Special Teams

On several Sundays between September and January, Gillette Stadium in Foxboro, Mass., becomes a small city, hosting more than 65,000 people for New England Patriots games. There are more than 90 locations within the stadium where fans can buy food and beverages.

That’s a lot of trash by the end of the fourth quarter.

To dial up sustainability at the stadium, the Kraft Sports Group asked their vending machine partner Fastenal for ideas. Fastenal, in turn, contacted Sawyer Business School Professor Mary Holley and asked if her students would do some consulting around sustainability efforts. She proposed they do it as a one-day flash consulting session onsite.

“Flash consulting is important because it enables students to actually take all the stuff that they've been learning and they have this time pressure,” said Professor Jodi Detjen, associate dean of Innovative Education and Programs and executive director of the MBA Program. “And they have to answer these questions fast, and substantively. They can't just come up with an answer that is meaningless or has nothing to support it.”

Watch what happens when the 20 graduate students head to Gillette Stadium, spend three hours brainstorming solutions, then present real ideas to real clients.