From right to left: MBA students Derek Guglielmi, Joshua Curry, Christopher Swanson and Nanxi Li with Peter Baker, CEO/president of Crystal Rock.

Kilic, a finance professor in the School of Business, spends every fall semester visiting Connecticut businesses with MBA students in his investments course. The goal is to give students an on-the-ground look at companies they research in the classroom.

"They play the role of junior-level research analyst," said Kilic. "They actually pick and analyze Connecticut-based, publicly-traded, small companies." Kilic's students have been making these field trips for the past five years.

Most recently students visited the Crystal Rock Holdings, Inc., bottled water company in Watertown, Conn., where they toured the physical plant and met with top-level management on Nov. 30, 2010.

"At Crystal Rock, the CEO, CFO, and director of finance all met with us," said MBA student Josh Curry. Students use their research and information from visits to prepare comprehensive reports, which they present at the end of the semester.

"Once they finish their research, and through financial modeling and relative valuation, they determine the intrinsic value of the company," Kilic said.

This past semester 24 students broke into three groups and analyzed three different companies.

"Visiting the businesses has given my fellow students and me an in-depth look at what financial metrics are necessary to successfully operate a publicly-traded company," said Curry, who learned that flexibility to meet changing customer demand and spot emerging markets is key.

"Finding that balance between company capability and customer need is what drives success," Curry said.

MBA student Alexandra Pleier, who is finishing her degree, said the visits really ground students in a company. "Visiting gives us the opportunity to gain a more thorough and realistic understanding of what lies behind the numbers we deal with in the classroom," Pleier said.

Pleier said meeting Crystal Rock management helped "personalize the company" for students, and touring the factory changed their impression of the business.

"It made us realize that the company was selling a wider range of products than we originally thought," Pleier said. "We successfully combined communication skills with quantitative analysis and found out a lot more."