Students enrolled in professor John Buzza’s entrepreneurship class were given the opportunity to immerse themselves in the business world by collaborating with the company Green-RG Management to help expand their business.
The course is taught by Buzza, a specialist professor in the Management and Decision Sciences Department, and is open to all students.
“We have become the foundation of the business, helping them with a marketing plan, a website, and helping them develop a line of retail products,” said Buzza. The company is emerging and will be shaped through the students’ work to lay the foundation for its expansion, he added.
Green-RG Management is a company that “provides innovative world class L.E.D. lighting products at factory direct prices to a wide range of commercial and industrial clients,” according to greenrgmanagement.com. The company works to promote light-emitting diode (L.E.D.) lights in industrial markets of various countries.
The website states that L.E.D. lighting is a type of lighting source that is environmentally, financially and physically beneficial. It is the most efficient light source available and has a cooler operating temperature which saves on heating, ventilation and air conditioning (HVAC) costs. It also reduces light pollution, is virtually unbreakable and does not use mercury, the website adds.
Steven Hoffman, a senior business management major and member of the class, said “[Green-RG] is a small startup and they needed our class to help take them to the next level.”
Hoffman explained that, so far, the class has accomplished a significant amount of work for Green-RG. He said the class has helped the company contact larger clients and expand to online operations by creating a new website from scratch.
The class also has “a team of students working on one of their L.E.D. consumer bulbs, creating packaging, marketing strategy, and a means to get it into stores,” Hoffman continued.
The project provides the students with a chance to receive real world experience in the business sector, Buzza explained. Each student in the class has a role in the management of the business; they are required to contribute to the progression of the company and are on class deadlines.
“Personally, I have taken the role in the class as chief operating officer along with Erin Collier. We work with Emily Spezia, who is acting CEO for the class, to help motivate and organize all the efforts being put together,” said Hoffman. “I’ve helped the website group and the expansion group in our class and I have also been one of the personal contacts in the class for the company.”
Erin Collier, a senior graphic design major, said, “I created different graphics, such as the website banners, helped create some of the social media sites, worked with improving product spec sheets, produced the event invitations, and [I] am currently producing information packets, event programs, and working with other very talented classmates to fully produce and plan the [showcasing] event.”
Throughout the project, the class must stay in contact with members of the company. The students not only work with their peers and Buzza, they are also in close contact with Al Heyer, the CEO of Green-RG, and Tom Haydu, Technology Director of Green-RG.
Through these connections, Buzza hopes that the students will gain a personal relationship with the company and possibly gain an internship. His hopes are to provide opportunities for students to one day either work with the company or become their own entrepreneurs for another company.
“It’s about the alternative to Corporate America; teaching our students how to go into business for themselves rather than work for a company,” Buzza said. “I hope I can teach our students to have knowledge of what it will take to become an entrepreneur and, although it’s not for everyone, it can be a very good alternative to working for someone for the rest of your life.”
“A true entrepreneur is someone who organizes, operates and assumes the risk of running the business venture, and Green-RG let our class do this in a sense,” Hoffman said.
Although no money was involved in the project, the students were able to get the experience they needed to learn about the business world. “There is no money involved in this project except to pay for supplies, and also a generous scholarship donation from Green-RG to the entrepreneurship program here at Monmouth,” Collier said. “However, this company is more than willing to accept hardworking students from this semester as interns and potential employees for the future.”
Green-RG works toward “combining over a century of experience with best practices in fields of manufacturing solid state product engineering, quality management, product safety, compliance, and facility management,” according to their website. “[Their] premier line of L.E.D. fixtures, the “Starlite” brand, is in use in world class projects throughout the five boroughs of New York City.”
The class showcased their work at an event on Tuesday, Dec. 3 in Wilson Hall Auditorium called “Bright Ideas.”
PHOTO TAKEN from greenrgmanagement.com
