Creative Direction

In the summer of 2009, Laine Ashker and Kyle Greenfield both enrolled at the Summer Business Institute to build business savvy. By the end of the three-week intensive program, the two had founded a company, BrushFire Media Group.

Greenfield, a Richmond native who graduated from Oberlin in 2008, came to the institute after hearing time and again that, he recalls, “I had nothing on my resume to indicate that I was interested in a business career.”

He didn’t necessarily agree, but in the tough economy, the skills he’d learned as a music history and philosophy major — such as planning, critical thinking and organization — didn’t stand out in a corporate environment where dramatic hiring cuts were becoming the norm.

Ashker, on the other hand, wanted to build on her degree in foreign affairs from the University of Virginia. In college, she says, “The brunt of my time was spent studying multiple languages and focusing on my major and minor.”

After graduating in 2006, she wanted to develop her business knowledge in order to use her language skills (she’s fluent in Spanish and Arabic) and extensive knowledge of the Middle East in the international business realm.

As classmates in the Robins School’s Summer Business Institute, they studied business fundamentals such as strategic management, leadership, ethics, innovation and marketing. During their class on technology and globalization with Dr. Candace Deans, they had to create a business model using new technology.

“I had an idea to use social media as an inexpensive and efficient form of marketing,” says Greenfield. The philosopher in him had long been wondering, “How might we use social good as a mechanism for competitive advantage? What if business intersected with non-profit work on a broad scale?”

The model Greenfield presented in class wasn’t the final product, but it did lay the foundations for BrushFire Media Group. As president and CEO, he partnered with Ashker, now director of client relations, to develop the business, which raises money for charity by creating social media buzz for sponsors' products.

Other than planting the seed for BrushFire, Ashker and Greenfield credit the program with teaching them the language of business. “A year ago I was just another college graduate desperate for a job," Greenfield says. "Today I’m an executive, and, more importantly, I feel like an executive.” 

As for what it feels like to run a company, Greenfield compares it to conducting an orchestra — living in the moment while his actions affect the immediate future; being aware of how to handle the symphony as a whole while understanding that every role is essential. “It’s [the conductor’s] job to ensure that each individual performs to the best of his ability so that the organization as a whole can optimize its performance,” he says.

That interpretation of management reveals Greenfield's liberal arts background, but creativity may be just what he needs to succeed as an entrepreneur.