ACT Team Leaders Terry Erisman and Fred Thiemman (ACT Website:: alumni.gsb.stanford.edu/act) Tourists on Front St. in Downtown Lahaina, Maui (Candid site for the Visitor Education Center)

The Stanford Business School Alumni Consulting Team (ACT) delivered its final report to the Gorilla Foundation after completing a 6-month pro bono project (see the initial July 2003 News Update) to help the Foundation assess the best strategy for developing the new Maui Ape Preserve's (MAP) Visitor Education Center (VEC).

The essence of ACT's report was a recommendation that the Gorilla Foundation take a "phased approach" to developing the Visitor Education Center — focusing on completing the MAP Sanctuary and making the move to Maui first, at which time we will be in a better position to assess the options and project the benefits for potential partners and sponsors.

The primary goals of the Visitor Education Center are four-fold:

The central organizing principle around the Visitor Educational Center is to leverage interactive video technologies to create a compelling link between the public and the private gorilla sanctuary. However, there are many ways to implement the above goals using this principle, and the cost can vary widely depending on the approach selected.

For example, all of the above goals can be met to some extent via a small store-front in downtown Lahaina, with a large high-definition TV screen and a couple of staff members. But these goals can be satisfied to a much larger degree by establishing a larger theatre-style venue, where hundreds of people at a time can visit the gorilla sanctuary (virtually), and drop into the gorilla gift shop and cafe (Koko's Kitchen) for a more comprehensive experience.

The ACT team, who's guiding principle was to minimize the financial risk to the Gorilla Foundation while achieving some measure of fulfilment for each of the above goals, advised the foundation to assign relative weights to each of the above goals, and to consider a range of designs that meet them.

ACT provided GF with a simple but effective cost/risk/analysis procedure to help select the best design strategy among competing options. The ACT team also seemed to feel strongly that the Gorilla Foundation would have much better data regarding costs, benefits, content availability and the number of potential visitors once it is firmly established on the island, and the gorilla sanctuary is up and running.

We agree with ACT's recommendations and sincerely appreciate their extended pro bono effort to help us reach such clear conclusions. Special thanks to the Stanford Business School Alumni Consulting Team Executive Director, Laura Moon, for making this collaboration possible, and to the team members who made it a success. The ACT team, in alphabetical order, was comprised of the following 8 members: Michael Balma, Rick Brandt, Bryan Brown, Dione Chen, Terry Erisman (Team Leader), David Hoyt, Arnold Lee and
Fred Thiemann (Team Co-Leader).

The Gorilla Foundation would like to invite other corporate partners to participate in the strategic planning of the MAP Visitor Education Center. Simply contact us at: map@koko.org to begin a dialogue.