OU INC

OU students gain real-world experience in business as part of collaborative project

icon of a calendarApril 8, 2020

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OU students gain real-world experience in business as part of collaborative project
OU students gain real-world experience in business as part of collaborative project
OU’s Department of Writing and Rhetoric, OU INC client Herculeze Technologies, the OU Mobilization Zone and the Office of Research Administration collaborated on a project that provided OU students with real-world experience in business.

Last fall, more than 60 Oakland University students were able to gain real-world experience in business as part of a collaborative project involving OU’s Department of Writing and Rhetoric, OU INC client Herculeze Technologies, the OU Mobilization Zone and the Office of Research Administration.

“This project is a great example of OU INC’s commitment to engaging OU students, as well as (Associate Professor of Writing & Rhetoric) Felicia Chong’s creativity and focus on maximizing student involvement,” said Steve Kent, manager and client strategist with OU INC, a multi-purpose business incubator which provides entrepreneurial resources and strategic business solutions for developing business ventures.

Last June, Kent and Michael Long, executive director of the OU Mobilization Zone, approached Dr. Chong with a proposal to collaborate on a project that would allow OU’s writing and rhetoric majors to gain professional and technical writing experience while working with OU INC client companies.

“After exploring various options for a couple of months, we decided that the best approach would be to partner all three sections of my WRT 3082: Business Writing students with OU INC client Herculeze Technologies,” Chong said.

Established in 2016, Herculeze Technologies is a Rochester-based company that connects customers who need help transporting household goods such as furniture and other large items with local pickup truck owners who are willing to help deliver items that customers are unable to transport on their own.

The company operates a unique marketplace model, which allows customers to freely post their delivery requests on the Herculeze website. Drivers can then respond to customer posts with quotes (bids) to get their items delivered, giving customers the opportunity to either accept the quote or wait for other providers on the network to offer competitive bids.

“In late August, before the semester began, I met with Steve, along with the liaisons from Herculeze Technologies — Donna Darrow, Mike Darrow and Suzanne Grambush — to explore possible project ideas that would align their interests with our course goals,” Chong said. “We decided that students would work in groups to collaborate with the company to create a competitor analysis research report.”

For about seven weeks, 18 student teams created proposals detailing their approaches for researching the company’s competitors, wrote progress reports, and created final research reports describing their research methods. Their findings were presented to Herculeze Technologies using the PechaKucha 20x20 style, which is a storytelling format where a presenter shows 20 slides for 20 seconds of commentary each.

“Based on course evaluation comments and student reflections at the end of the semester, it’s clear that the students enjoyed working on a real-world project with a client,” Chong said. “Since most of these students were in the School of Business, they greatly benefited from learning how to analyze competitors and write a research report.

“Although the PechaKucha presentation style was challenging, students found that the constraints can be useful in helping them stay organized and focused with their speech,” she added. “I believe that having a great client like Herculeze Technologies for my students to work with was crucial in making this collaboration smooth, productive, and positive.”

Donna Darrow, co-founder of Herculeze Technologies, said the company was “grateful” for the opportunity to collaborate with the Department of Writing and Rhetoric, OU INC, the OU Mobilization Zone and the Office of Research Administration.

“This was such a rewarding experience and I was so impressed by the work produced,” she said. “The interest, enthusiasm and professionalism of the students was also evident. Not only did we gain valuable insights into our competitors in this evolving space but had many students reach out afterward."

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