CEL team takes a closer look at family-owned business landscape

John Weibel, MBA 2019, contributed this post on behalf of Olin’s Center for Experiential Learning.

For the most part, banks look and act alike. However, First Bank is not just any bank among the many in the St. Louis, Los Angeles, and San Francisco regions. As a family-owned business with strong connections in the communities they serve, they know the unique challenges faced by family-owned businesses.

Opportunity for family-owned businesses

As First Bank looks ahead to the next five years, they strive to become the bank of choice for the owners, families, and employees of family-owned businesses. They had the expertise to accomplish this goal but needed to better understand their target customers and the competitive landscape for this customer segment. Thus, the client challenged the CEL team to research the market landscape for family-owned businesses and to conduct analysis on the intense banking competition in the regions they serve.

The CEL team quickly discovered trends about family-owned businesses and identified key metrics for First Bank to evaluate. The team then conducted interviews with First Bank leadership. These interviews offered great opportunities for the team to refine where the project needed to go. Following the interviews, the team expanded on the market research to estimate the target market for First Bank, identified competitive advantages and disadvantages among the competition, and pinpointed opportunities for the client to exploit.

As the leadership at First Bank develops their next strategic plan, they have invited the team to present our recommendations at their leadership summit. The client has also asked the team to lead a session on how to replicate and scale our solutions as they measure their success.

Creating a real business solution

This CEL practicum has been an excellent opportunity to apply the critical thinking, analytical, and communication skills that Olin emphasizes in the classroom to a real business situation.