The Naimoli Institute for Business Strategy offers assistance to those business owners and managers who are so busy with daily operations that they may not have time to think about long-term strategy. This help comes through the Strategic Analysis Program, which has performed more than 650 comprehensive consultations for businesses across Tampa Bay since 1993.
Participating clients in the Strategic Analysis Program receive a tailor-made report prepared by University of Tampa students. The student team will:
- Analyze your industry
- Analyze your company
- Make recommendations for improvement
Eligibility
The Strategic Analysis Program is available to almost any organization, regardless of size, industry, experience or mission. To participate in the Strategic Analysis Program, organizations must meet the following criteria:
- Time in business: The organization must be past its start-up phase. Typically we prefer organizations that are at least four years old, have at least five full-time employees and are generating total revenue of more than $500,000 annually.
- Location: The organization must have its headquarters (or a major division) located in Hillsborough, Pinellas, Pasco or Manatee counties.
- Disclosure of information: The organization must be willing to disclose information about its financial performance, strategy, customers and goals. All students and their professors will sign non-disclosure agreements. Providing this information to the student teams implies that the organization will make time to meet with students and provide helpful answers to questions they ask.
MBA Teams: Each team of MBA students is assigned to one organization or company for the semester. The team will work with its client to define a scope of work and a set of deliverables. Some clients prefer the team focus on a narrow set of strategic issues. For example, a client might want to know whether it should diversify into a new product line. Other clients prefer to give less direction, asking the team to identify strategic issues and solutions from a blank slate. In either case, each team will spend hundreds of hours on its project. At the end of the semester, the team will produce a written report in excess of 100 pages and an oral presentation given to the company owners. Companies pay a fee of $300 to participate with an MBA team, but the fee is waived for all nonprofit organizations.
Undergraduate Teams: Each semester all the undergraduate teams in the Strategic Analysis Program participate in the Case Study Competition. One local company is selected to be the focus of the competition. The director of the Naimoli Institute writes a brief case study about the company and distributes it to all students in the course. During the semester, the company is expected to host an on-site tour for all the students to visit the facility. Then, each team must be given one or two opportunities to meet face-to-face with company managers for a question and answer session. Near the end of the semester, professors will select four or five teams as the finalists for the competition. Each finalist team will make a presentation to a panel of judges, composed of owners and managers from the case study company. After hearing all the presentations, the judging panel will select the first and second place winners of the Case Study Competition. The company is expected to award prize money of at least $2,000.
Enrollment
The number of organizations admitted to the Strategic Analysis Program is determined by student enrollment. Approximately 40 organizations participate in the program during a typical calendar year. Organizations can start the program in late August for the fall semester or late January for the spring semester. Apply online for the program today.
Download the Strategic Analysis Program Brochure (PDF)
