Smith MBAs Make Winning Consultants Constellation Power Source team named best MBA consulting group for 2002-03

Credit risk management is one of the most critical issues facing energy companies today, and a team of Smith School MBA consultants has given Constellation Power Source a leg up in managing this area. For their outstanding work in developing a credit-risk model for Constellation, the team was named best MBA consulting project for 2000-03 at a recent awards ceremony. Constellation Power Source is the wholesale power marketing and risk management subsidiary of Constellation Energy Group Inc., a $4.7-billion power generation and distribution company based in Baltimore.

The team used financial modeling tools to assess the credit risk of counterparty firms with whom Constellation currently or will potentially conduct transactions. According to Professor Haluk Unal, the teams faculty advisor, measuring credit risk is the hottest research topic in finance and every company wants a credit-risk model to measure default risk. This was a highly technical problem requiring a specific skill set. The team had to learn this skill set specifically to address this project.

Andy Kiss, MBA 99 and vice president of Constellation, said he was overwhelmed by the quality of the teams work. Constellation was very fortunate to be at the receiving end of this project. The company was able to save money by hiring Smith MBA consultants and expects to save even more money by using the new credit-risk model.

Team member Joshua Silverman said the project was a great experience. The work was challenging, interesting, and relevant to some of the major concerns businesses are facing in today's marketplace. I will definitely be able to apply the tools and skills I learned in my career going forward, he said.

MBA Consulting Director Viswanath Venkatash, associate professor of information systems at Smith, said that the program is a win-win situation: Our students have an opportunity to work on a consulting project with a real problem facing an organization and our clients have often commented that the work of our students makes a real difference to their organizations.

The school has partnered with companies to provide consulting services in the MBA Consulting Program for nine years, and students have completed more than 300 consulting engagements. Companies are selected during the spring and projects begin in the fall semester, lasting 14 weeks with a level of effort equaling approximately 600 hours. Student teams of four-six members are matched with companies based on experience with respect to the project deliverables. This year there were 32 projects representing 26 organizations.

In his opening remarks at the awards ceremony Howard Frank, dean of the Smith School, spoke of the value of the program for both the students and the MBA program: This program allows students to experience real-life situations that are not clear-cut or black and white. At the same time it allows us to build partnerships with local business and showcase our number one product our students.

A required component of the full-time MBA curriculum, the MBA Consulting Program gives Smith students the opportunity to apply what they've learned in the classroom to a real-world business experience. Since 1998, the top teams have been honored at an Excellence Awards Luncheon. This years luncheon was held March 14, 2003, at Van Munching Hall, home of the Smith School.