Needham is getting some help from students at Babson College in assessing how well the town’s economy is doing.
Through an arrangement between the town and the college, a team of six students from Babson’s Management Consulting Field Experience program recently launched an in-depth study of Needham’s business community to assist the town in measuring the performance of the local economy.
To prepare the “economic scorecard,” the Babson consultant team — five undergraduates and one graduate student — is collaborating with the Needham Council of Economic Advisors and the town’s Finance and Planning and Community Development departments.
The students, Jason Cong, Dan Edlebeck, Yvette Gu, Mengyu Liu, Sam Wong, and Fenny Zhou, are starting by taking an inventory of commercial businesses to help the town better understand the types and number of businesses based in Needham.
They will then work with the town to establish categories that best measure the local economy, compile data for those categories, and develop a useful way to present the information.
The team will complete its report and present its findings to the town in May.
John Laidler can be reached at laidler@globe.com.