Program News
Entrepreneurship Course Project Takes Student Team To Antigua
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From its independence from Great Britain in 1981 until its parliamentary elections of 2004, Antigua and Barbuda was governed by a socialist party. Among that government’s legacies are a national medical scheme patterned after Britain’s and, from 1998, a $40 million hospital that remains uncompleted. Another legacy is the medical scheme’s associated debt, in approximately the same amount, which consumes in annual servicing costs a substantial portion of the scheme’s tax revenues. The new government of Prime Minister Baldwin Spencer has resolved to complete and open the Mount St. John’s Hospital while dropping the previous, ideological commitment to its ownership and operation by the government.
Meanwhile a husband-and-wife medical team from New Jersey, Drs. John and Alieta Eck, sought to establish a medical facility in the Caribbean. They already operated a free clinic in New Jersey as a Christian ministry to the needy. Their new idea was to serve the growing population of Americans who travel abroad for affordable, quality medical care—and to use that profitable trade to provide the same medical care to residents of the Caribbean countries where such services aren’t available. Discouraged when their efforts on another island died in that country’s bureaucratic tangle, the Ecks were delighted to learn of Mount St. John’s and of the new government’s desire to salvage the facility. At the same time the Ecks met a New Jersey priest, the Rev. Chris Pierce, who already was obtaining donated medical supplies and equipment and shipping it to Antigua for use in the island’s existing hospital. They began working together to make the Ecks’ vision a reality.
Enter the Moore School
The Moore School’s involvement in this story began when management professor Bill Sandberg sought a priest to officiate at his mother’s burial in New Jersey. She had left the state a dozen years earlier and so Bill asked a friend in the priesthood elsewhere to put him in touch with a conservative, traditional Episcopal priest in New Jersey. The result: the Rev. Mr. Pierce drove 40 miles to meet Bill and his wife at the cemetery that bitterly cold December morning. Through introductions Chris Pierce learned that Bill teaches entrepreneurship. Over lunch at a nearby steakhouse, he asked a strange question: “So, what do you know about the economies of island nations?” The details of Mount St. John’s followed, the two men’s conversation growing more animated until Rev. Pierce asked whether Bill would be interested in consulting to his group. Bill agreed to help, but without compensation, and offered to include Mount St. John’s as a potential client for MGMT 778 in the fall semester. The objective: To develop a business plan for the client to present to the government of Antigua and Barbuda, in competition with other organizations also seeking to acquire or use the hospital. The government would entertain proposals in January!
Neither Bill nor Dean Kress, his co-instructor in the course, had ever seen a class react so enthusiastically to a potential project as their 16 students did when Bill announced, “For this next project you’ll need a valid passport and the ability to travel to Antigua.” Some IMBAs and other grad students appeared to be ready to take the project without further description. From among many volunteers, Bill and Dean selected the four men, who had applied as a team, and added Callee Boulware, whose experience in managing a non-profit operation of Palmetto Health Richland medical center figured to be valuable. The team dubbed itself “AC Consulting Group” and dug into the project. The business concept for Mount St. John’s had begun to take shape through discussion among the partners and Bill Sandberg, and the Drs. Eck, Rev. Pierce, and Bill had spent several days in Antigua to meet government and civic leaders. Even so, the business concept remained unrefined and no startup strategy existed.
Our Students Take Center Stage
The AC Consulting Group immersed itself in a strange new literature about an unfamiliar market. Analyzing demographic, economic, and tourism data for Antigua and Barbuda was the first, and perhaps easiest, step. Consultants read a World Bank draft report on medical tourism and the international portability of medical coverage; gathered data on medical waiting lists by procedure in Canadian provinces; estimated the prices and costs of medical services provided in Thailand and India, major forces in medical tourism; and investigated the travel infrastructure and accommodations for various types of patients on the island of Antigua. Constant e-mail and regular phone communication with the Drs. Eck and their venture team brought a stream of white papers, sudden brainstorms, links to think tanks, and comments from all involved. Pat DeMouy, lecturer in management, joined Bill and Dean in working with the team.
The team’s research shifted from published sources to field work and interviews as its work progressed. With their foundation of data and knowledge, the consultants were able to make increasingly productive use of “human intelligence” through both project and personal contacts. Through Callie’s network in hospital administration the team obtained critical ratios of staffing to beds in various medical services and advice on overhead and administrative structures for those services.
In November the AC Consulting Group and Bill Sandberg flew to Antigua to meet Rev. Pierce for five days of work and a bit of vacation. Meetings mostly ran on “Caribbean time” but a few were punctual, especially when the Prime Minister was involved. The consultants met with members of his cabinet and with the Prime Minister and his advisors. A wearying series of broken appointments and communication ultimately won the team access to the unoccupied hospital, where they photographed the bare rooms and treatment spaces in addition to posing for a group portrait in shorts and hard hats. The traveling party also fit in good food and drink, a bit of nightlife, and time for touring and the beach.
Back in Columbia our consultants hit high gear. By the second week of December they had completed a business plan and presented it to Dr. Alieta Eck and her daughter, the course instructors, and Mr. DeMouy. Over the course of an hour the team laid out its analyses and recommendations, elaborated them in response to questions, and addressed further issues that they provoked. The Ecks returned home and shared the plan with their venture team.
Mount St. John’s Gathers Momentum
The end of MGMT 778 wasn’t the end of the consultants’ involvement in Mount St. John’s. In the following weeks team members (notably Wes and Ryan) continued to explain and revise the business plan’s financial assumptions and projections as the venture took shape and then advanced into a final round. They worked with the clients right up to the venture team’s departure for Antigua for a final presentation against a rival medical tourism hospital based in India.
The venture’s story still hasn’t ended. Our clients won the competition and in March the government signed a letter of intent giving them 90 days to secure the necessary capital and make other arrangements. As of April 7 the clients reportedly had the funds committed, installed much of a top management team, and modified the original business plan to include “medical timeshares” in a resort to be developed in conjunction with the hospital. The Drs. Eck and Rev. Pierce have assembled an impressive board of directors and negotiated additional details with the receptive government. It’s not possible to divulge many details at this writing, but the immediate prospects are exciting.
Meanwhile Bill Sandberg remains in touch with the Mount St. John’s venture. He is gratified that the IMBA (and PMBA) students’ work has been so valuable, and that our clients continue to express their appreciation for it. Major business media have begun developing stories on Mount St. John’s that include attention to the Moore School’s contribution. In the future—well, who knows? But Bill is renewing his passport and looking forward to other MGMT 778 projects for Mount St. John's.
Dr. William R. Sandberg
Moore School of Business