ReStoring Field-Based Entrepreneurship: A Case Study of a Service-Learning Project with Habitat for...

ReStoring Field-Based Entrepreneurship: A Case Study of a Service-Learning Project

with Habitat for Humanity Thomas A. Bryant1, Allan G. Connors2, Jay Gassaway3

ABSTRACT

Graduate and undergraduate students worked together on an implementation team associated with our local Habitat for Humanity (H4H), to launch a new 10,000 sq. ft. ReStore (recycled building materials and furnishings).

The project addressed several topics in experiential and service eLearning, and has potential for replication at many schools. It entailed use of a mediating course website, and Web-accessible MS Project, to coordinate the weekly tasks of a mixed group of about 20 students. The student group included part-time MBA students taking it as an elective, and a hard core of graduating ENTR majors for whom this is the required capstone course. There were personal and communal blogs, interaction with participants up and down the supply chain, interaction with the volunteer Board of H4H, hired staff, and supporting volunteers.

We had 14 weeks to take over the site and project, get it implemented, debug the whole thing, and hand it off to the continuing team. It was real, and it was definitely a service project. We taught personal and corporate social responsibility and empowerment as well as project management, entrepreneurial implementation, retail and supply chain operations, and excellence in non-profit management.

Results were mixed. Project implementation was delayed well beyond the course limits by external factors – politics, site selection, financing, etc. – yet those are real issues with many such projects, so the learning value should have been positive. Some students, however, were frustrated by that very realism, and course evaluations were mixed. Long-term benefits include substantial career benefits for several participants, and significant insights into the constructive and complex interactions possible between business-educated professionals and community-supported non-profit organizations.

(1) Currently: Director, Gerstacker Institute for Business & Management, Albion College. Correspondence: [email protected]; tel: (517) 629-0366

Co-authors at the time of the project were: 1 Rohrer Professor of Entrepreneurial Studies, Rowan University 2 Executive Director, Gloucester County Habitat for Humanity 3 Past-President, Delaware Valley Chapter, The Project Management Institute

ReStoring Field-Based Entrepreneurship p. 2

ReStoring Field-Based Entrepreneurship: A Case Study of a Service Learning Project with Habitat

for Humanity Projects with Habitat for Humanity

Habitat for Humanity

“Habitat for Humanity International is a nonprofit, ecumenical Christian housing

ministry. HFHI seeks to eliminate poverty housing and homelessness from the world, and to

make decent shelter a matter of conscience and action. Habitat invites people of all

backgrounds, races and religions to build houses together in partnership with families in need.

Habitat has built more than 200,000 houses around the world, providing more than 1,000,000

people in more than 3,000 communities with safe, decent, affordable shelter. HFHI was

founded in 1976 by Millard Fuller along with his wife Linda.”4

Habitat for Humanity International (HEHI) began in rural Georgia and in two

generations has spread around the world. It is a faith-based non-denominational movement

that focuses on providing housing and dignity for the working poor. It builds low-cost, basic

housing, and incorporates sweat equity from the recipients, volunteer services from many

different people, and donations of cash and building supplies.

4 <http://www.habitat.org/>


Habitatʼs ReStores

As a way of furthering its missions, including good ecological stewardship and fund-

raising for additional housing, some 300 HFHI affiliates have opened ReStores. Stores vary

widely in size.

“Habitat ReStores are retail outlets where quality used and surplus building materials are sold at a fraction of normal prices. Proceeds from ReStores help local affiliates fund the construction of Habitat houses within the community. Many affiliates across the United States and Canada operate successful ReStores—some of which raise enough “funds to build an additional 10 or more houses per year.

Materials sold by Habitat ReStores are usually donated from building supply stores, contractors, and demolition crews, or from individuals who wish to show their support for Habitat. In addition to raising funds, ReStores help the environment by rechanneling good, usable materials into use.”5

Gloucester County ReStore

In 2005-2006, the Gloucester County Habitat affiliate (GCHFH) in southern New

Jersey (USA) began to investigate the potential for a ReStore in its region. Formed in the

aftermath of Jimmy Carter’s Presidency, GCHFH has been in operation since 1986. It has

tried to build one house a year, and recently escalated that target. As one way to grow its

capabilities, the Board considered the creation of a ReStore. It also took on its first paid, part-

time, employee, Allan Connors, in the role of Executive Director.

