On December 7, 2007 the Tuck School of Business at Darmouth College graduated 33 business owners. Milton Kirby, president of Allied Logistics, Inc. was among the graduates.
The course, Building a High-Performing Minority Business, provided participants step-by-step guidance that helps minority businesses survive and prosper. The program teaches participants how to become a self-diagnosing consultant with the tools to evaluate and integrate their business the way large corporations do. Along with faculty and classmates, Mr. Kirby worked through customer-focused strategy and planning, organizational leadership and performance inspiration, cash and human resource management, and systems and process implementation and monitoring.
According to Kirby, the Tuck faculty provided frameworks for success and demonstrated how to put those frameworks into practice. The program included structured class sessions, case discussions, small-group activities, and simulations.
Program topics included a broad range of business development topics including:
> Strategy and Implementation—assess current strategy, prepare for intermediate-term growth, design a plan for implementation
> Analysis of Financial Statements—analyze a balance sheet, income statement, and statement of cash flows
> Managing the Customer Asset—review a framework for operations strategy, design and implement a marketing strategy that coordinates with operations strategy
> Strategic Alliances—examine the advantages of alliances, learn how to select partners, evaluate deals, consider the people process
> Leadership—learn successful leadership strategies and how they improve company performance
The program is lead by faculty director Leonard Greenhalgh, a professor of management at Tuck. Other faculty members include Ella Bell, Punam Keller, David Pike and Phillip Stockton.
According to Greenhalgh, Building a High-Performing Minority Business is designed for owners and senior executives of minority-owned companies who have at least three to five years of experience running a successful small business and typically have at least $300,000 in annual sales.
As a graduate of the program, Milton Kirby now joins the ranks of the Tuck Minority Business Executive Program Alumni Association—
