Consultants guiding the strategic planning process
The Barthwell Group is the consultant guiding Jackson State University in the strategic planning process. The Barthwell Group, Inc., a Delaware corporation, is a national multi-dimensional management consulting firm based in Detroit. Established in 2005, by Dr. Akosua Barthwell Evans, the firm has provided consulting services to clients throughout the United States. Its clients include universities, corporations and foundations, including a number of Historically Black Colleges and Universities.
The Barthwell Group provides a broad array of management consulting services focusing on strategic management (including planning, conducting assessments, team-building, and brand-building) partnership building (developing partnerships to implement an organization’s objectives) and workshop development (developing and implementing workshops and focused meetings). The firm has developed a reputation for providing high quality services in an interactive, focused cost-effective manner. Selected examples of recent consulting engagements include:
- Strategic Planning. For an university in the Central United States, The Barthwell Group developed a strategic plan which was approved unconditionally by the university’s state regents and which the university’s president attributed to contributing to a highly successful accreditation review. The Barthwell Group’s extremely interactive process, which integrated budgetary and accreditation considerations, resulted in a plan with maximum “buy-in” from the university’s stakeholders.
- Multiple Institutional Partnerships. Engaged by the president of a Big Ten university, in less than one year The Barthwell Group successfully developed a partnership between the university and 11 minority serving institutions(MSIs) focusing around increasing African-American graduate students in the STEM disciplines. The Barthwell Group also coordinated the development of a very successful Summer Scholars Institute for MSI students (featured in the New York Times) and research collaborations among the faculty of the STEM Initiative. The Barthwell Group continues to work with the university to enhance the collaboration.
- Senior Management Team Building. For an eastern university, The Barthwell Group worked with the President and senior management to improve communications, interdisciplinary cooperation and the focus on the university’s strategic objectives. Emphasizing maximum input from senior management, The Barthwell Group successfully developed a tactical action plan which improved communications and strategic focus.
Dr. Akosua Barthwell, the founder and CEO, has more than 25 years of experience in banking, legal and management consulting. She has served in executive positions at global institutions and on not-for-profit boards throughout the United States. She is a graduate of Yale Law School and Barnard College and holds a Ph.D. and M.Phil. from Columbia University.