Tech Topics - Fall 2008 - (Page 23) STUDENT LIFE GROWING A Business Global executive MBA students lend expertise to family farm By Brad Dixon A chance glance at a hospital bulletin board motivated global executive MBA student Joe Urban to enlist his classmates in an effort to make a 17-year-old girl’s desire to drive herself around Opelika, Ala., a reality. Though she’s had her driver’s license since 2007, Megan Harman won’t be able to drive until her family raises about $113,000 through a part-time tomato business, Harman Family Farm, to outfit a new joystick-controlled sport utility vehicle. Megan has arthrogryposis, a congenital tissue disorder that keeps her bound to a wheelchair. “I feel homebound, like I can never do anything,” said Megan, who depends on her trained Labrador retriever, Corkie, to help her around the house and fetch items she requests. “Having the vehicle would change everything.” Urban, a national manager for the medical device company Spectranetics, learned of Harman’s dream during a site visit to an Alabama hospital, where he spotted an agricultural newsletter with a story on the Harman family’s fundraising goal. After presenting the family’s dilemma to his 47 Tech classmates last fall, Urban was able to sign all of them up to provide consulting services to turn Harman Family Farm into a sustainable business. “When they told us, we were shocked,” said Rita Harman, Megan’s mother. “We didn’t know what to say. It was awesome.” Conducting the work entirely out of class — and with no school credit — students in the global executive MBA program developed strategies for the farm’s management, marketing, operations, accounting and Web presence. Students have visited the farm, and in late June, the Harman family visited the Georgia Tech College of Management to hear student recommendations and to present boxes of freshly picked tomatoes as thanks. On the day of the presentation, Urban told the Harmans, “This isn’t the end, but the beginning,” adding that the students’ support will continue even after their graduation in December. “This project has been 100 percent student driven,” Urban said. “Working for the cause has really COURTESY ALABAMA FARMERS FEDERATION Global executive MBA students are helping the Harman family grow a business to pay for a joystick-controlled vehicle. brought the class together. You see it in our interaction.” Saby Mitra, faculty director of the Global Executive MBA Program, plans to encourage future classes to undertake similar community-service projects. Most students in the 17-month program work full time in leadership roles and pursue the degree to shift their careers toward international business and better understand global issues. Rita Harman and her husband, Chris, said they can’t believe their luck in getting 48 business professionals to help them reach their goal. She manages a hospital cardiovascular department and he works as a health inspector. With five children, ages 5 to 17, they didn’t want to take second jobs that would keep them away from home. So Chris convinced his wife that the tomatoes they were growing out back might provide the taste of freedom for which their daughter had been starving. “When Chris said, ‘Let’s do tomatoes,’ I said, ‘Let’s get down on our knees and pray,’” Rita said. With some help from relatives, they took that leap of faith, building a $31,000 greenhouse that allows them to hydroponically grow tomatoes. Their fruit quickly gained a local reputation for its great taste. But they still have a lot of tomatoes to sell before recouping their investment and generating enough money to buy the vehicle and insurance. All of the family members are involved in the effort, with even the youngest children helping pick tomatoes. While Megan’s disease has twisted her body and left her with little ability to move, she helps too, entering billing and customer data into the computer and greeting customers on the farm. The Harmans prefer to sell tomatoes, but they don’t turn down donations when they receive them. The consulting MBA students have convinced the family to add a donation section to the Web site they built for the farm: http://www.harmanfarm.com. The class also recommended the family start a blog so customers can regularly check in on the farm’s progress. In addition, the students’ work has included researching packaging and pricing options, providing easy-to-use accounting software and examining potential new channels to market. “Having a business plan is going to help us so much,” said Rita, who added that all of her kids have become huge Georgia Tech fans. TechTopics | Fall 2008 23 http://www.harmanfarm.com
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