Video: Harvard MBAs Consult Local Business Owners

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TUPELO, Miss. (WCBI) — A team of MBA students from Harvard Business School are spending a week in Tupelo, visiting with small business owners as part of a nationwide project. The four recent graduates spent part of their day interviewing tenants of the Renasant Center for Ideas. That is the area’s business incubator, which is overseen by the Community Development Foundation.

Business owners were asked about their short and long term goals, along with how the Renasant Center for Ideas has helped them launch and grow their firms. The findings can also be used by other businesses in the area.

“What they’re really doing, they’re not really saying ‘hey this is what you’re doing bad,'” said the Renasant Center for Ideas’, Judd Wilson. “They’re saying ‘hey, you’re doing this good, let’s try this.’ So what they’re really doing is looking through a different set of eyes. We all look at things because we all know each other and work with each other for some time, but sometime it’s good to get an outside perspective.”

The MBA students will be in our area throughout the week. They are part of a program known as “MBAs Across America.” They will give a wrap up of their initial findings on Friday.