Social ventures are key emphasis
of Fox School GET projects

Louise Slinger and her teammate Dominik Gerlach (center) explain the business plan they developed under the guidance of Jim Hutchin, their project advisor (left) to the marketing manager of the Eastern Shore of Virginia Tourism Council.

The Eastern Shore of Virginia Tourism Council was struggling to make a profit without sacrificing the shore’s native beauty, until it enlisted Fox School International MBA students to solve their ecotourism challenge. Students took on the case as their capstone Global Entrepreneurship in Technology consulting project, a project all IMBA students complete.

“Our goal was to preserve the natural rural character and landscape of the Eastern Shore of Virginia while increasing the surrounding towns’ revenues through tourism,” said IMBA student Louise Slinger of her GET consulting project mission.

GET consulting projects are an opportunity for students to apply what they learned in class throughout the semester, and to get real-world experience while helping a client meet their marketing objectives. These GET teams presented their projects to clients and venture capitalists at the Eighth Annual International Venture Fair, sponsored by the school’s Innovation and Entrepreneurship Institute. This year, one-third of all GET projects were social ventures with two bottom lines: making profit and doing social good.

“Fox School interest in social entrepreneurship is a natural extension of the strong emphasis we place on business ethics throughout our curriculum, and the growing role social ventures play in our economy,” said M. Moshe Porat, dean of the Fox School, explaining that social ventures will now be a part of all International Venture Fairs.

Other GET projects that revolved around social ventures included the Natural Lands Trust, a non-profit land conservancy organization, and Murex Investments, an investment firm that works to increase employment and wealth in troubled communities.

Jim Hutchin, one of four GET professors doubling as a project manager, said, “We want the students to see that there is a moral and human element to business, and that they really can make a difference. Real learning comes from actual business experience — especially when you’re passionate about your work and you’re engaged with a client.”

For clients such as the Natural Lands Trust, the benefit was clear.

“The Fox School GET team brought to us a different, in-depth perspective because of their rigorous research and the guidance of the faculty advisors and reviewers. They got us off to a great start, and now we’re in the process of figuring out how to institutionalize their plan,” said Andy Pitz, Vice President of Strategic Policy and Planning for the Natural Lands Trust.

For Fox students, the benefits were equally powerful.

“The best thing we gained from the GET practicum was the experience of coming up with a creative strategy to solve a problem, and knowing that we worked on something noble,” said Jonathan Earle, an IMBA student who worked on the Natural Lands Trust project. “We really left with a sense of satisfaction for having come up with a solid plan to accomplish something good,” he added.

Students like Earle are part of the reason that The Fox School is adding a new class on social entrepreneurship.  More than 20 percent of Fox School graduate students have expressed interest in social ventures, and this new class will be available to graduate students and select undergrads.

T.L. Hill, faculty manager of the Fox Enterprise Management Consulting Practice, is designing the new social entrepreneurship course.

“The new class will be a continuum of social entrepreneurship practice,” Hill explained. “We will be studying the importance of not only creating profit, but also being aware of the social community, and giving back to that community.”

- By Julia Straka