Frequently Asked Questions
1. What is Hoboken Hospitality alliance?
An association servicing the hospitality industry from the inception of the business to its expansion of the brand, to the retiring of the business concept. It is a local resource dedicated for operators to educate, support & collaborate in all areas of their business
2. What is the Industry Capstone Project?
Industry Capstone is a 3 credits course offered by Stevens School of Business. This program combines innovative leadership skills with technical depth. It addresses the modern-day industry challenges and gives the consultants a sneak peek into the current market.
This initiative will have the consultants, under the leadership of a faculty liaison and a leader from the business community addressing the concerns of the business.
3. What is the purpose of collaborating HoHa with industry capstone project with Stevens?
It is a platform to interact and support local business with students through Stevens. A collaboration to provide business consultation to the operators with new technologies and advanced tools of the business world. It will be a 6-month business plan to optimize Technology, Efficiency, Empowering students with use cases
4. How do I apply for a capstone project?
(Link for the operators to apply for the capstone project) through HOHA website
5. What is a Capstone Experience course?
Capstone experience course is a 2-semester course where the consultants build the necessary skills in the first semester and work with the operators in the second semester.
6. How do I address my pain points to a consultant?
In a clear and concise manner, the operator needs to list the problems causing issues in the order of most problematic to least problematic. If there needs to be extra attention paid anywhere, they are to properly articulate that as well. They are to also list what sort of steps they have taken or not taken up until that point, so that the students are well informed about their tasks.
7. What are the benefits of collaborating with Stevens consultants?
An operator will get transparent and unbiased feedback on his/her/them business with strategy implementation suggestions. The opinion of the consultant will be purely based on data analysis , observations and past trend reports. This will help operator in taking a strategic action to resolve the problems in the business
8. Is my business information safe?
Stevens and HOHA has a joint collaboration and has a legal project disclaimer signed which will be shared with operators for data safety and business information security .
9. What if I am not happy with my consultant ?
Operator will be given authority to select his/her/them consultant out of the pool of applicants .
10.Can I replace or change my consultant ?
Since the operator is authorized to choose consultants in sync with the skills of the consultant with the business needs , the operator does not get a chance to make amendments in the middle of running the project and thus cannot ask for replacement or change after 15 days .
11. How long is the project ?
The commitment of a project is expected to be one whole semester of the consultant with approximately 5-6 months.
12. How much time do I need to give to this project ?
As an operator you are expected to give 1 hour meeting every week and as the project gradually builds up , you can decrease or increase the frequency based on the milestones and goals
13. How will a consultant benefit from this project ?
A consultant will have real world experience by working as a part of your business and will also be compensated for his/her/them course credits .
14. How much time can I expect from a consultant ?
It should be similar to devoting time for a course and thus 1-2 hours a week .
15. Can I ask my consultant to help me with regular operations ?
An operator cannot ask the consultant to help him in place of regular employees. A consultant will shadow the business but cannot act like an employee of the business during the project . Operator cannot ask the consultant for any personal or professional field job .
16. What is the composition of consultants teams that will work on the project?
Team size can range from 2 to 3 per team with an average of 2 students per team, chosen by the operators and Stevens.
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17. How do I select the consultants ?
The consultant will be selected on the basis of their skills and interests for the type of business . Stevens will select a few applicants for the project and then the Operator gets a chance to meet the applicants and select the right consultant for his/her/them project .
18. What are the roles of the industry advisor and faculty advisor?
In this Industry Capstone course, operator-advisors take the lead in the project and decide the direction of the project. The operator-advisors are expected to provide the students with real-world business and technical challenges to help them apply what they have learnt in theory in the previous semester. These domains include but are not limited to: technology, communication, analytics, business and leadership.
Specific commitments will be established and agreed upon among the faculty, consultants and industry advisors at the beginning of each project.
19. Whom do I contact for more information?
A Project coordinator will be assigned to your project with complete contact information and you contact the coordinator for any information related to the progress of the project