By James Pilcher
The Cincinnati Enquirer

University of Cincinnati MBA students Gretchen Faulkner (clockwise from left), Andy Warncke, Brittany Renner and Inga McKanna are helping Delta Air Lines with long-range planning. They're not paid, but are doing it for the real-life business experience. The Cincinnati Enquirer/ERNEST COLEMAN

Delta Air Lines has "hired" a new research team.

But these new "workers" won't get a salary, even though their contributions could prove invaluable to the struggling airline.

Instead, the five MBA students at the University of Cincinnati are getting priceless experience in the way real business works, while Delta gets to do some long-term research and planning after being forced to focus on the very short term.

"It really is like we are a consulting team doing a project for a client," said Andy Warncke, a 37-year-old MBA student who works as a senior manager at Convergys during the day. "But instead of getting paid, we are getting more of a nebulous payoff with the things we can put on our resumes. And in return, hopefully, Delta is getting something it can use."

Both sides sing the praises of the arrangement, which has the students researching other industries for how they serve customers. They are also looking at how other industries, ranging from automakers to hoteliers, measure customer satisfaction.

They are doing this for the division of Delta that handles the in-flight experience - the airline has a major base of operations for flight attendants and its "in-flight" division at the Cincinnati/Northern Kentucky International Airport, Delta's second-largest hub overall.

At the end, they will turn in a report of their findings along with recommendations that Delta may be able to use in the long run.

Delta officials say they could not do such research on their own.

"In the environment we are faced with, and the staff as lean as it is already, we either do long-range planning or we launch Song," said David Paule, Delta's general manager for strategic planning for its in-flight division, referring to the airline's recent start-up of its low-cost subsidiary Song.

Delta has lost more than $2 billion in the last two years and is struggling just to keep afloat. Long-range planning and looking at other industries for "best practices" with paid staff is a luxury.

Enter Paule - a UC grad who now resides in Atlanta near Delta's headquarters - and UC's Marianne Lewis, the business school's associate dean for innovation and program development. Lewis said the school has long been trying to expand its "real world" applications for its students, using co-ops and the like.

Delta seemed a natural fit for the program, which extends beyond the normal quarter boundaries, meaning the students work harder and longer for a grade that would normally come after just a few months in a classroom.

"It dramatically changes the motivation," Lewis said. "The difference between running for a grade and doing something that someone cares about is very distinct."

The rest of the team say that they are all learning not only the kinds of things they would in a normal classroom, but real-life business experiences as well.

"And to do it for Delta was all our first choice," said Gretchen Faulkner, 28, a former art buyer who also is going back to school for her MBA to expand her marketing expertise. "We all thought it would be fun to work on it. And now, I'm constantly thinking about it, unlike I would be if it was just a classroom."

Not that they learned too much. Paule said Delta did not educate the students too deeply about airline operations.

"We wanted a fresh look from an outside perspective," Paule said.

Still, members of the group, including one from eastern Europe and another from Russia, said they discovered a lot of surprising things about the company and about the airline industry in general, such as how hard it is to maintain the daily operation.

"But another thing we learned is how to work as a team," said Inga McKanna, 27, who moved to the United States from Russia a few years ago to be with her husband. "And that is something you really can't put on a resume, but it will certainly help us when we actually get into our jobs."

The group, like true marketing professionals, won't divulge what they've discovered so far, saying they wanted to wait until they presented their findings formally to Delta. They say they are not holding anything back.

"And that is just what we want," said Paule, who helped create similar programs involving Delta with other Atlanta business schools and universities. "Who knows where the next great idea will come from?"

But they said they hope to recommend several different things from other industries, including some that could generate revenue. None was hoping to put any implemented suggestions on a resume, however.

"It would be a big thrill, however, to see something one day on the plane that we came up with," said team member Brittany Renner. "If nothing else, I'll be able to brag about it to my friends."

E-mail jpilcher@enquirer.com