5 <http://www.habitat.org/env/restores.aspx>


Involvement of the Rohrer College of Business

In the Spring semester of 2006, the capstone Strategy and Policy course of the MBA

program at Rowan University took on the project of doing a feasibility study for GCHFH, and

developing a modest business plan.

That plan was accepted by GCHFH with minor changes, and used by Allan Connors,

GCHFH Executive Director, as he shopped the local financial institutions for the funding

needed to buy a property and launch the business.

The Current Project

In the Fall of 2006, GCHFH was able to identify a suitable property, near the middle

of the country, at a manageable price. It was able to secure local bank and state-economic

development financing, and purchased the property. It came with two industrial buildings,

totaling 10,000 square feet of enclosed space, which could be used for receiving, preparation,

storage, and retail areas. It also had a 1,000 square foot house that could be used for office

and staff space. In addition, it had room for later expansion. Certain improvements needed to

be made to the site (grading for drainage, modest environmental remediation, internal and

external construction, etc.).

Beyond that, the complete business operation needed to be developed. A supply of

materials to stock the store (nearly 10,000 square feet of space) needed to be developed. A

clientele, likely concentrated with 10 miles of the site, needed to be alerted to the opening of

the store and the ongoing availability of bargains. Operations needed to be sorted out.

Pricing models needed to be developed and implemented. Staffing levels needed to be

assessed and organized. Safety and environmental issues needed to be reviewed and


appropriate measures developed. Data systems, to track inventory and help manage the whole

operation, needed to be designed, developed, tested, and implemented with training for the

go-forward volunteers and staff. It was a substantial project with numerous major and minor

tasks.

Along the way, the launch team needed to work with GCHFH’s Board of Directors

and other volunteers: potential suppliers; potential customers; regulatory bodies; media; and

many other parties.

Time was pressing. GCHFH was borrowing a lot of money, and needed to generate

revenues to pay for its loan and operations – and to generate a surplus to fund additional HFH

houses – as soon as possible. We needed to optimize the preparation and launch process in

both time and effectiveness. The sooner we could get the new store to a cash-positive

position, the better.

These circumstances realistically reflect the positions faced by retail entrepreneurs, so

the project was a good one for both grad students (project planning and management), and

ENTR seniors (launching a relatively complex new venture with a relatively large team).

Embedded Courses

The College had two courses that appeared to overlap considerably, yet were separate

enough to run independently. We had an MBA elective course that emphasizes experiential

learning, strategic thinking, and exposure to a wide array of public and private organizations.

It was project-based. We also have an undergraduate course, a required capstone in the

ENTR programs, which emphasized field-based experience with a wide range of small and


medium-sized enterprises. It also emphasized strategic and operational consulting, an

interdisciplinary environment, and experiential, project-based learning. For the Spring

semester of 2007, we combined those courses to take on one large project, challenging the

students to coordinate in a larger way than normal, and raising the standard for outcomes

much higher. The two groups of students together took on the challenge of figuring out the

launch plan for the Habitat ReStore. Altogether, we had 20 students (five grad students and

16 undergrad ENTR specialists). At 75 hours apiece on project, the overall project time

available was ca. 1500 person-hours. One instructor facilitated the project, supported by an

array of Executive Advisors – and by significant levels of peer leadership among the students.

