Sustainable Business Group



SUBMIT YOUR APPLICATION FOR OUR INTERNSHIP PROGRAM !

The Sustainable Business Group is where business and education come together to create the future. We promise every student intern more work than they can complete, and the guidance to know how to conclude a project to leave them enough time to make “A’s” in their classes. We don’t demand excellence from our interns. We merely support it and help our interns get accustomed to producing it day in and day out for the Sustainable Business Group and our clients.

The Sustainable Business Group has one of the finest internship programs in the business consulting world. In general, our internships are unpaid and last for a summer, or for one, two or three semesters in a given school year. Interns can be high school students through Ph.D students in such fields as:

  • Accounting
  • Agriculture
  • Architecture
  • Business
  • Change Management
  • Communications
  • Data Warehousing/Business Intelligence
  • Economics
  • Education (Students studying to be teachers or Administrators)
  • Engineering
  • English (we love great writers)
  • Entrepreneurship
  • Environmental Policy
  • Finance
  • Government or Political Science
  • Health Care Administration
  • Human Resources
  • Information Management and Information Science
  • Innovation
  • Interdisciplinary Studies
  • International Business
  • Knowledge Management
  • Library Science
  • Management
  • Marketing
  • Mathematics (Applied)
  • Mergers and Acquisitions
  • Nonprofit Management
  • Organizational Development
  • Public Policy
  • Sales
  • Social Entrepreneurship
  • Social Studies
  • Solar and Wind technologies
  • Venture Capital and Capital Acquisition
  • Website Design and Implementation
  • Web 2.0 Communication and Marketing Strategies

In some cases, our internships will be paid at the going rate for your school and your level at the school. We pay interns when they can be place on work where our clients pay us to do the work.

We work with every intern to:

  1. Have an excellent, useful learning experience
  2. Develop new skills that will help them find and keep a job
  3. Learn solid work habits
  4. Improve their writing and analytical skills
  5. Attend business meetings and public meetings on our behalf
  6. Write articles so they are published on the web or in print

Sometimes we will post “Internship Job Descriptions. We will always have internship opportunities, so please apply if you are interested in the work that we do and the clients that we serve.

Several open positions for fall 2009 and beyond include:


JOB DESCRIPTIONS FOR FOUR INTERNSHIPS FOR STUDENTS

The Sustainable Business Group, a Colorado consulting firm specializing in business and public policy planning, was launched in 2008. Four internships that will last from September, 2009 through November through May, 2010, plus the summer, are described below. The work has flexible hours of about 5-10 hours a week. Job duties may vary over time. School work shall always take priority over internship work. Since these jobs will include helping do outreach, website work (creating Facebook pages, LinkedIn Groups, MySpace, office work, and attending some meetings either in person or virtually, good presentation and writing skills are desirable. There is the potential for helping to write articles where you will be listed as a co-author when the articles are published.

Also, the student should know how to use MSWord, Excel, PowerPoint, and be able to learn other programs including VISIO and Outlook to keep track of numerous appointments and meeting schedules. All of these internships offer learning how to organize key aspects of a new business, consulting, improving businesses, and meeting great people.

Please send resume and/or letter explaining your qualifications and interest in these positions. Please send all material to Herb Rubenstein at herb@sbizgroup.com and put INTERNSHIP in the subject line in all caps. If you have any questions regarding the position call the Sustainable Business Group at 303 592-4084. If you do not have transportation, you should still apply and a job description can be developed that you can perform.


Administrative Assistant for New Company – The Sustainable Business Group

  1. Assist in the development of an overall outreach plan to alert the public of the upcoming launch of our company. Work with a marketing expert.
  2. Add to our website on a regular basis.
  3. Open files for new clients and keep all files organized.
  4. Attend meetings with clients and write up results of meeting.
  5. Gather biographical data and photos of all consultants and place this on website.
  6. Conduct research on other consulting firms.
  7. Send out daily emails to our consulting network.
  8. Build email lists and manage email distribution of our newsletter.
  9. Answer the phone, check messages, return phone calls, and prepare general correspondence, answer emails, when in the office.
  10. Help organize meetings of our consultants.

