Consultancy Project

Introduction

The students shall, as part of the exams requirement, complete a Consultancy Project (CP). Students are expected to work on the CP in groups of two to four students. Exceptions are possible (with explicit prior approval), but experience indicates that group work creates better results and students are encouraged to create diverse working groups.

The topic of the CP should be an analysis and evaluation of a real life challenge (including problems as well as opportunities) facing an organisation. The students should choose the topic from their own company or a company that they have close connection to in order to facilitate access. The students should be able to observe and discuss the topic with people dealing with the challenge in the organisation. Applicable and relevant themes encountered in the MBA coursework should be discussed in the thesis, and the students should demonstrate their ability to apply the models, theories and methods that they have studied to a real situation.

Course content

Teaching
There will be a one-day lecture on CP work and methodology at an early stage of the program. The lecture will cover the following topics:

• How to conduct a CP
• How to write a CP report
• Phases in CP work
• Critical evaluation of published articles
• Introduction and problem formulation
• Theory, research model, and hypotheses
• Methods considerations and documentation
• Analysis
• Discussion, implications for practice and theory

Supervision
Supervision will be given to the students, by BI faculty, in person as well as electronically.

CP work schedule
A topic hand-in is requested at an early stage; a preliminary report will be submitted at the time of the second supervision; the CP will be presented orally late in the program. The deadline for handing in the written CP report will be approximately one month after the oral presentation.

Student presentation
Students will present their CP orally to the graders and fellow students before the final hand-in.