MBA Elective: Strategic Project-Based

The MBA component of the course was called Strategic Project-Based Experience. It

is an elective in the MBA program, and open to any graduate student without specific

prerequisites. It emphasized strategic thinking about critical issues, exposure to a wide array

of organizations, and a focus on organizational performance. It also emphasized experiential

and interdisciplinary learning. It was listed with the following description:

This course is designed to provide strategic focused field based project learning experiences and opportunities for graduate students by affording them the opportunity to work with a wide variety of public and private organizations. The course uses a team-based approach to offer consulting advice to organizations with the goal of improving their performance. The emphasis in the course is on experiential approaches that provide a participative type of learning about the crucial issues faced by organizations. This course is interdisciplinary in nature and open to all graduate students.6

6<http://www.rowan.edu/colleges/business/index.cfm?action=departments&deptid=10&dview=y&disciplinenumber=0506&courselevelnumber=504&dview=y>


In our edition of the course, a supply chain business model and full responsibility for

venture implementation certainly exposed the students to a wide range of other organizations

and people. It also encouraged strategic thinking, and the hands-on use of project

management tools to help clarify priorities and sequences of activities. Inclusion of the

ENTR undergraduates ensured an array of team members, leadership challenges, and

disciplinary perspectives.

ENTR Capstone: Field Studies in Management Consulting

More than a decade ago, Corey Wentzell, a brilliant young scholar who stayed not

long enough in this field, clearly laid out the connection between entrepreneurship education

and experiential learning:

The dramatic emergence of the new economy places a high priority on the importance of understanding fundamental concepts in new venture feasibility and implementation. It places an even greater emphasis on the ability of the aspiring entrepreneur to transfer foundational learning into actual new venture creation and development opportunities. … theoretical learning within the context of entrepreneurial case analysis became significantly more powerful in developing potentially successful entrepreneurs when combined with transfer of learning to experiential applications of personal relevance. The key implication of the research is that entrepreneurship, in the new economy, can be both stimulated and sustained through pedagogical strategies that combine theoretical with experiential learning opportunities." (Wentzell, 1995)

Entrepreneurship (ENTR) capstone courses generally follow one of two models. One

is the advanced business plan, readying the senior student to launch a new venture, and

demonstrating successful re-integration of the disciplinary and functional organization of the

material presented in the middle years of the program. Alternatively, a few schools use a

capstone small-business consulting exercise to cover some of the same territory (proving what

has been learned – well enough to consult), deleting the graduation personal launch plan, and


increasing diversification of experience with a variety of business models. In other programs,

this small-business consulting course comes earlier in the program, with more emphasis on

student learning and less on effective delivery of semi-professional services (Doran et al.,

2001).

At Rowan, the tendency has been toward the latter model – using a small-business

consulting course as the capstone. A required course for all graduating students specializing

in ENTR, the course was called: MGT06.415 Management Consulting Field Study. Its

description read as follows:

This course is designed to provide education and training opportunities in the art and application of techniques from various business and non-business courses primarily to firms with under $25 million in sales. The overall purpose of the course is the acquisition of knowledge and skills that will enable students to provide consulting advice to entrepreneurs and small business owners that will be understood, accepted, implemented, and will improve the performance of the firms. The emphasis in the course is on experiential approaches that provide a participative type of learning about the crucial issues firms face.7

Historically, the course has taken on several smaller projects, with stable teams taking

one project per team. Results have been mixed.

In comparison, the ReStore project was much more complex, and significantly more

applied. It shifted the core activities from advising to implementing. It also involved a large

practical application, with no room for the team or its members to distance themselves from

their advice. The students involved needed to plan the whole project, and then implement it,

in a sense – taking their own advice and finding out how good it was. Accountability was

7<http://www.rowan.edu/colleges/business/index.cfm?action=departments&deptid=10&dview=y&disciplinenumber=0506&courselevelnumber=415&dview=y>


much more direct.

The ReStore project involved students directly with a wide array of community

stakeholders, reflecting the call for breadth in business education issued by Godfrey and his

co-authors (Godfrey et al., 2005). Done properly, it involves intensive reflection (Schön,

1983), and underscoring a call for practice that gives traction to management theory

(Papamarcos, 2005).

Course / Project Design

Before we review the learning models, some description of the course architecture

may be useful. The lead professor served as a facilitator and organizer of the overall project.

He was supported by three Executive Advisors. One was the Executive Director of GCHFH,

an experienced corporate executive, and the primary client for the project. Another was a

veteran project manager, the past-president of the local chapter of the Project Management

Institute (PMI). The third was a business information systems executive, who was also a

professor in the College of Business. The whole cast was supported by the College’s manager

of project-based learning.

