Rebuilding Business After Disaster: Kellstadt MBAs Lend Help in NOLA
In December, a group of 29 full-time MBA students from DePaul’s Kellstadt Graduate School of Business spent a week in New Orleans providing business consulting assistance to 10 nonprofits and small companies to continue an annual service project started in 2007 after Hurricane Katrina.
The group, calling themselves The DePaul B-Corps, used more than nails to try to fix businesses broken in the aftermath of Katrina—they created new marketing plans and restructured present financial models.
Their work included developing business, marketing, financial and fundraising plans for the various ventures. This also helped the students gain vital real-world experience. The students based their operations at Propeller, a nonprofit entrepreneurship incubator.
“Even eight years after Hurricane Katrina, businesses can still use our help,” said Sean Maconachy, on of the MBAs who attended the trip. “As the next generation of business leaders, we see that progress is being made in New Orleans, and we want to be part of it.”
“Giving back to the community is central to being a student at DePaul,” he said. “Our goal is to set up these businesses for success so they can continue to grow.”
