August 10th, 2010

Montana State University’s College of Business instructors have always gone above and beyond their duties as mentors, educators and researchers. All are encouraged to actively participate in business research and practices. One such instructor is Gary Bishop, who has been asked to be a regular contributing correspondent for each issue of Effective Business Today as the U.S. Correspondent.

Bishop’s article, “The Economic Recovery in America, and Montana,” was published in the second edition of the magazine. In the article he touched upon the Alderson Entrepreneur program, the small business management and entrepreneurship minor and the Management 463 course, Entrepreneurial Experience. He described how the class uniquely pairs up small 2-3 person student teams with local and state-wide businesses and non-profits. Through these consulting classes, students are directly contributing towards local and state-wide economic development.

The syllabus accurately describes the course as “designed to provide students with hands-on experience in working with actual entrepreneurial enterprises, functioning in teams, and managing real projects for respective client companies. The course is intended to expose students to essential elements of entrepreneurial endeavors and provide the opportunity to make a real-world contribution to their client companies.”

In the article, Bishop described the thriving Bozeman area entrepreneurial environment and how matching up students with businesses provides a win-win situation for everyone. The businesses receive pro bono consulting and research, while the students gain invaluable hands-on experience. These students have worked with more than 250 local businesses ranging from Yellowstone Bees, a natural body-care products company, to Kitchen TLC, a boutique artisan chocolate and tea company. Bishop says that a large percentage of these businesses have endured beyond the start-up phase, and are continuing to grow and prosper, even during the economic downturn.

The third edition of the publication featured Bishop’s article on the “Disaster in the Gulf of Mexico” as the cover story. He investigated the impact of the disaster on businesses in the locality and how that impacted the relationship between the U.S. and Great Britain.

Keep an eye out for the fourth issue, available the first week of October. Bishop’s article will focus on customer service in the U.S. and how that differentiates between the winners and the losers.

Effective Business Today is a new bi-monthly online publication based out of the United Kingdom. It is published by Effective Business Group (EBGi), who seek to provide business owners with a source of information and inspiration for the challenges they are facing today. According to their website, EBGi is the fastest growing network of businesses in the U.K. and already has more than 100,000 members comprised of managing directors of small and medium enterprises (SMEs).