Readings, heavily loaded toward the front of the course, were drawn from four sectors:

Habitat; project management; retail launches; and supply chain management. Selected books

were designed to serve first-time professionals – this was not an advanced course in any one

of these subjects, but the knowledge was important to allow the students to manage the tasks.

The opening class discussed the total business model for GCHFH ReStore. The class,

interacting with the lead professor and the GCHFH Executive Director, built a rudimentary


total business model, from sourcing of donated materials through collection, processing,

inventory, marketing, sales, clearance and disposal. The first assignment allowed the students

to choose among several related topics, with the requirement to begin developing a sense of

what “best practices” meant in those areas. Examples included: management of non-profit

organizations; building materials; HFH ReStores, etc.

Students were required to keep weekly journals, and to submit reflective notes on a

weekly basis. Those notes were posted to a common blog site, accessible on and off campus.

The project software was Microsoft’s Project®. Each student had access to MS-

Project, and the working files were to be stored in a common area where each student and

instructor could access them at any time.

Work was organized according to major and minor tasks. A task force was

responsible for organizing the donation supply chain, for example. That was further broken

down into groups such as home-owners, commercial establishments (like the university and

apartment owners), building supply firms, construction firms and contractors, etc. Sub-task

forces were developed to figure out the required work in each category.

Each student served on one major task force, and numerous sub-task forces. Each

student was required to be involved with at least one sub-task force in each major functional

area. Sub-tasks were expected to be shorter in duration, weekly in most cases.

Work was self-assigned by the students, based on their critical path model, and based

on outcomes from the previous week. Integrity was essential, as each task depended on

accurate knowledge about prior outcomes.


Student evaluation (grading) was based on: weekly reflections; weekly task outcomes;

biweekly peer evaluation; major task force performance (monthly), and ultimately, client

satisfaction. For the faculty involved, this scheme tested our ability to meet the multifaceted

challenge to course integrity of doing, learning, and assessment posed by Jackson and

Caffarella (Jackson & Caffarella, 1994).

The class met formally once a week, on Thursday evenings, to exchange information

about outcomes, and to meet with the Advisors and special guests. The rest of the time,

scheduling was flexible, depending on the sub-task forces and their needs. We had

approximately 14 weeks for the course, and the launch sequence was expected to be similar,

with an initial target opening date in the 10th week of the course. If completed according to

that plan, the team would then have had four weeks remaining to “debug” the operation and

complete its hand-over to the owner (GCHFH) and its staff and volunteers.

Systems Uses

Information and computational systems played an important role in this project in a

couple of major ways.

Team coordination: e-mail, blogs, and MS-Project

Coordination of the teams was attempted through Microsoft Project, with the working

files always accessible on a server to which all students and staff had access. Emails among

team members were essential for dynamic coordination of the distributed work. Blogs were

designed to help exchange information, attitudes, and questions.


Business Information Systems

We expected to challenge a concurrent class with a project to develop the inventory

management system for the GCHFH ReStore. Those students were supposed to take their

direction from the main launch team – which had to decide what data needed to be captured,

based on how they thought they might need to use them.

Learning Models

It’s tempting to describe the course as “just launching a store” – even though that

phrase implies quite a few challenges. But the course design had more depth to it than that. It

followed many of the learning models discussed by Lane in his pioneering work on

international management education (Lane, 1992), commuting that model to

Entrepreneurship. It also resonated well with many of the discussions in the Special Issue of

the Academy of Management Learning and Education in 2005 (Kenworthy-U'Ren &

Peterson, 2005). There are many ways one could classify the learning models woven through

the course; a few of them are noted here.

Learning by Doing

The first level of learning is “learning by doing.” The students had studied various

organizations and processes; now they had to implement an important, basic, practical

maneuver – launch a new business unit, a retail store. As they ran into weekly challenges,

they would need to stretch to find ways to solve new problems (Kooiman, 2001). Fischer and

Reuber, in an intriguing study of the predictive effect of different kinds of experience on

entrepreneurial careers, found that diversity of experience was most significant (Fischer &

Reuber, 1995); this project gave students a wide range of experiences – by function as well as


through contact with peers and external stakeholders. Menson, a generation ago, showed that

interactions between experiences and learning modules was more effective for adult learners

(Menson, 1982); All of our participants were adults, although there was a range of ages.

