived and Tested: Consultant does not stop with the first reasonable idea but

instead considers and tests a range of approaches and solutions during the engagement.

• Client Relationship Managemento Change Management: Consultant has taken a thought leadership and teaching role to allow the

client to realize the implications of the case analysis and move towards change in their business.

• Commitmento Contribution to SBDC Beyond Casework: Consultant realizes that SBDC is a growing

organization and relies upon input and initiative from consultants for improving our processes. Such contribution could range from documentation of a best practice or data source to spearheading a new practice area.

• Administrative Complianceo Meetings and Scheduling: Consultant consistently attends team meetings and promptly

returns emails for scheduling.

Keys to Success

Are We Right For You?

This is just another example of how we balance things.

Impact Education

Although we do look for certain capabilities and strive to choose the students who are best-suited to the job, we also want to promote

learning by teaching students to build all the relevant skills.

Only apply if you want to make an impact and learn!

"The SBDC offers the unique opportunity to take the lessons from the classroom and execute on them with local businesses. What makes the SBDC special is the caliber of cases that we receive - these companies are facing critical challenges, and they require us to be a committed partner as they pursue their goals. They expect the best from us, and that pushes us to perform at a higher level."

Geoff Moore, WG’10

“In the SBDC, I had the amazing opportunity to exercise leadership while brainstorming on a real business problem, bridging perceptions of different stakeholders and team members, motivating the group to develop an action based strategy, and eventually…. influencing the client to follow through.”

Ohad Shperling, WG’10

Recent Student Perspectives

• To meet and exceed the needs of a client base operating in a wide range of industries, we recruit students with a wide range of previous backgrounds and functional strengths:

Consulting Public Service/Non-Profit

Marketing Venture Capital & PE

Operations EngineeringMilitary

Entrepreneurial Start-UpBio & Health Sciences Information Technology

Building the Team

SBDC operates a Fellowship program for 1st year MBAs

o Approximately 32 1st year MBAs will be hired this semestero In November, each student who distinguishes him or herself will be awarded a

Fellowship Practice leaders for next year will be chosen from this pool

Each student will complete approximately 3-5 consulting engagements per academic year. o 1st Semester: Complete 1 consulting engagement and prepare the analysis and

diagnosis for 1 consulting engagement (to be completed by other students in the Spring)

o 2nd Semester: Complete 2-3 consulting engagements

The diversity of engagements provides students an opportunity to test their consulting, leadership and analytical skills in a variety of functional and industry practice areas.

What You Can Expect:

Fall Client Snapshot

You will have the opportunity to pick your cases and will be assigned one of your top four choices after the hiring decisions are made.

Fall Client Snapshot: Highlights

An international provider of translation and interpretation services that is seeking to expand consistent with a strategic sale in 3 years.

A start-up medical device company with a point-of-care biosensor to detect a multitude of infectious diseases seeking to identify key strategic partners for distribution.

An early-stage company that has developed groundbreaking, wireless recharging technology for electric vehicles getting ready to execute with a trial client.

A software developer company launching a financial application for smart-phones designed to provide actionable investment information to mobile investors seeking user feedback before going to market.

A healthy/organic/non-sweetened herbal bottled water with national distribution and strategic partnership for distribution, logistics, and marketing seeking to gain operations efficiencies and a strategic sale.

A music licensing exchange and search engine seeking funding.

Information Sessions• Aug. 10th 5pm:JMHH F85 (MBA)• Aug. 12th Noon: JMHH F85 (MBA)• Sept. 13th 4:30pm: TBD (UG)• Sept. 14th 4:30pm: TBD (UG)

Resume & Letter Deadline: MBA: Noon on August 16th; UG: Noon on September 20th

Interviews conducted: MBA: August 18th – 26th by invitation, UG: September 23rd - 34th

Training Sessions: October 2nd; October 3rd; October 5th

Key Dates

If this opportunity excites you please submit your resume and cover letter covering your background, skill-sets, and passions. Again, you will have the opportunity to pick your cases and will be assigned one of your top four choices after the hiring decisions are made.

MBA’s please submit resume and cover letter on Career Path*: http://mycareer.wharton.upenn.edu/student/index.cfm

If you have additional questions, please email: penelopemitts@gmail.com

More information on our practice is available on our website: http://whartonsbdc.wharton.upenn.edu (Look for the High Impact Growth Consulting link)

How to Apply

* For Life Sciences & HealthCare MBAs seeking to work in the Commercialization and Acceleration Program, please look for email application from June Kinney. Additional questions to Therese Flaherty, flaherty@wharton.upenn.edu

Clean Tech: Geoff Liu & Jessica Luk

Consumer: Marina Nekrasova & Shauli Rozen

Healthcare: Matt Schwab & Renee Vaughn

General Management: Lindsey Matthews & Cameron Rouzer

Media & Entertainment: Tricia Chandiramani & Nikhil Chaturvedi

Financial Services: Katherine Janes & Francis Doumet

Internet and IT Enabled Services: Sabina Sequeira & Katie Rohacz

Real Estate: Isis Ward & Daniel Curtis

Commercialization Acceleration Program: Mark Chin

Practice Leaders: 2010-2011: Feel Free to Contact

Wharton SBDC Sponsors

www.whartonsbdc.wharton.upenn.edu