Marketing Strategy Unplugged    by David Black MBAs with a Mission    by Brook Raflo Thinking inside the Box    by Nicholas Shreiber,    Guest Columnist				Back to Previous Page The Thinkubator's coming There's a Thinkubator out there. "Right now it's the MBA Thinkubator," says founder Brian Shields '00EvMBA. Eventually, however, as the organizational structure develops, "we'll call it the Goizueta Thinkubator." Brian Shields '00EvMBA (left) & John Hammond, Asst. Dean for the Evening MBA Program The Thinkubator, which was hatched in late March, is an e-commerce consulting organization made up of Goizueta MBA students. And what it does is conceive, incubate, and possibly implement ideas for companies that are, or wish to be, part of the expanding e-commerce field-companies that just might appreciate the cutting-edge insights a team of bright MBA students could bring to as yet unexplored realms of Internet business. The Thinkubator began with ten evening students who were working in their spare time on projects for start-up e-commerce companies. "We had people from different backgrounds-somebody with operations, another with a consulting background. So we would all put our minds together and segment the market," says Shields, twenty-eight. Lo and behold, they found that everyone they talked to wanted help. "Clients" include Synergenet, e-commerce consultants; Agentware, web-based software makers; and Riverwood International, a packaging company. The Thinkubator now numbers more than fifty, mostly evening, students. The goal is to become nonprofit and charge for services. "We hope to build enough revenue from charging the companies to start our own seed fund to fund some student entrepreneurial projects. This way we can take better control of our ideas," Shields says. William Hedgepeth Top of Page
Letters to the Editor: Victor_Rogers@bus.emory.edu || Class Notes: eurec@emory.edu Goizueta Business School Website: http://www.emory.edu/BUS/ Goizueta Magazine is published three times per year by Goizueta Business School of Emory University and is distributed free to all alumni and other friends of the business school. Produced by the Office of Public Affairs of Emory University, 1655 North Decatur Road, Atlanta, Georgia 30322. Copyright © 2000 Goizueta Business School/Emory University