Sprott School of Business students work with local farm to adapt for post-pandemic future
First-year business students from Carleton University’s Sprott School of Business have been working with a local farm to help them recover and adapt for a post-pandemic future.
Students enrolled in Introduction to Business, a core course for all first-year business students, worked in teams to develop a business recovery plan for Stanley’s Olde Maple Lane Farm.
Opened in 1993, Stanley’s Olde Maple Lane Farm is a family-owned working farm, a popular sugar bush and event venue for weddings, receptions and retreats. The farm has lost nearly half-a-million dollars due to pandemic-related closures. The students’ plans addressed opportunities for each of their business areas.
Colin Gallagher, sales and event manager for the farm, was blown away by the quality of the students’ work.
“Not only did the teams have some really good, original, ideas but the ideas were well thought out all the way through the cost of implementing to how we could market them – and even what sort of profits they might make for us.”
Some of the ideas the students presented to the farm were implementing an admission fee for guests visiting them – while having a marketing plan in place to explain and rationalize the costs to them. They also recommended creating an outreach plan for schools, clubs and other organizations to encourage more visitors to the farm, and implementing a year-round interactive maple syrup workshop, incorporating the farm’s values of educating their community.
Dredann Quenneville, Bachelor of Commerce student and former employee of the farm, said she “loved the concept of finding solutions for a real business.”
“I learned what information to look for while conducting strategic analyses and practiced writing the information in a clear and concise way. I learned professional presentation strategies and got to implement them during our final presentation. All in all, I learned that business consulting involves a lot of time and effort however it is certainly worth it, as the end result can provide a company with its next major success.”
“It was an amazing experience, and I got my first taste of what it’s like to be a consultant,” said Bachelor of Commerce student Joumana Elsayed.
Three of the six teams had the opportunity to present their plans directly to the farm’s managers, while the rest of the reports are being consolidated into a detailed plan for the farm.
“In my experience from teaching over the years, the most value for students has come from those direct experiences of learning and hearing from managers or owners of organizations – that’s where the real power of learning is,” said Julie Caldwell, instructor for Introduction to Business. “We can teach them theory but until they apply it, and understand the impacts of it, it doesn’t connect for them.”
Photo credit: Stanley’s Olde Maple Lane Farm.