A successful and satisfying A.C. experience encourages the search for additional opportunities to work together as a team. Schumacher (1992) has several
suggestions for academics interested in developing ongoing business relationships. These include (a) thinking
in terms of developing a partnership, (b) making a commitment to spend the time it takes to cultivate mutually
satisfying relationships with people from industry, and (c) developing a habit of reaching out to people in
companies. Faculty members may be able to cultivate these relationships while serving in a traditional faculty
role. Serving as a faculty advisor to a professional student service organization, for example, provides an
opportunity to establish new relationships with business leaders. Academic consulting teams offer an exciting
challenge for college and university faculty. The effective management of multiple stakeholders is critical to
academic consulting team longevity and success. Comprehensive planning will help A.C. team members to
avoid some of the common problems that many of us have experienced in different types of group efforts. Our
team's experiences and team management guidelines should point to several issues for other A.C. teams to
carefully consider.