The Isenberg Undergraduate Consulting Group was born from an innovative idea. IUCG was founded in Fall 2013 as a platform from which young business professionals could develop their hard and soft skills while simultaneously giving back to the community in which they reside.

An article¹ from bcg.perspectives notes the driving force separating fast growing companies from companies who fail to grow is their leadership. Those successful leaders understand a failure to grow can be the equivalent to the death of the company. They are constantly pushing and pursuing new opportunities and new ideas. They are never finished; there is always something left to strive for.

Our student leaders understand the importance of progress, and have pushed for growth both in terms of membership size and availablility of hands-on opportunities to learn outside of the classroom. Fast Forward one year from the first operational semester of IUCG: The number of projects has doubled; The membership has increased (32 members at the close of this recruiting period), and an additional four seats, from the original six, have been added to the executive team.

This semester our project managers and analysts will be divided into teams to focus on four different consulting projects: an even split with two projects based out of our local Amherst community and two partnering with our very own university. Our project with The Black Sheep, a local deli in the center of Amherst, will teach analysts how to improve the customer experience by studying wait times. Our second effort to give back to our community is through our project with Craig’s Doors, a local non-profit. The Craig’s Doors team will be working to develop a more organized operational process for the organization. Keeping a little closer to home, analysts on the Residential Service Desk project and the On-Campus Housing Assignment project will be focusing on process improvement to optimize the operations of both of these UMass-Amherst services.

Since its creation in Fall 2013, one of the core goals of IUCG has been to give back- to its members, the Isenberg community, and the Amherst community. We want to establish a culture of personal growth and community mentorship among our members by working together and learning from each other. An open culture where learning is cherished and a desire to give back is central will hopefully allow for continued progress and boundless opportunities for both our members and our clients.

New semester, new projects, new talent. We’re happily embracing the growth imperative.

¹Bürkner, Hans-Paul, Kermit King, and Nor Azah Razali. “More Holes than Cheese: Embracing the Growth Imperative” Bcg.perspectives. BCG.perspectives, 8 Oct. 2013. Web. 7 Feb 2015. <<https://www.bcgperspectives.com/content/articles/growth_vision_mission_more_holes_than_cheese_embracing_growth_imperative/>>