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At this point, the story of the Lake Oswego-based Kyra’s Bake Shop is well-known.
Plagued for many years by a debilitating autoimmune disease, Kyra Johnson found relief by cutting gluten out of her diet. But she didn’t believe that had to mean ditching indulgent, flavorful pastries. So Johnson, a formally trained baker, conjured up her own gluten-free recipes, opened a shop in Lake Oswego and then took the baking world by storm, winning the Food Network’s “Cupcake Wars” four times.
Opens in new windowThough Kyra’s Bake Shop had built up a national following, Johnson began evaluating opportunities to expand the brand beyond its Lake Oswego bakery. She wanted to understand whether one particular consumer-facing growth strategy could work at scale, and Johnson got a lift from close to home: two students in the University of Oregon’s Portland-based Executive MBA program who were looking for a real-life challenge to take on for their capstone project.
“I saw this project as an opportunity to engage two smart and talented MBA candidates to pressure-test one possible avenue of growth for the brand,” Johnson said. “They could dig deeply into the research, logistics and economics of that particular path and give me much better information with which to make the decision.”
Full-circle moment
The two aforementioned smart and talented MBA candidates were Nicky Leonard and Beth Keebler. The longtime friends had first met as undergrads at the University of Oregon, when they were across-the-hall neighbors.
Leonard, a supply chain and operations leader currently focused on inventory and planning at Nike, dove into the Oregon Executive MBA program after being laid off. She saw it as a way to invest in her career and expand her network. Keebler, a communications executive who works as a senior director for education software company PowerSchool, came to the program looking to broaden her leadership skills and better contribute to business strategy at the enterprise level.
It was over drinks one night that the two decided to leap into the MBA program together.
“Nicky mentioned she was considering the UO Executive MBA program,” Keebler said. “I had also been thinking about applying for years, but deferred while my children were young, and the conversation quickly turned into, ‘Why don’t we do this together?’ It felt like a full-circle moment to return to the University of Oregon together, this time as Executive MBA students.”
Opens in new windowPost-graduation, Leonard and Keebler note that the entire experience—especially as women—had far exceeded their expectations.
“I’ve found a particularly strong sense of connection and support among my female peers,” Leonard shared. “We’ve built close relationships and genuinely show up for one another, both academically and personally. The cohort as a whole is supportive, but there’s something especially meaningful about the camaraderie among the women that has made the experience even more impactful.”
Recipe for success
As part of the program, second-year students complete a capstone project. These projects offer the chance to create a strategic business plan for a startup, a new initiative for their jobs or ways to empower a select nonprofit. Although most capstone projects are solo efforts, the longtime friends chose to team up for theirs.
Through Jon Maloney at the Oregon Venture Fund, Leonard and Keebler heard about Johnson’s expansion plans and saw the perfect real-world focus for a capstone.
Opens in new window“I was drawn to the project because it sat at the intersection of growth strategy, brand, consumer behavior and storytelling,” Keelber said. “Kyra has a powerful founder story, a differentiated product and a loyal customer base. The opportunity was not just to assess whether the business could grow, but how it could grow in a way that preserved what makes the brand special.”
Keebler and Leonard brought their own specialties to the project, which helped ensure they covered all the bases.
“We benefitted from partnering because we each brought a different functional perspective,” Keebler said. “Nicky and I approached problems differently, which made the work stronger. Her operational and supply chain expertise challenged me to think more deeply about feasibility and execution, while my communications and marketing background helped us examine how growth would impact customers, the market and the brand.”
While the capstone initially explored the opportunity to bring Kyra’s Bake Shop’s signature cinnamon rolls to a broader consumer market, the analysis showed that pursuing the opportunity successfully would require significant scale, capital and strategic infrastructure. Keebler and Leonard’s work gave Johnson a clearer picture of what it would take—and ultimately led her to reconsider the timing and approach.
“Beth and Nicky helped me understand the economics, operational requirements, potential partners and scale required to make this particular growth path viable,” she said. “Their work didn’t make me any less excited about the opportunity, but it did give me a much clearer understanding of what it would actually take to do it well. So, rather than rushing into a smaller launch, I’ve chosen to be more deliberate about the timing, the capital and bringing in the right strategic partners.”
Opens in new windowKeebler said one of her biggest takeaways from the capstone was the importance of connecting brand strategy with operational reality. A growth idea can be exciting from a marketing perspective, but it needs to be supported by the right planning, financing and execution. Leonard echoes these sentiments.
“Partnering with Beth, who brings a marketing and public relations lens, pushed me to think more holistically about growth,” said Leonard. “It reinforced how important it is to integrate different functions when building a strategy, and how much stronger the outcomes are when those perspectives are aligned.”
Learn more about the University of Oregon’s Executive MBA, and see if it’s right for you, at business.uoregon.edu/executive-mba/difference.