TEACHING & LEARNING
Consulting
to Growth Businesses
Opening the Doors to Private Equity
OUTREACH
Wharton
West: Back to School
Q&A with The Newly Appointed Director of The Wharton Small Business Development Center
Faces of Wharton Entrepreneurship
RESEARCH
Inside The "War Room"
Tracking Digital Transformation
Outreach
Q&A with The Wharton SBDC's New Director
M. Thérèse
Flaherty, a Wharton adjunct marketing professor, was appointed director
of the Wharton Small Business
Development Center in July. Since 1999, she has worked with MBA students
on global consulting projects as director of the Wharton
Global Consulting Practicum. She received her bachelor's degree in
economics and mathematics at Tufts University and studied at the London
School of Economics before earning her PhD in economic theory from Carnegie-Mellon
University. Before joining Wharton Flaherty was on the faculty of Harvard
Business School. Her research has focused on connections between operations
and strategic management, particularly in global business. She serves
on the editorial board of Strategic Management Journal.
Flaherty's appointment has provided an opportunity to carefully consider the future of the SBDC, which provides consulting and education to local small businesses. In a recent interview with Get It Started! Flaherty offered some initial thoughts on the current work and future direction of the SBDC.
Q:
What is the impact of the SBDC on the companies it works with?
Dollar for dollar the investment in the SBDC is much more powerful than
any other investment in a government program in terms of generating jobs
or sales. Startups have a high probability of failing. A company that
comes into the SBDC reduces that probability by almost half. We give companies
a better chance of succeeding. We take the resources of the university
and put them to work for small businesses.
Q:
What are the strengths of the Wharton SBDC?
We have strengths in education and research from being at Wharton. Philadelphia
also is a region of great opportunity. We are beginning to see high growth
businesses bubbling up. Many growth companies are coming out of our university
and others. There are major technology bases in health sciences, life
sciences and digital-based technologies as well as traditional businesses.
Q:
How is the role of the Wharton SBDC changing?
Ten or 15 years ago, there were few collaborators we could work with in
supporting growth businesses in Philadelphia. Today the infrastructure
to support innovation and entrepreneurship in the city has become much
more well developed. There are now a great many consultants and business
development organizations. We need to work with those organizations that
are already there and redefine what our contribution should be.
Q:
What changes will you be making in the educational programs offered by
the SBDC?
I am pleased that Eric Bradlow [Wharton Associate Professor of Marketing
and Statistics] has joined us as academic director of the SBDC. There
has never been a professor as academic director before. We are getting
much more input from the faculty side at Wharton and will be able to better
leverage the research and educational experience we have at Wharton. We
are reviewing courses and outside instructors to make sure we are offering
the kind of quality we want to see. We also are working with the Enterprise
Center at 46th and Market Streets to make sure our courses are complementary
with theirs.
Q:
What do you look for in hiring student consultants?
We have about 200 MBA students interested and we will probably hire about
10 consultants. It is a prestigious job for someone getting an MBA, an
opportunity to apply the concepts they are learning in their classes.
We are looking for people with a variety of talents and backgrounds so
together they make a good team. We are also looking for people with a
real commitment and passion for entrepreneurship.
Q:
Where do you see the SBDC in five years?
We have a good foundation and we are going to build on it. I would like
to see smaller companies come to Wharton to get to the next level of performance.
I'd like to see more of our faculty have a better understanding of
the entrepreneurial resources we have in West Philadelphia. I'd also
like to see more research so we can understand how much of a difference
we are making. We need to understand how we can increase the probability
that companies will succeed and the kind of companies we are able to help.
I hope we can develop a new model of how to work with rapidly growing
companies that others could use.
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