After a semester of partnership with Duck Commander and Buck Commander, Harding business students, faculty and alumni are finishing projects and looking forward to presenting business proposals to the businesses behind the TV show “Duck Dynasty.”
This semester, an independent research class worked with the businesses to help with a business plan, brand identification, future branding opportunities, warehouse inventory and community involvement projects. While it is still to be seen what precise strategies the Duck and Buck Commander businesses will adopt, Professor of Accounting Dr. Phil Brown, who spearheaded the project, said he is confident Harding students added real value to the businesses.
Brown said the project, which was one of the first of its type in experiential learning, helped communicate the realism and spontaneity that is characteristic of a real, breathing business. In addition, students had the opportunity to develop deeper relationships with alumni and faculty, which Brown said added value to the entire project.
“The students have been phenomenal, very impressive how well they handle themselves and how professional and advanced their thought processes are,” Grant Taylor, general manager of Buck Commander, said. “It’s really a credit to COBA in how they prepare students for what lies ahead as they venture out to take their first jobs in the vaunted ‘real world.'”
Brown said he hopes this project will draw attention to the significance that Harding’s COBA students can offer a business.
“I hope that other businesses and other opportunities in other geographic locations will present themselves for a future project for students to undertake,” Brown said. “The visibility of the department’s willingness and desire to be actively engaged in real life business applications should be crystallized in everyone’s minds. We are interested and we want to do this. We know it’s in our students’ best interest.”
Taylor said each of the Harding students has a “wealth of knowledge and experiences to draw from” to share with Duck and Buck.
Taylor also said Duck and Buck would definitely consider more partnerships with Harding students in the future.
The partnership with Duck Commander and Buck Commander involved 15 Harding students, an alumni group led by Blair Bryan and other business faculty members such as Assistant Professor of Marketing Lori Sloan, Assistant Professor of Accounting Bob Churchman and Assistant Professor of Business Jake Stewart.
