Case graduate students solve real-world
corporate issues through new company
They’ve won bid to contract with Fortune 500
company
March 21, 2005 | For more information: Laura
M. Massie 216-368-4442
 MTV has its version of the “Real World,” where seven strangers
are put in a house where they “stop being polite” and “start
getting real.” While “The Real World” is a heavily-edited
TV show, six graduate students in Case Western
Reserve University’s
master’s of engineering and management program are getting a real
dose of the real world—starting their own business
while still in school. They’ve even won a bid to contract with
a Fortune 500 company.
You can’t get any more real than that.
These new “innovation consultants” took the advice of chemical
engineering professor Gary Wnek, who suggested that instead of focusing
on individual projects for a class, the students form their own company
which would force them to perform individual functions in that context.
The students, Shehzad Ashfaq, Shruti Lal, Tamara Franke, Dave Hyson,
John Landers and Brad Kleinman, have created Lake Effect Innovation,
a limited liability company that has two main objectives: Helping companies
apply new techniques of innovation management and reducing barriers
to entry into the business world for entrepreneurs. They take their
name, “Lake Effect,” from the well-known weather phenomenon
that Northeast Ohioans can rely upon each year to dump lots of snow
in the area during the winter months.
They also are pursuing master’s degrees from Case’s engineering
and management (MEM) program. Case is the only university in the country
to offer a fully integrated academic program that treats engineering
and management as they occur in the real world.
Ashfaq, Lake Effect’s president, said the contract with the Fortune
500 company has yet to be finalized, however “we [have] won the
bid,” he said. “We are in the process of negotiations.”
“We all have [undergraduate] engineering degrees and what we
wanted to do was leverage that background and the engineering and management
education we’re receiving in the MEM program,” he added. “One
of the ways to do that is through a company, so we can put what we are
learning to practical use. We want real world business experience and
this is the best way to get it.”
Ashfaq is 23. His five colleagues are in the same age range.
“The coolest thing is really learning what goes into starting
a business,” said Franke, also 23 and Lake Effect’s vice
president of finance. “Our coursework doesn’t allow us to
experience all the details of running a real business. There’s
so much more than you can learn in a class. Here, we’re learning
what building a business really takes.”
The MEM program’s unique blend of faculty members from the Case
School of Engineering and the Weatherhead School of Management, with
additional instruction from industry partners, provides a huge advantage
to its students, says Wnek. The Institute for Management and Engineering
(TiME) offers the MEM degree.
The Lake Effect group has a set meeting time every week, and meets
at other times as needed. One of the first decisions the group made
was to settle on who had how much time to dedicate to the company.
“Someone might say, ‘I can do 10 hours a week,’ so
we’d think of something that would take about that much time,” Franke
said. “Some are busier with other things, but we all have our
specific input into it.”
The company has filed to have its name approved and to be recognized
by the Ohio Secretary of State. They also have rented office space in
downtown Cleveland. Lake Effect also is partnering with a Detroit-based
company, Ideation International Inc., which does innovation consulting.
Ideation teaches companies how to be innovative within themselves, Ashfaq
explains.
“We have partnered with Ideation and are getting trained in their
methodology,” he said. “We hope to leverage this relationship
to be more competitive in obtaining contracts in the Ohio region.”
Wnek says the students’ coursework prepares them to hit the ground
running once they graduate. His six students, however, are taking their
coursework a step further.
“It takes more than just a technical background to solve problems
in industry,” said Wnek, co-director of TiME and the Joseph F.
Toot, Jr. Professor of Engineering at Case. “Business leaders
said, ‘Give us technically talented engineers who can impact their
employer immediately by being adept at the business side of things.
Graduates take on additional responsibility more rapidly than their
peers who have not had the integrated training.”
While Franke already has a job lined up at Goodyear’s Global
Engineering and Manufacturing Technology Department after graduation
in May, she said they plan to groom new students coming up behind them
to continue the business.
“Our hope is that we have this company and that with each class,
new students will take over our positions,” she said. “It’s
a way for students to get work experience, and to get valuable experience
in running their own company – real world experience before they
get a full-time job. So we are actively recruiting students from the
new MEM class.”
So far, she adds, interest from the new class doesn’t seem to
be a problem.
To learn more about Lake Effect Innovation, visit http://www.LakeEffectInnovation.com.
About Case Western Reserve University
Case is among the nation's leading research institutions. Founded in 1826
and shaped by the unique merger of the Case Institute of Technology and Western
Reserve University, Case is distinguished by its strengths in education, research,
service, and experiential learning. Located in Cleveland, Case offers nationally
recognized programs in the Arts and Sciences, Dental Medicine, Engineering,
Law, Management, Medicine, Nursing, and Social Work. http://www.case.edu.
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