Transferable Learning

Darr, et al., noted the importance of transferable knowledge in franchise systems (Darr

et al., 1995). One of the popular courses in the ENTR sequence is about franchising.

Students in the ReStore project were challenged to find and use knowledge about other

ReStores, and adapt those discoveries to the present project. They had to assess what is

closely linked to the type of business and what has to be customized to the specific host

community (Ronstadt, 1980; United States General Accounting Office, 1997). They were

also challenged to see if they could find ways to improve the basic ReStore business model.

They were challenged to build “the best ReStore ever opened” by knowing best practices, and

improving upon them – just as a high performance entrepreneur or executive would need to

do.

One of the important ways in which knowledge was transferred in this project was by

story-telling (Buckler & Zien, 1996). Students had many opportunities to listen to, and

exchange, stories. Indeed, the challenge was to discern the parts of the stories that applied to

the specific project, and to adapt the wisdom in the stories to create a state-of-the-art venture.

Reflective Practice

The faculty hoped that the students would will both realize how much they knew –

they probably did know enough to launch a store – and how much they didn’t know (Hannon

et al., 2004). It was our hope that the exercise would tune both appropriate confidence and


humility, and engender a passion for lifelong learning and a strong sense of service. Two

expected outcomes were the development of a more sophisticated portfolio of new venture

competences for both grad and undergrad students, and an agenda for personal development

and partnership development based on those strengths and weaknesses (Mark & Menson,

1982). Following Kolb, we threw the students right into the experiences (with a base of

diverse prior experience and academic learning), and challenged them to reflect and

experiment with their knowledge (Kolb, 1976).

Although demanding, the weekly adjustments and re-assignments in this project

model were both realistic, and were expected to be an effective way of teaching adaptive

learning skills (Heckman et al., 1994)

Service Learning

There are many ways the participants were expected to learn about their potential for

service through this project (DiPadova-Stocks, 2005). Most had not previously addressed

issues of poverty housing – or what they could do about it (Stroup, 2003). Various

commentators have expressed concerns about the difficulty of teaching “business ethics.” We

believed that each participant would face many ethical issues during the course of this project,

and would come away with a strong sense of efficacy and empowerment.

Charles Handy expressed the dilemma some professors, and many students feel:

I cannot forget a sculpture I saw in the open-air sculpture garden in Minneapolis. It is called 'Without Words' by Judith Shea. There are three shapes. One of them, the dominant one, is a bronze raincoat, standing upright, but empty, with no one inside it. To me, that empty raincoat is the symbol of our most pressing paradox. We were not destined to be empty raincoats, nameless numbers on a payroll, role occupants, the raw material of economics


or sociology, statistics in some government report. If that is to be its price, then economic progress is an empty promise. There must be more to life than to be a cog in someone else's great machine, hurtling God knows where. The challenge must be to show how paradox can be managed and that we, each one of us, can fill that empty raincoat." (pp. 1-2) in (Handy, 1994)

It was our hope that participants in this project would finish with a better sense of how they

wanted to fill out their coats. Whether or not entrepreneurship or other university students

actually have higher moral codes than the general population (Teal, 1999; Timmons, 1989),

the students (and faculty) in this project were challenged, and encountered a substantial body

of experiences and learning experiences (Bryant & Santoro, 2001; Donaldson & Dunfee,

1994; Giacalone & Knouse, 1997).

eLearning

Electronic tools were employed to aid the learning process in this project. The private

space of the personal journals was intended to be partly revealed in the blogs, although each

person was also challenged to decide what is public, private – or even deserves to be recorded

at all. Common project management tools were tested and students developed some facility,

abetted by the interactively of the course website and blogs. The movement of individuals

across task forces, and the interaction of grad and undergrad students, also aided in the

development of competence in the use of these tools.

