Getting millennials out of their living rooms and into NASCAR speedways is the goal of one of four projects being undertaken by the Vanderbilt Accelerator Summer Business Institute, an annual business boot camp run by Vanderbilt Owen Graduate School of Management.
Students enrolled in the institute will consult with the International Speedway Corporation (ISC), which runs 13 speedways, including Daytona and Talladega, and has nearly 900,000 grandstand seats and 500 suites to fill during races, mostly NASCAR events. It’s the kind of business challenge that Accelerator students, who are college students or recent graduates, like to immerse themselves in and work to create winning solutions.
Accelerator Summer Business Institute helps students hone essential skills in marketing, sales, finance, real estate, research and corporate strategy, while participating companies receive the brainpower, creativity and proposals from several teams of highly motivated students.
The ISC project launch is 8 a.m. June 16 in Averbuch Auditorium in Owen Graduate School of Management, 401 21st Ave. S. Final presentations will be made at the same location at 8 a.m. June 23. To attend the ISC or other Accelerator presentations, contact Jim Patterson.
Other Accelerator 2014 projects include:
- Executives of The Cosmetic Market, a beauty supplies and aesthetic services retailer, want students to optimize the in-store experience at its various locations while increasing profits for the company. The company operates four stores in the Nashville area and is opening a new location near Atlanta in the fall. The new store is the focus of the challenge, but successful ideas will be implemented in all locations.
- Using Dollar General as a case study, student teams will perform a quantitative analysis and deliver an equity analyst report, providing qualitative and quantitative justification for their 12-month target stock price.
- Griffin Technology executives wish to develop a multi-device charger that falls between its PowerDock 5 and its MultiDock. They want the student teams to define audience segments, desired price point and the must-have functionality for a multi-device charger in this range.
More information about Accelerator is available online. To follow the progress of Accelerator students and their projects, visit the Vanderbilt Accelerator Summer Business Institute page on Facebook.