SBI gives former student a hand Former PSU student Jim Wikander, now p<esident ot Edge Technotogy in Southeast Port~nd, has utilized the Small Businass InstiMe twiCe in the last few years. The $1 million a year business designs and manufactures products that can adapt "dumb" computers for access with business message networks (like TWX and TELEX). The tirst SBt team developed a technical library for Edge Technology, a system for saving and referring to pertinent articles from trade journals. Last month, Wikander asked a second feam. MBA candidates Lou fngalsbe and Chuck FISher (shown above with Wikander), to come up with a model at the message networks and how they operate and Interface, so the company would know what to produce and where to sell it. "There have been so many changes in the marketplace, with the deregulation of networl< carriers," said Wlkander. "In this industry you have to keep on the tips of your toes." SBI may be helping Edge Technology not only 10 stay current, but also to grow. • r - ~ : ./ . Business students assist local enterprises by Cynthia D. Stowell MidWitery may be an unlikely activity in PSU's School of Bus!ness Administration, but it describes well the task of the Small Business Institute. "OUr students are tike midwives for people about to cut the umbifical cord from their emptoyers and start their own businesses," said Vern Sumner. instructor in the Small Business Institute. For college credit, students in the SBI P<OQram assist local entrepreneurs as they launch • business, expand their operations. or simply fry to keep their heads above water. It is an almost intimate involvement between the business majors and their clients, a relationship that benefits both. The Small Businass InstiMe. established at POftiand Stale In t 968 and ooe of 400 such programs across the naOOn, meets a community need that the Small Business Administration can't fulty address. Funded in part by the SBA. the SBI program also gives students the chance to use their academic and casework skills to solve actual problemlS in the business world they plan to enter_ This term, students are woridng with a forty·year old men's clothing business, a food cooperative, a wood stove outlet and a mink oil manufacturer. among other businesses. About 8-10 firms are helped each term by anywhere from ten to twenty students, said Sumnar. Clients seeking the free services of the Small Business Institute may have been referred by the SSA. but often they learn of the program through word of mouth or call the School ot Business to ask tor assistance. SBI doesnl solicit clients with advertising. said Sumner, who screens the requests and matches students to clients. Students, who are seniors or excepdonal Juniors. spend the IIrst term tact-finding, obseIVing the business, interviewing pe;sonnel. and carrying out diagnostic tests, much like a physician. "They go into the business with their eyes open, their ears tuned, and their smellers WOrking," exp'ained SUmner. Clients are a bit apprehensive at the outset. noted Sumner. "They're exposing their businesses, which are extensions of their personal selves.,. he said. "We stress confidentiailty and P<Olect a high degree of professionalism at the outset, but it can still be unnerving." The discomfort wanes as they gain rapport with the student consultants and begin to get useful informaUon from them. said Sumnar. Cutting through the symptoms and getting down to the underlying problems of a business, the students pinpoint severa! concerns and then recommend oost-effective solutions. At this point, the client is free to proceed as he wishes, and about one--third of the time the students are asked bael< for a second term to help implement the chosen plan of action. Siudents can spend up to three terms seeing one business through its crisis. Students quickly leam from their exposure to the world of the entrepreneur that most businasses lail because 01 poor managerial techniques rather than bad economic conditions. said Sumner. Surviving in business takes more than having a good idea. "Usually the market Is there, but the problem is getting the p<oouct to the market and doing it consistently." he noted. Many of tile SBI clients are "professionals in their own right, but haven't graduated from a business school:' said the instructor. who is an entrepreneur himself. The S81 p<ogram brings the academic experience of the students to the small businessman, but aiso oHers coursework in small bUsiness management. About one-third of' Sumners students in Management 409 are businesspersons seeldng some of the academic basics they might have missed while pursuing other disciplines. Sumner has joined the business world to academia in his own career. He came to PSU lasl year after twenty years with Jacuzzi Brothers, where he was a regional manager. "I was so involved with small businesses, t te~ sympathetic toward peopfe getting started in the adventure of business." Students draw on Sumner's practicaJ experience, their own fresh exposure to academics, and the expertise of buSiness school faculty while otfering their valuable seNloe to the Portland community. "We're in a Win-Win situation," remarked Sumner. "The client comes out with positive, objective viewpoints and the students come back with a bener idea of how they can realistically utilize their skills in the business World." GET CAMPUS CALENDAR Alumni Bl'nl'flh (.ud 229·4948 5
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