Every summer, the students in Goizueta Business School’s One-Year MBA IMPACT program work directly with an organization to solve a real-life business problem. Designed as a bridge between theory and practice, the program allows students to apply what they learn in the classroom to solving real business challenges over six intensive weeks.
This past summer’s Goizueta IMPACT project took root at King Springs Pecan Farm, the first pecan grower in the world to earn the ‘Sustainably Grown’ certification. Students experienced sustainability in action with a field trip to the high-end pecan farm in Hawkinsville, Georgia, a two-hour drive south of Atlanta.
“The experience of seeing the physical space, meeting the farmers, and getting a sense of the operations truly informed the students’ thinking and helped them develop stronger, more actionable recommendations,” said Lynne Segall, associate dean of management practice initiatives.
Before the field trip, the Class of 2026 MBA students met King Spring’s owners and co-founders, Dwight Davis and Paul Quirós, who practiced law together before launching the company in January 2011. Davis’s daughter, Cameron Glass 09MBA, a King Springs advisor, identified the opportunity for the farm to leverage the Goizueta IMPACT program for fresh insights. Glass played an integral role as a key stakeholder throughout the process.
Current Challenge
At the kickoff meeting, Davis and Quirós explained that King Spring’s high-end, in-shell pecan business was facing significant challenges due to fallout from the trade war between the U.S. and China. For years, China had been the farm’s top market. The central issue the founders presented to students was how to secure a premium price for a premium product.
During the IMPACT project, the MBA student teams explored alternative international markets such as India, Europe, and the Middle East. The teams offered insights into profitability, market dynamics, customer preferences, and feasibility of penetrating these new markets. In addition to exploring new international markets, the student team evaluated U.S. niche markets willing to pay a premium as potential avenues for growth.
“I was amazed at how quickly the students grasped the essential challenges facing our industry and then crafted specific, thoughtful and extremely helpful recommendations,” explained Davis. “A consultant’s lack of familiarity with a client’s business is often viewed, correctly, as a shortcoming. In this case, however, we greatly benefited from the fresh, insightful input from the students who had no farm experience.”
Glass, who participated in the IMPACT program during her time at Goizueta, was reminded of the program’s importance. “While many things have changed in 16 years, it was clear that the core of the program remains,” noted Glass. “The summer intensive was a deep dive into business, and it was clear that the students had a deep understanding of the concepts at play in our project. The recommendations were well thought out and very actionable.”
“Overall, I would put these teams’ performance on par with services I have received from top consulting firms,” stated Quiros.
A Student’s Perspective
James Kristell 26MBA had yet to work directly with clients on complex business issues when he entered the MBA program as a medical student. The IMPACT project with King Springs Pecans changed that.
“Over the course of a whirlwind 12-week core curriculum, I enjoyed formally developing structured problem-solving skills and growing in my abilities to ask the right questions, conduct rigorous research, and offer actionable recommendations with meaningful consequence,” explained Kristell. “IMPACT thoughtfully scaffolds a stepwise framework to approach dynamic and multifactorial cases in a setting where students can safely learn how to implement the approach in the classroom before translating it to a real-world application.” The course also helped Kristell build his communication skills and his ability to work with a team.
As much as Kristell learned from the project, it was the collaboration between the students and the business that moved him. “It was gratifying to recognize that these efforts resulted in the development of novel insights that we could present to King Springs Pecans in hopes of promoting the long-term sustainability of a proud local company,” he said.
About IMPACT
An integral part of the MBA curriculum at Goizueta Business School, the IMPACT program is designed to provide students with hands-on experience in consulting projects. These projects offer MBA candidates the opportunity to collaborate with leading companies, nonprofits, and government organizations to address pressing business issues and drive meaningful change. These projects not only provide valuable learning experiences for students but deliver tangible benefits to the organizations involved.
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