External Relations

The NIU Business community is rich with diverse individuals who want to learn while helping you address the challenges facing your organization. You can benefit from the external perspectives, extra research horsepower, unbiased recommendations, and general business knowledge NIU Business students and faculty can offer.

Business Consulting: Business in Action

If your organization needs assistance with multiple straightforward business challenges, embed your challenges in our Business in Action course. For 16 weeks, first-year and transfer students work in teams to bring a new perspective to your business challenges. These fresh sets of eyes will conduct research, and create and deliver innovative solutions. Your organization will receive research-driven and evidence-based recommendations from multiple teams for each embedded challenge. Past Business in Action teams have assessed sales and marketing channels, developed product catalogs, formalized accounting systems, and provided recommendations on minimizing employee turnover and ways to mitigate the minimum wage impact for past sponsors.

Business in Action sponsorship also offers a unique opportunity to build your employment brand with new NIU College of Business students. As they work on your business challenges, students get to know your business, your culture, and your values. This deep connection can make all the difference as students search for internships, jobs, products and services later on. For more information, contact Jason Gorham at jgorham@niu.edu.

Business Consulting: 40TUDE

Designed with small businesses and non-profits in mind, 40TUDE brings together local experts, industry-experienced faculty/instructors and talented NIU students to amplify your sales and fundraising capacity through expert data analysis, communication, and web services. You work with experienced professionals every step of the way, as they guide the NIU students who are working behind the scenes.

Business Consulting: Experiential Learning Center

Experiential Learning Center consulting teams provide your organization with new insights on an ambiguous business challenge, additional resources for project work, and access to some of NIU’s most talented students. The consulting teams, guided by a faculty coach, spend 16 weeks framing your challenge, conducting research, and developing innovative solutions to move your organization forward. From marketing to modeling projects and from technology to organizational effectiveness projects, juniors, seniors, and graduate students apply the knowledge, skills, and theories learned in the classroom to your business challenge. The consultant teams will customize the project deliverables to meet your unique needs.

Experiential Learning Center projects also give sponsoring organizations an inside look at potential employees.  Before joining a team, students are carefully screened by Experiential Learning Center staff and hand-picked to participate. Throughout the project, you can assess the 4-8 students’ abilities to adapt to ambiguity, communicate, collaborate and problem solve. Past sponsors have referred to it as a 16-week job interview. For more information, contact Jason Gorham at jgorham@niu.edu.

Business Consulting: MBA Business Plan Development

Business plans are a blueprint for your success. Whether you are a start-up needing your first business plan or an established firm needing a refresh, our experienced NIU MBA student teams will immerse themselves in the details of your business and develop a plan to achieve your goals.  Each plan includes a Market & Industry Analysis, Marketing Plan, Management Plan, Operations Plan, Financial Plan, Funding Plan, and Risks and Mitigation Plan presented orally and in report form. For more information, contact Anthony Preston at apreston@niu.edu.

Hire NIU Business Students: IGNITE!

Through IGNITE!, your organization can hire NIU College of Business students to assist with professional tasks and projects during the school year. Hiring organizations pay a small fraction of the student salary for part-time help. Organizations must submit a proposal and be selected to participate. Up to five organizations are selected annually.

Life-long Learning: MBA Partnerships

You’ve identified your high-potential leaders. Now you need to invest in their development. An NIU One-Year MBA degree can develop your early-stage bench strength by preparing future leaders to lead global teams, enable innovation, and manage change. An NIU Executive MBA degree can propel your late-stage high-potential leaders to the executive ranks with knowledge and experiences designed to develop four mindsets: Agile, Transformational, Entrepreneurial and Global. Our NIU MBA Partnership Program discounts enrollment of multiple students, provides access to executive education, and affords reputation-building recognition. For more information contact Anthony Preston at apreston@niu.edu.

Contact Us

NIU College of Business
Barsema Hall
740 Garden Road
DeKalb, IL 60115

Departmental Contacts

NIU College of Business AACSB Accredited

Higher Education in Diversity Award - 2021 Top Colleges for Diversity

P&Q Best Undergraduate Business Schools logo

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