Outreach Coordinator

  1. Send promotional materials to potential clients and clients about the company.
  2. Send out articles for publication and track their publication.
  3. Assist in managing the speaker’s bureau.
  4. Help development and implement an outreach plan to alert the public about SBG.
  5. Serve as a public relations representative of the Sustainable Business Group.
  6. Help promote awareness of Sustainable Business Group.
  7. Help company search for office space.
  8. Help develop “card game” that will help businesses (concept is already developed)
  9. Develop Excel Data Base on potential clients.
  10. Help manage referral network and keep track of their activities.

Research Assistant

  1. Conduct web based research for articles and draft memos on findings.
  2. Conduct web based research for client matters and draft memos on findings.
  3. Conduct research for new book, Leadership for Educators.
  4. Conduct Google research on people of interest to the company and write up results.
  5. Conduct research on potential clients.
  6. Conduct research and develop list of potential places for publication of articles.
  7. Co-author articles and speeches.
  8. Help create and manage “Knowledge Management System” documenting the skills and knowledge of each consultant and put findings of all client work into the Knowledge Management System.
  9. Read books and write book reviews.

    10. Assistant Project Manager

    1. Implement project management system for each project, keeping track of deadlines, deliverables, progress, challenges.
    2. Help consultants deliver projects on time and on budget.
    3. Help keep track of expenses for each project and compare to budgeted amount.
    4. Serve as a resource person on all projects.
    5. Assist the Director of Operations with managing the company.
    6. Work with staff to develop project framework for all internal (non-client) activities and track all projects.
    7. Help send out bills to all clients, make deposits, and monitor payments.
    8. Help coordinate setting up of meetings with clients, potential clients, etc.
    9. Other duties to be assigned.

    PROJECT DESCRIPTIONS FOR FOUR INTERNSHIP TEAMS FOR MBA OR UNDERGRADUATE BUSINESS, FINANCE, ACCOUNTING OR STUDENTS IN RELATED AREAS

    The Sustainable Business Group, a Colorado consulting firm, was incorporated in , 2008. The firm has approximately 30 consultants, including two former McKinsey consultants, working on a virtual basis working on contracts in the areas of:

    • Energy
    • Environment
    • Education
    • Health Care
    • Leadership Development and Training
    • Entrepreneurship
    • Pricing Analysis
    • Health Care
    • Education
    • Human Capital Analytics
    • Securing Capital for Companies
    • Organizational Development
    • Knowledge Management
    • Marketing
    • Economic Analysis of New Technologies

    The company has a 91 page business plan that is available for any intern, or teams of interns, or faculty member involved in the internship process, to review. Management of the company is now seeking office space downtown that will be referred to as the “Center for the Future of Business.” The company’s principals have three books on business, entrepreneurship, and leadership, have taught entrepreneurship and in MBA programs at five universities, and have supervised in their careers over 200 interns in situations where the students received college credit and in situations where the students did not.

    This document includes descriptions for four possible internship teams working in four areas. It is the goal of the Sustainable Business Group (SBG) that these internship teams work on a pro bono basis since they will be working primarily on key internal capacity building aspects of SBG itself, plus receive a substantial amount of education and training from the consultants of the SBG through on-the-job training. SBG will make the commitment that if any intern or any internship team works on client matters for which SBG is compensated, SBG will pay the interns a reasonable hourly wage for their time on the client matters. In addition, SBG will give substantial preference to the interns that perform well in their winter semester internship for paid summer internships and internships for the following year in the fall. Ideally the internships will begin when classes resume in January and continue for the full semester at a rate of 5-10 hours a week per person on the team. Teams can range from 1 to 4 students, and some of the teams could actually be performed well by one person.

    The four internship teams would tackle the following four key areas of capacity building that are both internal to the Sustainable Business Group, and relevant to our client base.

