The Master program in Business and Management (MBM) attracts students with various backgrounds from all over the world. It assumes a business development perspective, which means that it focuses on developing a firm’s competitive position, its processes, people and products, its networks and resources. Business development mixes theory and practice and includes areas such as market, strategy and leadership to be managed in order to succeed.
We are now looking for organizations to take on live projects
The live projects will run parallel with the MBM courses Operations Strategy (7.5 ECTS) and Management Accounting & Control (7.5 ECTS) during period 2. The live project is conducted and assessed as a group work (5 - 6 students). Together with your organization, the students choose and define an operations and accounting & control - related live project topic that they will work on from late October to mid-December.
The empirical material that students use for the analysis will consist of interviews with different representatives in your organization. Those interviews can be complemented by various types of additional empirical material such as company presentations, internal documents, or publicly available information gathered via the organization's website, social media, annual or sustainability reports, or media coverage.
The scope of the live project is expected to account for 15 percent of full-time studies, meaning that students will work on the project for about 1 day per week during that period. The students choose a model / theory from each course to be investigated and analyzed. They will use models from Operations Strategy and Management Accounting & Control. The results are presented to the organization at the end of each period.
Value for the organization
Organizations receive a relevant analysis that can add new perspectives to business
A close contact with the school’s top students
Physical as well as digital exposure
A broad and proven recruitment base
Expectations on the organization
Appoints a dedicated contact person who can communicate with the students and us
Has an idea of how the project can contribute to concrete business benefits
Provide sufficient material and time for students to solve the business case
The live project is conducted and assessed as a group work (5 - 6 students). Together with your company, the students (re)define a management accounting & control and operations - related live project topic that they will work on during the period (October 28, 2024 - December 13, 2024).
More specifically, the students will apply a suitable management control model together with frameworks and concepts from operations strategy discussed in the courses to provide your company with recommendations based on a current issue / problem / challenge relevant to the organization.
We see this as one project where one group looks at one problem / question / challenge in one company by drawing on frameworks from the two courses.
So, we are aiming for a “fully integrated approach” which – we believe – has benefits for everyone involved and where the case company’s problem / challenge and the student’s proposed solution to that problem are really in the center and the application of the frameworks from both courses helps the students to go from problem to solution. With this fully integrated approach, it is not a big problem if one project is a bit heavier on the operations strategy or management control side.
Project examples
Many projects that work well with the courses usually start with a real problem or challenge that your company is facing, internally or externally. One way to go about it is to start with an operational challenge and then add a management accounting & control dimension to it.
Below you will find examples of projects from different industries that overlap both courses.
Analyze the supply chain operations and conduct a cost analysis for a manufacturing company to optimize the supply chain, enhance cost-efficiency, and improve overall operational performance.
Analyze donor acquisistion strategies and assess fundraising operations and its efficiency for an NGO to enhance donor engagement, optimize resource allocation, and maximise fundraising effectiveness.
Analyze the customer experience journey and conduct a service optimization analysis for a telecom company to enhance customer satisfaction, improve service quality, and drive customer loyalty.
Note that these are examples should give you some inspiration of what a project might contain. Please contact Andreas Dahlberg if you like to see more examples.
Remember that the scope of the project only accounts for 15% of full-time studies and students will work on the project for about one day per week during a period of about 7 weeks.
Non-disclosure agreements
We discourage the use of non-disclosure agreements (NDAs), as we believe it is in everyone’s interests not to share confidential information with students. In certain cases, NDAs nevertheless need to be put in place. For these cases, we have prepared an NDA that is appropriate for an academic setting. Please note that the school, not the students, would be the signatory party. We ask that you let us know as soon as possible if your participation is likely to require the use of an NDA.
Would you want to host a live project?
Please bring your project suggestions or questions to us before September 20, 2024.