The Seeds Consulting Group, a non-profit group that provides consulting services to Upper Valley businesses and other worldwide ventures, hosted the eighth installment of its 10-part educational workshop series in Carson Hall on Thursday evening. Since its inception in Fall 2008, the student-run organization has evolved its mission and operations to provide individuals with the experience and "courage" to pursue a wider range of consulting opportunities than those offered on Wall Street, Seeds director of marketing Noah Bond '13 said.
Seeds is currently working with The Parish Players Theater in Thetford, Vt., to help the theater group better manage its finances, and Seeds plans to establish three new consulting projects during Winter term, co-director of operations Waritorn Chariyawattanarut '14 said. Over the past several years, Seeds formerly known as the Social Enterprise and Economic Development Society has worked closely with non-profit organizations in the Upper Valley to provide solutions to various operational problems.
"By learning about how [organizations] operate right now, their current operations and their challenges, we make suggestions about how they can operate more effectively and efficiently," Chariyawattanarut said.
Seeds executives assembled teams of eight to nine students to work on consulting projects this year. Leading the final client presentation and writing the "deliverable" the formal proposal provided to organizations by a consulting team are valuable professional experiences for members, Seeds director of finance Cole Adams '13 said.
"I think those types of skills actually writing the deliverable and making it presentable and then actually presenting it and interfacing with the client is something that I don't think many other clubs offer," he said.
The group also held training workshops for Dartmouth students interested in working with Seeds and learning consulting skills. These workshops, which teach students practical skills in consulting, align with the group's mission to proactively engage in the community, Bond said.
"Seeds is trying to create a community on campus of innovative students thinking entrepreneurially," he said. "We want students to realize that they have a lot of potential to change the social landscape especially in the Upper Valley."
Adam Jackson a senior project manager at TomTom, a retailer of portable GPS car navigation systems spoke to an audience of approximately 10 students about social-media-enabled communication and marketing at the Seeds workshop on Thursday.
By creating the Twitter account management company Tweet My Biz, and through his duties with TomTom, Jackson works to eliminate "the hurdles of communications" between companies and consumers.
"Most of the people watching in the audience are using Facebook as a communication tool but they are not thinking about the relationship they are building with that brand," Jackson said.
In addition to the workshops, Seeds is also considering the expansion of its mentorship program in which experienced members guide new members by collaborating on projects together, Bond said.
After the members of the Class of 2011 graduated, Seeds decided to refocus its efforts on providing consulting services to local non-profit organizations, Adams said. The group changed its name to reflect this change in mission, according to Adams.
"We can have a larger impact [consulting] than by having a bunch of people come and get free food and hear about an issue," Adams said. "What we think we're best at is focusing on the practical."
While the restructuring will help focus the group's efforts, the group will continue providing educational and pre-professional programs for its members, Chariyawattanarut said.
"By the process of doing consulting, they are learning so the education aspect is already there," he said. "And the pre-professional aspect is there because you make contacts with leaders of non-profits and consulting firms in the Upper Valley."
Four new students joined the group this term, according to Adams.
"We try to find students who are analytically minded, who like problem solving but who also have a social consciousness," he said.
In light of Dartmouth's D-Plan and leadership overturn as a result of graduating members, Seeds executives plan to establish a board of advisors spearheaded by alumni who will help preserve the club's institutional knowledge over the long term, according to Adams.
In previous years, Seeds worked with WomensTrust, a local nonprofit organization that empowers women and girls in Ghana through a microfinance economic model, Seeds director of projects Kunal Arya '12 said. Seeds developed a management information system for WomensTrust to keep track of its loans, according to Arya.
Seeds also worked with the Box House Project, which provides low-cost environmentally friendly housing to individuals living in poverty worldwide, Arya said. After the Box House Project approached Seeds about investigating an alternative solution to group lending, Seeds proposed a solution that transformed the Box House venture into an appealing investment opportunity for potential donors, he said.
Gregg Fairbrothers, a business administration professor at the Tuck School of Business and founding director of the Dartmouth Entrepreneurial Network, will discuss entrepreneurship at the next Seeds workshop on Nov. 15, according to Seeds' website.
