Texas A&M’s first ever consultant group is advising student organizations on how to best pursue their goals.
Since the fall of 2017, the Texas A&M Consulting Group (TACG) has been on a mission to institute change within the student body by using financial expertise and creativity to assist those in need of help.
Master’s in financial econometrics student and TACG president Danial Kordi said the group helps with numerous problems organizations tend to encounter.
“We consult on campus clients by help- ing them with their operational integrity, such as dealing with marketing, recruiting and their internal structure,” Kordi said
Master’s in finance student and TACG vice president Alec Calvillo said he and Kordi came up with the idea to create TACG while interning for professional services firm Ernst & Young in the summer of 2016.
“Because consulting is something huge right now in all campuses, we wanted to combine minds from various disciplines and allow people to grow in their critical think- ing, which is necessary for them to pursue their next step as consultants,” Kordi said.
During their Wednesday meetings, members are trained for professional interviews by analyzing case studies that deal with everyday business dilemmas.
“People who go into high-impact careers are always put through case studies during interviews, so we give them that content on a weekly basis,” Calvillo said.
TACG welcomes all majors and supports those who wish to proceed into all branches of consulting work, according to Kordi.
“If one wanted to go the technology route, we would bring in speakers that are for technology,” Kordi said.
Assistant professor at the Mays Business School and the group’s adviser Christopher Yust said TACG is special because it is focused on practical expertise.
“While it is great that they bring in individuals to speak about the profession, they are really trying to focus on not just talking
about consulting, but doing it,” Yust said. To consult student organizations, mem- bers devise an organized plan to help their
client gain momentum.
“One student organization came to us in
need of help with recruitment, so we creat- ed a team of about five people to go out and advise them,” Kordi said. “Once the team constructed a deliverable plan, we showed our client a full presentation toward the end of the month, so they were able to imple- ment their move forward.”
Calvillo said it is important for their organization to achieve presentation readiness while taking the steps to become consultants.
“When it comes to presenting to clients, we always have our members take the lead, because we want to push them out of their comfort zone,” Calvillo said. “We are teaching students to be able to take what’s in their mind and then translate it in a way that’s easily understandable.”
Kordi said their organization enjoys serving the community and taking breaks from work to have fun and get to know each other better.
“We will participate in Big Event this semester and do some profit shares as well,” Kordi said. “Aside from that, we have socials, because we don’t always want to focus on work. We want to have that fun component as well. We had a social gathering at Park West apartments where we grabbed some food, hung out and got to know the members on a more personal level.”
Yust said if he was still an A&M student, he would have joined the organization.
“To my knowledge, I don’t know any other organizations like this one,” Yust said. “If I were still a student at Texas A&M and such an organization existed, I would have most definitely joined it. I’m hopeful this organization can continue to grow and thrive to become another legacy at A&M 10 to 20 years down the line.”
Yust said he is impressed with how the officers have taken their passions and transformed them into a group that benefits the entire student body.
“They really approached this with a great level of seriousness and pride,” Yust said. “I believe that when you get to that level of engagement and people are passionate about what they do, the sky is the limit for them.”