What do you do with a group of innovative, savvy and talented University of South Florida College of Business students once they have completed the core business school curriculum (including classes in finance, marketing, accounting, operations, organizational behavior, communications, and more), but have yet to graduate? If you are Grant Baxley, president, and CEO of Infinity Computer Solutions, you challenge them to put their newly acquired business knowledge to the test.
Called capstone review, the class gives every final year business student the chance to put their skills into practice by sending them into a simulated intense, hands-on, time-sensitive business world. And this spring, Baxley presented students with a real dilemma for his locally-owned business: how Infinity Computer Solutions would go about hiring new staff to take its Tampa-based IT services business to the next level.
The solution was an unprecedented success, with the professor saying it was the “highest rated of all the classes discussions” so far this year and that the students “loved it.”
In part due to its extraordinary outcome, as well as Baxley’s commitment to the program, USF has invited Baxley back for an extraordinary opportunity to update the ICS case study with USF faculty, professors from other universities and the training manager from the U.N. Staff College in Turin, Italy. Workshop participants will have the opportunity ask Baxley questions in order to gather background for an exercise where they design a new case based upon the decisions previously revealed.
For businesses like ICS, this is rare opportunity — one that Baxley is grateful to have earned. Indeed, during the past three semesters, he estimates Ia total of XX hours spent working with students: “Worth every minute,” he says. “Not only does it provide valuable entrepreneurial insight to strategically move your company to the next level, it’s a great way to give back to the community and help support future entrepreneurs. The opportunity to work with tomorrow’s leaders today?? What an absolute pleasure!”
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