    INTERNSHIP TEAM NUMBER 1

    CONDUCT A COMPETITIVE ANALYSIS OF VARIOUS MARKETS OF INTEREST TO OUR CLIENTS

    This project will entail three detailed components:

    1. Create a reasonable estimate of the size of the market in various areas of business. Identify all key suppliers of in this market area, how they grew to their size, their major customers, their market share and revenues, and identify the most profitable services they offer, their fee structures, their strengths, weaknesses and marketing strategies.
    2. Create a market segmentation study of different types of customers and different types of services demanded by clients in these market areas. Identify areas of market demand where a significant opportunity exists for the Sustainable Business Group and our clients to achieve a dominant, substantial, and growing position within five years. Include information regarding the price points, service delivery mechanisms, and best marketing approaches to reach this market.
    3. Identify key marketing and public relations strategies that would be consistent with firms in the various market spaces This work will result in a report in each market areato guide SBG and our clients in the development and marketing of their products and service offerings.

    This team will be supervised by a marketing expert , plus, the President of SBG, and at least two other SBG consultants will help guide this internship team.

    INTERNSHIP TEAM NUMBER 2

    CREATE A KNOWLEDGE MANAGEMENT STRUCTURE FOR SBG

    This project will entail five detailed components:

    1. Create a knowledge mapping and detailed knowledge management structure so that all key information known to all SBG consultants is placed into an accessible knowledge data base for the benefit of all SBG consultants and SBG clients.
    2. Collect all knowledge from each consultant and from all ongoing projects of SBG and place that information into the knowledge management system.
    3. Evaluate the use of the knowledge management system and regularly improve it with the goal of increasing the value and use of the system on a regular basis.
    4. Develop and monitor the knowledge management system so that all consultants on a regular and ongoing basis contribute their knowledge, insights, analytical approaches, and practical advice into the system.
    5. Prepare a manual describing the knowledge management system and how it operates.

    This project will have the benefit of some supervision by the former Chief Knowledge Officer of McKinsey, who is part of the consulting network of SBG. In addition, this project will be directly be supervised by the former Chief Knowledge Officer of the International Center for Appropriate and Sustainable Technology (iCAST) in Lakewood.

    INTERNSHIP TEAM NUMBER 3

    CREATE AND IMPLEMENT A DETAILED MARKETING STRATEGY FOR TWO BOOKS:

    LEADERSHIP FOR LAWYERS (RUBENSTEIN, AMERICAN BAR ASSOCIATION, 2008) AND

    LEADERSHIP FOR EDUCATORS (RUBENSTEIN, MILES AND BASSI, R0WMAN AND LITTLEFIELD, FORTHCOMING, JUNE, 2009)

    This project will entail four detailed sets of activities:

    1. Identify and analyze the marketing strategies of similar books that have been successful and determine which marketing strategies would be most successful with each of these books.
    2. Develop a detailed marketing plan for each book including the use of speeches, conference presentations, earned media and reviews, and budget for a national marketing campaign designed to promote sales of the book.
    3. Implement key strategies of the marketing plan for Leadership for Lawyers and assess the effectiveness of each strategy. Determine which strategies would work best for the follow on book, Leadership for Educators.
    4. Tie the marketing strategies designed and implemented with the marketing strategy for SBG with the promotion and maximum leverage of the book marketing and use them to obtain clients, projects, and revenues for SBG.

    This project will be supervised by the author, Herb Rubenstein, the book manager at the American Bar Association, the book manager at Roman and Littlefield, and the marketing manager for SBG.

    INTERNSHIP TEAM NUMBER 4

    ANALYZE NUMEROUS BUSINESS PLANS AND PROVIDE COMMENTS ON THE FEASIBILITY OF RAISING CAPITAL AND FOR THE BUSINESS TO BE A SUCCESS

    This project contains four key elements.

    1. Following our business plan analysis methodology, rate each plan on a scale of 1 to 100.
    2. Prepare a list of potential funding sources, contact them, and assess the feasibility of obtaining capital at a reasonable price for investment into the company.
    3. Analyze the marketplace to identify all competitors.
    4. Analyze the management team to assess its competencies and identify any holes in the management team. Prepare recommendations for improving the business plan or to improve operations of the company or division seeking to implement the business plan.

    This project will be supervised by a committee consisting of business leaders familiar with each market area.

    To apply for an internship fill out the attached information sheet and send a resume, plus cover letter to: herb@sbizgroup.com

    The following form will generate an email to Herb Rubenstein, the President and Chairman of the Board.
    ALL FIELDS ARE REQUIRED!