INDIANAPOLIS (June 23, 2016) — During the 2016 Case Competition, Montclair Florist – owned and operated by Chad E. Smith, Montclair State ’93 – opened its doors to the many teams during PBLI.
“Being a past judge for the Case Competition for several years, I was truly intrigued on how the Case Competition would handle a small business,” said Chad. “After seeing the criteria, I was more than happy and excited to open up our business to the fraternity. Plus it gave the students the opportunity to see another side of business that they don’t get to see in the classroom. It was a challenge at first, but after seeing the presentations up front and in person, the students truly got the grasp of what we were looking for.”
After the competition was complete, Smith was able to look over their work and truly acknowledge the hard work of each team. “They did a phenomenal job and truly did their research and actually found many items and resources we did not know were even out there. Overall, it was a very positive experience.”
Below are some of the recommendations Montclair Florist has been able to implement in the past few months and a few that the company is planning to complete within the coming year.
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- The purchase and re-branding of the company website.
- The implementation of a new accounting system to handle all of the company accounts and billing processes.
- The re-branding of the company logo and marketing documents.
- The beginning of monthly promotions to help the increasing of traffic.
- The process of relocating the company to a more cost effective location (Future – On Going).
- The hiring of an employee to handle all of the Social Media for the company (Future – Fall 2016).
- Brand new product line of fresh floral arrangements and a variety of gifts (Future – Holiday 2016).
When asked about how Montclair Florist’s business has improved since the Case Competition, Smith said, “with the implementation of the recommendations of the Case Competition teams, business has improved.” He went on to say that “the new website has handled more traffic and from what our customers have been saying, it is not that ‘mirror image’ that the old website had and that it is more user friendly, whether they purchase from a computer or a mobile device. The re-branding will take some time, but early reviews have been positive. The relocation of the company has been ongoing, though our current and long time customers love the potential move opportunity and are sticking with us. Plus it will potentially pave the way for brand new customers to see our product line and purchase on more than one occasion. As with everything, this takes time. But you can see the impact already in just a past few months that we started making changes.”