Brenden King ’16 – It is hard to believe that 5 weeks have already passed in the LABB program. In these first 5 weeks, we have covered everything from writing a business plan to a crash course in marketing and finance. Roland Morin ’91 our instructor and boss was not joking when he said we would receive a mini MBA this summer. This past week may have proven to be the most challenging, but most rewarding, for the course. For our past business plan we were given a few weeks to gather information and present our idea, for this time around we were given a week and I think the entire group agrees that we were able to deliver.
Split up into groups of four to five, we were each tasked with finding an idea for a business and presenting it to prospective investors. My group was made up of Ryan Anzalone, Thanh Tran, Denzel Wilkins, and myself. After a few sessions we came to the idea of a 3D printing schematics company. With only a week to prepare our group, along with the other three, we used every minute we had granted to us to put together our plan.
The end result could not have been more satisfying. All of the groups were able to build their plans with only a week for preparation. The other businesses that my peers created were a marketing firm, a record label, and a cross-fit gym – all of which were researched and presented professionally. The next and final step for the program is the consulting project for Wabash College. I would like to thank the Lilly Foundation and our instructor Roland Morin for making all of this possible.