Finally, the need for the ENTR and MBA students to develop the specifications for the

information systems team was expected to sharpen their skills as empirically based managers,

and in the use of database tools for management decisions. It would also show them the

power of such tools and the value of creating ones that address their decisional needs.


Outcomes: Hmmm…

External changes forced on the project

Was it the great Scottish poet Robert Burns who wrote: “The best laid plans of mice

and men gang oft a gley…”? He had us in mind!

One of the first changes in the plan came about when a neighbor to the proposed site

laid a formal complaint. Despite the fact that the area was zoned for industrial use, including

trucking, he was concerned that H4H’s use would cause excessive traffic. That single

complaint triggered a review process that derailed the entire schedule. It led to municipal

hearings, environmental reviews, and other steps. Those steps added to the expense of the

project. While GCHFH was successful at each step, and strongly supported by local leaders

who saw the benefits of H4H recycling a little used industrial site while bringing more

customers into the host municipality, the Board of GCHFH became increasingly concerned

with the negative politics of the situation.

A new site selection process was engaged, and several alternative sites identified. In

time, one of the alternative sites was selected, the first bid withdrawn, and a new bid for the

second site issued. It was successful, but the timeline for our course had been destroyed. The

students would no longer have the excitement of opening a real store during the course.

Internal changes

Perhaps the biggest surprise was the disappearance of the data systems Advisor.

Initially an enthusiastic supporter, his withdrawal after three weeks removed both his

expertise and his supporting course from the project. As a result, the remaining students


wrestled with the problem for a considerable period of time. Eventually one of the students,

with advanced database development skills, was empowered by the team to do a version of

the project by himself, and was consequently removed from several of his other project

responsibilities to compensate.

Once the initial excitement and challenge of managing a real store opening was

removed by the changes in timing, some of the students lost the enthusiasm with which they

had originally selected the project, especially some of the graduating seniors.

In the end, the integrative work, pulling the plan together into an edited collective

product, was done very poorly – to point that the supervising faculty member refused to turn

it over to the client. It was significantly less well finished than the earlier MBA plan had

been. Later, during the summer, faculty and staff worked on the document and massaged it

into something that could be presented, at the cost of many additional hours beyond what the

student team had contributed.

Some students did an excellent job pulling additional resources into the project. One

example was a relative with expertise in retail floor layouts, who taught a significant module

about product placement, traffic design, turn-over management, etc. that had each participant

looking at retail performance in a different light. Others made good use of the web to find

related regulations, optimal designs, best practice guidelines, and so on.

A few students were unable to clearly differentiate between the work the MBA team

had done the previous year, a general strategic assessment of the market and overall

management plan, and the current assignment – detailed implementation planning.


Assessment outcomes

The client, GCHFH, was generally well pleased with the effort. Numerous important

items were identified and addressed. One example was the assessment of possible

occupational hazards for staff and volunteers, such as might occur when well-intentioned

donors dropped off used cans of paint. The student teams flagged numerous such issues, and

worked out supply chain methods to address them, such as more controlled donation and

pickup procedures. Another good piece of work was the definition of salaried versus

volunteer roles, and a current market assessment of the salaries GCHFH would likely have to

pay to attract capable people for its salaried roles.

Some of the students did heroic work, while others demonstrated much less

commitment to either honest contributions or market-level standards. Although much good

work was done along the way, and many parts of the learning model for the course were

validated, the final product was very disappointing. Assessed against faculty expectations for

graduating ENTR Majors, grades were generally below expectations.

Student evaluations of the course, including the instruction, were mixed, and below

expectations. Many of the students’ assessments, especially from the undergraduates, were

colored negatively by the fact that the original project had to be significantly modified. The

faculty felt that many of the students appreciated neither the realism of the experience, nor

how much they had learned in wrestling with the variety of methods and subjects.

The tendency of some people, perhaps especially entrepreneurs, to abandon team

efforts and “just do it” themselves got the database created – but at the cost of involving any


of the other students – and of the removal of one of the best leaders from several of the teams.

One has to wonder whether that set of choices was really optimal.

Several of the students realized that their existing studies, plus this course, and a

modest additional effort, would qualify them for the Project Management Institute’s junior

professional designation, the CAPM. At least one proceeded to pick up that Certificate, and

uses it today as a featured professional credential.

