Barrett, The Honors College Thesis/Creative Project Collection

Suitcases packed, armed with a PowerPoint presentation of matrices and frameworks, and an eloquent vocabulary of “synergies” and “core competencies,” another consultant prepares to deliver million-dollar advice to some of the leading executives of Fortune 500 companies. We all know who they are, but we have no idea what they do. In 2019, over 20% of the graduating MBA class from Harvard university chose to pursue management consulting, a number that has been progressively increasing from years prior. With over 300 million people in the United States, and another 8 billion across the globe, a decision is being made every nano-second. From which stock to buy to which color socks to purchase, to every innovative (and incompetent) decision made, consultants have a hand in it all. While consultants contribute a healthy service in stimulating the economy and keeping big business, in business, there are a multitude of pitfalls that can occur in the profession and have drastic legal and ethical implications. <br/> To further examine this dichotomy of theoretical versus applied consulting, I decided to put my consulting skills to the test. By partnering with the New Venture Group, we delivered consulting services to Marni Anbar, the founder and creator of the DiscoverRoom, a hands-on, self-directed initiative allowing students to explore their curiosity in fields ranging from evolutionary studies to geology and astronomy. In response to the DiscoverRoom’s increasing demand and capacity to grow, New Venture Group consultants engaged with Marni Anbar in an attempt to analyze the important question of “what steps (from a business perspective) should Marni consider to further the DiscoverRoom (in a way that can make it both profitable and continue to serve as a creative space to further child development)?” <br/> This project was a hands-on way to examine the fundamentally complicated relationship that exists between consultants and their clients, and whether or not it was possible for college students to advise an initiative to remove the disparities that exist in STEM education in one of the worst-rated states for public school education in the country. By applying the research and findings uncovered when analyzing the theory of management consulting to this real life engagement, several parallels were discovered. As in the case of many consultants, our solution was never implemented due to external factors, which further creates a gap in allowing us to analyze whether or not our proposed solutions contained any value or not. As seen in our case, consultants often fall victim to not having their solution implemented due to a variety of external environmental trends and factors. This “incomplete” understanding of the picture further creates an aura of skepticism behind consultants and the work they do.

Music streaming services have affected the music industry from both a financial and legal standpoint. Their current business model affects stakeholders such as artists, users, and investors. These services have been scrutinized recently for their imperfect royalty distribution model. Covid-19 has made these discussions even more relevant as touring income has come to a halt for musicians and the live entertainment industry. <br/>Under the current per-stream model, it is becoming exceedingly hard for artists to make a living off of streams. This forces artists to tour heavily as well as cut corners to create what is essentially “disposable art”. Rapidly releasing multiple projects a year has become the norm for many modern artists. This paper will examine the licensing framework, royalty payout issues, and propose a solution.

The goal of this paper is to determine whether or not multiple economic and societal changes have or have not made retirement in America, an easier, or harder goal to achieve. My hypothesis is that these changes have created an environment in which retiring and preparing for retirement is much, much more difficult. The analysis considers multiple economic and social changes between May, 1985 and May, 2019, a 34-year span. <br/><br/>In this paper, I will be comparing the average 1985 college graduate to the average 2019 college graduate. The 8 major factors I look at are, annual salary, average student debt (assuming a 120-month repayment period), average housing cost (assuming a 360-month payment period), average car expenses (assuming a 60-month payment period), and average annual food, clothing, taxes and medical insurance costs. All of these figures look at the end points, looking at figures for the average 1985 graduate, and the figures for the average 2019 graduate. The 1985 figures are then put into 2019 dollars, and subtracted from the original salary figure. This will give us an objective way to compare savings, and therefore ability to save for retirement. <br/><br/>My analysis demonstrates that it is actually easier for people today to prepare for retirement than it was 34 years ago. The average 2019 graduate had $4,178.96 remaining at the end of a year. Comparatively, the 1985 graduate had a debt of $12,837.94. This is an effective difference of $17,016.91, benefiting the 2019 graduate by far.