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Logisticsstu
02-05-2012, 08:26 PM
Hello entrepreneurs and business owners.

I am a Florida University Student and part of an organization called Expanding Academic Study (EAS). What do we do? We promote the interaction between the business world and the academic world. Our intent is to analyze companies and share what we have learned with the owners.

The purpose of the students analyzing real world data is two fold. First, real world data is more useful for learning than randomly generated numbers. It contains things that you just wouldn’t expect or think to think about. Secondly, it gives small businesses owners a new insight.

We are asking you to change or delete all sensitive information. For instance Bob Anderson becomes CUST00001 etc. Then provide it and talk a little bit about your business. Students analyze the data and report our findings. Such as profit mapping, customer segmentation, supplier segmentation, etc. Important information needed is a pseudonym for the customer so their orders can accounted for, what they bought, when they bought it, costs associated with the product, the price and quantity, as specific of address as you are comfortable giving. What is not needed is bank numbers, etc. Supplier information is also important.

Please let me know what you think. Thank you,
-Alex

greenoak
02-05-2012, 10:09 PM
for me, and my schedule, it would be way too much work....but you could pick up a lot of general ideas and problems by reading the archives...

lucas.bowser
02-06-2012, 09:16 AM
My first thoughts... Isn't this what case studies are for? Most reputable business schools use them. They are real world examples of the concepts being taught in the classroom that you should be dissecting and discussing to deepen your understanding. Usually, the sensitive data has been stripped out and in some cases the businesses have been anonymized. If you are looking to do what you are saying as a from scratch learning experience, this is really what an internship is for. Start talking to companies, tell them who you are, what you want to do and that you're willing to do it for cheap as well as sign a non-disclosure agreement. A word of caution, understand what you can legally do for free vs. paid. Depending on the work you're doing and who you're doing it for, you may not technically be able to work for free. Peanuts maybe. But not free. You wouldn't want to get a business in trouble because of this.

Like greenoak said, what you are talking about is way too much work for the business. You need to make it convenient for them. This means that you need to arrange with the business owner to become an unpaid or minimally paid intern, you need to work with them to define a business problem that they are currently having, then you need to look at their data (and anonymize it yourself if you will be sharing it with the group.) You then need to analyze it and report your findings back the business owner. There is a standard form for giving these types of results to a customer that should be covered in a business writing class. If you haven't taken a business writing class, then you should. And don't blow it off as a box to check. Communicating your results effectively is just as important and getting the results.