Several of the students became long-term fans of Habitat for Humanity, and have

participated in other HFH projects. A couple of them have become involved with the ReStore

as volunteers.

Several of the students have become involved with local charitable organizations as

they build their professional and business careers. While it is impossible for us – or them – to

really ascribe that outcome fully to their experiences on this project, we believe it has been an

important contributing factor.

Long-term feedback from participants indicates that several now appreciate the project

more than they did at the time. They have come to see more clearly the richness of the

experience – including the important lessons of flexibility, perseverance, and adaptability in

the face of obstacles. Perhaps the most important lesson has been both the importance of a

realistic plan AND the importance of adapting when significant things go wrong.

Conclusions: Learning, Tools in Use, and Gaps

We were fortunate to attempt this project in a university that believed strongly in

innovative curricula, especially when entrepreneurship and project-based learning are


combined (D'Intino et al., 2007). Martel suggested that such programs can lead to important

benefits for the participants and for the whole school (Martel, 1992). In the end, we believe

that confidence was justified in this case. Substantial long-term learning did occur. Students

came to appreciate both the complexity of “such a simple thing as opening a new store” as

well as the fact that their educations and networks were, by and large, up to the challenge.

When they calmed down, stopped panicking, and thought their way through things, they were

individually (sometimes) and collectively (most of the time) able to figure out workable

solutions (with usually very modest faculty input). Although the project was messy to the

point of major frustration in some areas, it did validate, through experience with a practical

and relatively common situation, both the MBA and ENTR programs. This has to be

fundamentally good news for the school.

The involvement of the Project Management Institute, in the person of one of its most

passionate practitioners and skilled professional trainers, taught the students attitudes as well

as skills that they can take forward with them. Those facets should be particularly valuable as

these rising executives face ever more complex problems. The process of breaking problems

down to their bite-sized components, assigning capable teams to address the problems, and

holding it all together with a system of accountability, with forward and backward delegation,

will be a foundational skill set each participant can take forward.

The intimate involvement with the project of a generous client who cared deeply for

the school and its students was essential. He taught carefully, giving no answers, just well

formed questions that required the students to learn for themselves. He was extremely

supportive throughout, and generous in his disregard for the weaknesses of the some of the


work. He created numerous opportunities for the students to extend their learning, such as

through presentations to the GCHFH Board. For a project of this sort, he was an ideal client,

marked especially by his willingness to increase or decrease the challenges facing the

students, to keep them stretching without breaking, and by being so positive about what they

were able to accomplish.

From a faculty point of view, the project was probably too complex for these students

at their stage of development. The challenge for the reader then is whether that mismatch was

due to the antecedent program being insufficient, the project being too complex for a

reasonable Major program, or the faculty member being too much of a perfectionist in his

expectations. Perhaps, a bit of each of those conclusions is justified and will lead to

improvements in all three areas.

From a longer perspective in time, it seems that full evaluation of the merits of such a

project, and perhaps of the underlying programs that led to it, should be delayed for several

years – or at least remain amendable for a long period of time. Student comments continue to

trickle in three years later, and all are more positive that they were at the time the course-

project concluded. With considerable respect, it might be said that the students did not fully

grasp the educational experience they were having at the time. Rather, the perspective of time

has given them a greater appreciation for what they learned.

As a final conclusion, let us consider the position of capstone projects. Should they be

they wrapping on the degree, the final integration of four years of piecemeal learning? Most

of the time, that is what we try to accomplish. Or, should they be “commencement”


exercises, ones that help to demonstrate to graduating students that the real world may be

messier that they classroom and laboratory courses – but that they have useful tools, if only

they will stretch to use them in new and imperfect environments? Are we trying to finish the

paid program of studies, or start successful next stages of careers? As Commencement

speaker after speaker has pointed out, graduation is only a beginning. Perhaps we should be

conducting more capstone projects like the ReStore project, demonstrating clearly to students

that they have learned much that is valuable, but the world outside the hallowed halls will

require them to stretch to find new uses for their knowledge and to keep learning.

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