Industry-Academic Collaboration to Educate the Next Generation of Insights and Data Professionals

Written by Andrea Escobar Vara and Kymberly L. Trieu

Edited by Jillian Munoz and Cailin Kuchenbecker

May 14, 2021

The 2020 Spring semester was approaching an end and the registration period for the fall semester was in sight, but what can be more stressful than registering for fall classes? You probably wouldn’t have guessed, it’s applying and interviewing for a class! As absurd as it sounds, this class, the Customer Insights Consultancy (CIC) program led by Center Director Dr. Jae Min Jung and Center Advisor Dr. Randy Stein , has been ongoing for the past 9 years and is a unique program designed to give students hands-on learning experience by bringing in business’s problems to the classroom and experience data-driven problem solving for clients’ business problems. The CIC Program has provided students with unparalleled real-world research experience that has fueled the demand for graduates from the industry. During this interview process, Dr. Stein and Dr. Jung seek 10-15 students who are passionate and interested in the insights and data industry. Though this sounds intimidating, students who have taken this opportunity to leave with more real-world experience, confidence in their skills, a larger network, and as Sebastian Hernandez, Marketing major student, would like to put it, “ I felt all of our work was meaningful and each facilitated learning in a valuable way.”

As the first day of the CIC program approached, students were given the unfortunate news that the original client was not available anymore due to the unforeseen business environment. However, Dr. Stein and Dr. Jung didn’t give up on them and posed an even greater opportunity. They were able to contact Gavin Knapp of the Specialty Equipment Market Association (SEMA) Market Researc h to act as a client. SEMA Market Research is a research group that creates market reports that track consumer behavior and trends in the specialty-equipment and car accessory market. Their generosity allowed the CIC program to use a research report as a case study to emulate the entire research process from proposal development to data analysis and final report presentation. 

When the class first met with Gavin, they were able to consult with him and gain further insight on the auto industry as well as what he was looking for in a proposal. This was the first big project for the class! Students were able to work in diverse groups to create a research proposal and this alone was already a great opportunity for them to gain experience within the market research industry. Christopher Lee, Computer Information Systems major student,  mentioned, “What I enjoyed the most was collaborating with students from different majors who provide a different perspective when completing the assignments.” 

While students were preparing their proposal for SEMA, Dr. Jung and Dr. Stein introduced different marketing research classifications, the research process, and its essential role in marketing decisions. This was especially useful in the project following the proposal, survey designing. It was definitely a tedious project and students were able to learn new software, Qualtrics , as well as enhance their attention to detail skills. On top of that, they gained feedback from Gavin, and Derek Suen, International Business major student,  shared that “Working in teams and in the lens of a corporate client taught me a lot of soft skills and how to deliver better information tailored to their needs.” 

At the end of the semester, students were able to enhance their skills in Excel and get a glimpse of SPSS in preparation for the next semester. 

In Spring 2021, the CIC program students started off with a challenging SPSS Quiz. Students were given a week to complete a quiz that tested their knowledge of the software and pushed them into testing their resourcefulness. However, with hours of hard work and diligence, they were able to submit it. This was to prepare them to work with their first real client! The Cal Poly Pomona’s Office of Academic Innovation (AI) requested the CIC program to provide insights on students' perspectives of their “Learn By Doing” experience. The offices of Academic Innovation curate experiential learning, discovery, and innovation opportunities for the Cal Poly Pomona community. Students in this program were able to use their previous experience of consulting and proposal creation when talking to the AI’s VP,  Dr. Olukemi Sawyerr.

The last project assigned to the CIC students was an individual report on segmentation. For this task, students used SEMA’s previous data and used SPSS to create different groups and further identify the specific characteristics of each group. This really tested everyone’s abilities and application of what they learned this previous year. 

With that, the long year has come to an end. This CIC program spanned two semesters and provided students a more complete and comprehensive experience in consulting. Though this year was challenging for many, each student that has taken this course can confidently say this experience as a student wouldn’t have been complete without being involved in the CIC program. “It has been interesting being able to work on something that I know will bring positive change to students’ academic development at CPP. Knowing that I will indirectly make an impact years down the line after I have graduated has made this project all the more significant.” Mario Pinto Martinez, Marketing major student shared. 

Not only have the students gained skills in conducting research from a proposal to a final report, but they feel more confident in their career choice and what they’d like to achieve in the future.  Mario Pinto Martinez, Marketing major student commented: “The consultancy program was probably the most impactful involvement I was ever part of during my time at CPP, I learned so much, much more than I anticipated, and had a great (yet challenging) time in the process. Getting to know professors and my classmates was very rewarding, despite the challenges that come with online teaching/learning and the limited interaction via zoom.”  These types of opportunities provided by the CIC program are unique to Cal Poly Pomona students because it fully embodies the campus learn-by-doing motto.