UWP students help Modine with business decision
UW-Parkside students help Modine answer basic question
It's a basic question every company
asks itself: Should we enter a market segment with a product? Market research
provides information that is vital to making that decision but such research is
often labor intensive and costly. Modine Manufacturing of Racine recently found itself asking that
basic question and needing research to find the answer.
"There
was a global market strategy that was done in May of last year and out of that
global market strategy we had indications from executive management that they
would like to know more about the military vehicle market," said Modine
Market Research Manager Nancy Wang.
Having
worked with UW-Parkside students Sabha Museteif and Thad Gabron in summer 2006,
Wang proposed that the university make the research a project for students at
the Ralph L. Jaeschke Solutions for Economic Growth (SEG) Center. Two months
and 712 hours of work later, the group handed over its findings to Modine.
Team
member Harrison Idowu said the project taught him that market research can be
frustrating.
"We
looked for companies that were in the military markets," Harrison
said. "You go to the media part of their web site and you can't find
anything. You go round and round [trying] to find something."
Thad
Gabron said the project showed him research requires flexibility.
"If
you can't find it in one place, there are always multiple sources where you can
go to find" data, he stated. "[Research] teaches you that you can go
around things if you're at first disappointed.
Researcher
Zak Smith said the experience reinforced what he had already learned in the
classroom.
"If
something is too big to understand, break it into smaller steps. We all knew
that but this is a great example of that principle."
In
the end, Modine's Nancy Wang was pleased with the research group's efforts.
"I'm
very happy. The team was very professional in the way they dealt with everyone
at Modine," she said.
And
when asked if the information the UW-Parkside students provided would help
answer the go-to-market question, Wang said it would.
"We'll
be able to have a better idea of what opportunities we actually have and try to
draw conclusions from that."
SEG
Center Director Brad Piazza said both UW-Parkside students and area businesses
benefit from this type of project.
"The goal of the SEG Center
is to provide our students with an opportunity to get practical experience and
to provide the area business community with value-added assistance in their
operations. All of the companies and organizations we have done work for have
been very pleased with the final deliverable. It's a win-win for everyone
involved."
The full Modine research team included Nikki Norris and Eric Schultz along with Museteif, Idowu, Gabron, and Smith.
