By Nathaniel Luce
For students in the Executive MBA Program, the capstone strategy project is one of several unique immersive chances to apply lessons from the classroom to challenges posed by real businesses.
The Client: Tri Star Energy LLC, which owns and operates convenience and gasoline stores in Tennessee and Kentucky, offers wholesale, commercial, and retail operations within the energy industry, including those for Shell. The company operates at the intersection of retail and energy.
The Project: Tri Star CFO Jeff Williams (EMBA’11) sought help validating the organization’s existing plans, financial model, and valuation. “I was a financial guy, I was a Vanderbilt alum, and I understood what they were going through,” he said.
A C-Team consisting of Wade Lee Jones, Joe Plowman, Nate Huggins, Jennifer Branigan, and Eric Stokes rose to the challenge.
Tri Star’s Jeff Williams (EMBA’11)
The Analysis: Through interviews and rigorous analysis, the team presented recommendations to management that ran counter to the company’s intended direction. “We were forced to look at our organization in the mirror and see where we needed to invest our time and energy in order to increase our enterprise value,” Williams recalled. “The recommendations they made were totally contrary to where we were headed at the time, but our management team and our Board both realized that the C-Team was right, and we needed to do a bit of a strategic pivot.”
The Impact: Tri Star took the team’s recommendations to heart and undertook a strategic pivot. “It was definitely a value-added experience,” Williams said. The CFO ended up hiring one Eric Stokes to lead the financial planning and analysis group after graduation.
For a closer look at capstone projects and the Executive MBA program, please visit the EMBA program page.
