The business experience that money can’t buy

MBA students may have discovered a direct line to the job market: Concordia’s Small Business Consulting Bureau (CSBC Bureau).

Alumna Audrey Davis, MBA 08, certainly thinks so. “Working in a consulting capacity gave me credibility when it came to applying for jobs,” she says.

The CSBC Bureau — a for-credit, for-profit initiative — provides second-year students with hands-on management consulting experience. Operating out of the John Molson School of Business (JMSB) under the mentorship of Bakr Ibrahim, a professor in the Department of Management, it offers Montreal-area entrepreneurs and small businesses a complete range of consulting services at affordable rates.

“We believe our expertise can add value for our clients,” says current team member Carlos Vargas.

“In addition to the tools and techniques acquired in the MBA, we bring our diverse professional experience to the bureau. We are able to offer a quality service at very competitive rates because we don’t have the industry-common overhead to sustain, and because our motivation to join the bureau goes beyond the money.”

Vargas holds a bachelor’s of science degree in industrial engineering from the University of Lima, Peru. He decided to pursue an MBA at Concordia after spending six years in the advisory department of professional services firm Ernst & Young in Lima.

His CV is typical at the CSBC Bureau: this year’s five members boast more than 40 years of business expertise collectively.

Like most of the participants, Vargas is keen to pursue a career in management consulting after graduation. Many bureau alumni are hired immediately upon completion of their degree.

Davis is now the manager of strategy development and innovation at Aimia, a Montreal-based loyalty management company. She says the skills and understanding she gained at the CSBC Bureau were valuable complements to classroom learning.

“The bureau allowed me to see how the knowledge I had could be applied to the real world and, in some cases, how the knowledge I had was entirely insufficient.”

Davis believes that the main thing she learned was how difficult it can be to identify business problems. “In the MBA, we focused so intensely on finding solutions to problems that were clearly defined,” she says. “In real life, making sure you source the right problems is a fundamental step.”

Davis says the program also taught her a lot about herself and about her ability to work as part of a team.

“I learned that it takes innate personal qualities to appropriately apply what we learn in books and in the classroom. It showed me how much consulting is about your ability to sell and structure thoughts — to synthesize, influence and ultimately tell a story.

“Also, working with the other consultants added a layer to the experience: there were times we did not agree and we needed to resolve issues amongst ourselves as well as deliver for our clients.”

So far, says Vargas, this year’s team is all on the same page: “We want to help business owners achieve their dreams and contribute to the development of the local entrepreneurial community.”