For our first term core classes, Marketing 612 and Management 612, our cohort was asked to work on a consulting project for a Eugene-based company called CBT Nuggets. The company makes informational IT training videos that are intended to be both fun and informative. Working with CBT Nuggets, our professors identified three challenges we were able to choose from for our term-long project: A proposal for international expansion, recommendations for a new subscription/pricing model, and customer retention, or creating a plan for the company to make an impact with social media.

Representatives from CBT Nuggets were very helpful towards the class. Monica Sellers, a Social Media Specialist, and Laura Fry, the International Marketing Manager, came to UO to tell as about the company in early October. When they led us on a tour of their offices a week later, we were all very impressed with the fun atmosphere they had created on the banks of the Willamette River. They had fish tanks, putting greens, dart boards, and kettle bells. Not a bad place to work!

Every group put together great presentations with strong recommendations, but in the end there could only be two winners that would go on to present their plans to CBT Nuggets. The first was the group of Stephanie Baugh, Kyle Spradling, Jordan Bloem, and Eric Ringer. This group tackled the first challenge mentioned above, and presented an idea for international expansion that allowed CBT Nuggets to grow without changing fundamental elements such as price, their training videos, or relocating. They also made recommendations on how to effectively manage a growing staff in a global market place.

The second group of Whitney Alexander, John Durbin, Matt Fanelli, and I addressed the topic of social media. We presented a plan to make CBT Nuggets a truly social company, and included recommendations such as using an internal Facebook page to share inside jokes with one another. Instead of just goofing around however, we also felt that this would allow CBT Nuggets to mine for better content to eventually post on their public social media sites. We also developed a game to encourage the use of social media throughout the company that would fit very well into the current company culture.

Working on this project was a really great experience overall that definitely showed the truth to CBT Nugget’s slogan “The best way to learn”. We enjoyed to opportunity to present our ideas to the company and hope to see them implemented in the future. We would especially like to thank Laura and Monica for all their help and wish CBT Nuggets the best of luck moving forward!

Michael Thompson, Warsaw Sports Marketing Center, Class of 2014

Written by Andrew White

Andrew is an MBA Candidate in the Center for Sustainable Business Practices. A native of Massachusetts, he came to UO to refine his business skills and build his expertise in the sustainability arena. His primary interest is in helping organizations implement environmentally and socially sustainable strategies for long-term success, and he is a regular participant on many of the MBA intramural sports teams.