NEIU/Dr. Sandra Williams’ Masters Class – Member Testimonial

My overall experience with Professor Williams and her students was a positive one. The 3-month process was very in-depth and informative. Beginning in the fall, the students came to our facility for a discovery session on our company’s history and gathered information on prominent issues that we face in our industry, like employee turnover and hyper-competition. During the semester, the students began the process of performing person-to-person interviews with various employees and executives, surveying, and collecting information about the intricacies of our business.

After compiling all of their information, Isola was invited to Northeastern University where the final presentations, by four groups of students, were presented on specific issues facing the business. We found the presentations to be of immense value, as each group offered fresh perspectives on the problems we encounter, free of repetition and redundancy. The Northeastern students gave us a lot to think about with our business, but the most tangible takeaway we found were their ideas on how to help us grow and innovate from within. One of our favorite presentations was about prospecting for untapped skills and talents within our current employee-base. Using in-house talent to help our business grow into new areas or services, while also improving the talents of our workers, is something that really stood out.

Overall, this was a positive experience for us. My fellow family members within the business, as well as myself, were very impressed by the level of detail and care that Professor Williams and her students provided in such a limited amount of time. If you’re pondering whether or not you should use this resource, do it. My only regret is that I didn’t start the process sooner.

- Michael Nitti, Isola Imports

Background on Dr. Williams’ class

This is a Master's degree course at Northeastern Illinois University, which focuses on organizational effectiveness and employee development issues. Student skills include: assessing environments, determining core issues, investigating alternatives, analyzing competitive situations, building interventions, working with employees and managers, and creating and offering solutions to owners. Dr. Williams guides the students toward practical application, such that each client company finds real benefit from working with her and her class. A helpful approach, creative applications, and useful solutions are her focus.

If you’re interested in having Dr. Williams and her class do an analysis of your business next fall, please contact Liz Fidanovski at 312-362-7518 or at Liz@chicagofbc.com.




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This entry was posted in Blog and tagged . Posted on February 20th, 2017 by CFBCatDePaul