Tag: Small Business Initiative



In its sixth year, the WashU Olin Family Business Symposium provided a deeper look into how the culture of family business drives performance and outcomes—and how that culture can be preserved throughout generations.

The symposium, entitled “The Importance of Culture in a Family Business,” was hosted by the Koch Center for Family Business and was held virtually across four mornings in February.

As session one panelist Mark Leeker, managing director of Harbour Group, put it, “It always comes down to the people and the ability to have a culture that is recognized and known, so that as you go through changes, you can always fall back on what it is that you do and what’s your central core.” 

Building a team at Tata Consultancy Services

Subramanian Ramadorai

On Tuesday, February 2, Subramanian Ramadorai, former MD and CEO of Tata Consultancy Services, spoke to Spencer Burke, Olin’s Eugene F. Williams, Jr. executive in residence. TCS is one of the world’s largest IT, consulting, and business solutions organizations. Ramadorai is largely responsible for its growth over the past four decades.

The keynote presentation was followed by a panel discussion with Leeker and Olin’s Seth Carnahan, associate professor of strategy, moderated by Koch Center Director Peter Boumgarden.

Eight generations and counting

Lisanne Cape Dorion

The second week of the symposium, on February 10, featured Lisanne Cape Dorion, board director, and Scott Northcutt, senior vice president of human resources, of Bacardi, Ltd. Dorion and Northcutt shared some of the strategies that Bacardi, a 150-year old family-owned beverage company with over 1,000 family members across eight generations, uses to encourage innovation while preserving the company’s long-held values. 

Following the Bacardi presentation, Gina Hoagland, chairman & principal of Collaborative Strategies, Inc. moderated a panel discussion with Joshua Hager, president and COO of Hager Companies, Kevin Maher, Jr., vice president and general manager of St. Charles Automotive, and Chris Seyer, CEO of Sayer Industries, Inc. 

Investments and banking

George H. Walker

George H. Walker, chairman and CEO of investment management firm Neuberger Berman, spoke on the structure of the employee-owned firm and how the ownership approach can inform the company’s long-term planning and innovation. With offices in 24 countries, Neuberger Berman has been named by Pensions & Investments as a Best Place to Work in Money Management, finishing first or second each of the last five years. Many of Walker’s experiences of workplace culture in a financial institution were echoed in the panel discussion with David Eichhorn, CEO and head of investment strategies at NISA Investment Advisors, and Michael Dierberg, chairman of the board at First Bank.

Sports, family, and the community

Carolyn Kindle Betz

The final morning of the symposium, on February 25, was the most popular and likely of most interest to St. Louisans: a panel discussion between Carolyn Kindle Betz, CEO of St. Louis CITY SC, William DeWitt III, president of the St. Louis Cardinals, and Tom Stillman, chairman and governor of the St. Louis Blues. Kindle Betz, DeWitt, and Stillman spoke on balancing the need for both continuity and change in sports organizations as old as the Cardinals (140 years) and as new as the St. Louis CITY SC (announced in 2019 and expected to begin play in 2023).

Videos for all four events can be found below. Find more information about the Koch Center for Family Business and videos and audio recordings from past events here




The St. Louis Economic Development Partnership highlighted the Center for Experiential Learning’s community work in a recent feature on Olin’s Small Business Initiative.

The St. Louis Economic Development Partnership and the Regional Business Council have partnered with the CEL to identify small businesses in the recovery areas—also referred to as the Promise Zone—of Ferguson, Dellwood, and Jennings and assist with business development.

Olin’s Small Business Initiative connects WashU students to small business owners in the St. Louis community. Through a 12-week, team-based management consulting project, students provide actionable recommendations in areas including market research, branding, financial assessment, and operations. The projects help students build their consulting competencies and apply classroom learning to real-world issues facing small businesses.

“We have an immense resource in our students who have passion, raw intelligence, and incredibly quickly developing leadership skills, and the question was, ‘What are the best ways to leverage that for the greater good in the community?’” Program Director Daniel Bentle told the St. Louis Economic Development Partnership. “In the end, this initiative is simply focused on supporting our small business leaders in the local economy, which we have a responsibility to do.”

To date, more than 50 students and 13 small businesses have participated in the program.

Check out the full story on STLPartnership, and learn more about the Small Business Initiative on the CEL’s website.




Last semester, BSBA students Ryan Farhat-Sabet and Betsy Morgan were part of a student team that provided consulting services for Drake’s Place, a family restaurant in Ferguson. The project was part of the Center for Experiential Learning’s Small Business Initiative, which partners area businesses with student teams, who work closely with the client to generate actionable insights and results.

We talked with Ryan and Betsy about their work with Drake’s Place and their experiences in the Small Business Initiative. Check out their insights below:

Q: What interested you in working with Drake’s Place?

Ryan: I was very excited to help a client in the food industry. Growing up in a Middle Eastern household, the dinner table holds a special place in my memories, as it was always a time where the entire family came together and bonded over a nice meal. Drake’s Place does exactly this, treating the greater St. Louis community as a family. Drake’s Place is a community staple, and the combination of the quality food, comforting atmosphere, and people really help to shape that vision.

Betsy: The restaurant was opened only a few months before the unrest in Ferguson, and has become an important part of the local community. Bridgett and Drake, the co-owners of the restaurant, are great to work with and are very inspiring. The growth potential of their restaurant also made it a really fun project.

Q: What has been your experience working with the CEL?

Ryan: Participating in the CEL was such a joy. Both Daniel and Beth are so passionate about their role in guiding students’ learning and creating an impact in the St. Louis community. The student leadership is refreshing, since most classes have such a rigid path to success, and that simply doesn’t exist here. The CEL community has been so supportive of every team’s work by providing constructive feedback along the way, helping to create high caliber results for clients continually each semester.

Betsy: Working with the CEL has been one of the most rewarding experiences of my career as a business student. The ability to create tangible, sustainable solutions for an actual client has been invaluable and given me a lot more context for the rest of my business classes. I’ve also gotten the opportunity to develop both my technical and client-facing skills in ways I don’t believe are possible in a traditional classroom. The most rewarding part is getting to deliver effective solutions to our clients at the end of the project and, hopefully, provide them with tools to grow and succeed long after our time on the project has finished.

Q: Can you share a highlight from your time working on this project?

Betsy: A teammate and I were going to Drake’s to conduct a customer survey to find out their preferences and demographics early in the project. Not only were we able to have an amazing meal while we were working, but we got to see Bridgett in action. Bridgett knows the majority of her customers by name, and was constantly greeting people as they walked in. When we approached customers to ask them to fill out a survey, everyone was more than willing because we said we were working on a project to improve Drake’s. That was the day I really recognized how important Drake’s was to the community—and who we would be helping if we could help Drake’s grow.

Q: How has this experience prepared you for the future? 

Ryan: I aspire to work in the consulting field, and this experience has provided me with an actual opportunity to see what this line of work is like. I believe I have relatable experiences that I can draw upon and skills I have developed through the Small Business Initiative to differentiate myself during the internship recruiting process this semester.