A consulting project that a team of students from the Tuck School of Business started last year changed business operations at Whaleback Mountain, a local ski venue, this winter.
Scott Roman Tu '07 and his classmates evaluated the project and provided suggestions on how to improve Whaleback's business practices as part of their first-year and subsequent "Business Bridge" projects at Tuck.
"We all like skiing and thought it was kind of cool to work at a local mountain," Roman said.
"We came in and we worked with [Whaleback co-owner Evan Dybvig] and mapped out a game plan of what sorts of things we could do with him to help him out."
Early on, the Tuck students researched other local ski mountains to learn about their methods of operation and sources of revenue.
From this initial research, they learned what would and would not be successful for a local ski hill. Visiting other mountains also helped the students formulate a competitive pricing schedule for Whaleback.
One proposed change involved advertising directly to the Dartmouth community and emphasizing that Whaleback is actually closer to the College than the Dartmouth Skiway. They also suggested a new logo for the mountain.
The students' suggestions also focused on various aspects of the mountain's operations including branding.
Peter Krass, the director of marketing for Whaleback Mountain, noted that Whaleback's "bread and butter" customers are families, an issue that one Tuck student tried to resolve by increasing marketing to younger, more extreme skiers, without alienating the families who comprise the mountain's core constituencies.
In addition to trying to attract new visitors, the students worked to improve the quality of experience that skiers would have at Whaleback.
They proposed adding more signs directing visitors to bathrooms, ticket counters and cafeterias to help visitors navigate more easily inside the ski lodge.
Given the seasonal limitations facing ski mountains, the group urged the leadership at Whaleback to take advantage of their facilities year-round.
"They have a great space, they have a great bar and this awesome deck with a great view of the mountain. One of our ideas was for them to have special events," Roman said.
So far, Whaleback has proved to be a popular venue for certain Dartmouth functions, Krass said.
"We have hosted a number of private functions for Dartmouth groups which we haven't done last year so that gave us a big boost in what you might call an alternative revenue scheme," Krass said.
Last term, Whaleback hosted formals for at least four Dartmouth sororities -- Kappa Delta Epsilon, Alpha Phi, Delta Delta Delta and Sigma Delta -- and was also the site of a Tuck formal.
Throughout the process, the Tuck students collaborated closely with Evan Dybvig, a co-owner of Whaleback Mountain. Roman is hesitant to take any credit for what he considers as Dybvig's accomplishments.
"Everything that we suggested, it was really Evan on the ground doing," he said.
Whether or not these changes will translate into an appreciable increase in revenue for Whaleback, however, remains to be seen and may be difficult to qualify. Whaleback, like other local ski mountains, is facing added pressures this winter due to unseasonably warm temperatures, minimal snowfall to date and excessive rain.
These conditions already delayed the mountain's opening weekend and forced Whaleback to close down last weekend. Yet despite these setbacks, Krass noted that Whaleback's opening for the season -- which this year fell on New Years Weekend -- was "extremely successful."
"We really came out of the gate strong and that's really, in part, due to these recommendations."
