People often ask why I live in New Hampshire and deal with the Boston and Tufts commute. The real answer is in this picture — taken at 6:47 this morning. I walk the beach at sunrise most days. It's where I do my best thinking.

This time of year, that thinking gets serious. We're deep into the spring consulting rush at Derby Management, and at Tufts the semester is closing fast. Next week is especially packed: six student teams deliver their final 90-minute marketing plans to the leadership of their project companies — the payoff for 12 weeks of real work. Company management grades 40% of the semester; the students deliver fully developed tactical plans. Everyone leaves with something real.

Which brings me to what I think of as my one genuine superpower: the ability to seamlessly connect our consulting work with meaningful project assignments for Tufts juniors, seniors, and grad students. The companies get detailed marketing plans they can actually use. The students get real-world experience. And roughly half of them go on to build careers in sales and marketing. Not a bad trade.

Not all of our Tufts projects come from Derby Management clients — so if you'd like to explore bringing a project to the fall semester, reach out and I'll send you the details. The new syllabus goes to students on June 1st and the students have five days to make their decisions on the specific companies.  Since we already have fully registered course with a wait list, students who do not respond within the 5-day requirement are simply dropped from the course since this is a course stepped in the science of marketing and the requirements of working in business.

Next week I'll share "The 3 Rules of Jack" — thoughts on building personal superpowers — delivered to our graduating seniors at the Center's annual celebration. In the meantime, give a little thought to your own: what do you bring to your work that nobody else quite does?

Have a great day selling, and a wonderful weekend!

........................

 Jack is Managing Partner of Derby Management, a strategy consulting firm, and is the founder of the Derby Entrepreneurship Center at Tufts University, where he has been teaching for 20 years ago. Every semester's content is significantly updated with a heavy emphasis in 2025 and 2026 in AI's use in Inbound Marketing. At Derby Management, Jack and his managers architect and build business strategies heavily focused on sales and marketing processes, tools and tech platforms.  
.......................

Now's THE Time to dive into your Sales planning for what lies ahead in Q2!

Think about taking a full day in May to commit to updating your Sales Playbook for the balance of 2026.  Just connect with me at jack@derbymanagement.com, or give me a call, and we can discuss a few ideas.   

"Writing the Winning Sales Plan"
"Writing the Winning Business Plan"
www.derbymanagement.com
Derby Entrepreneurship Center at Tufts.