Think Solutions. Original Thinking Applied

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1 Think Solutions Original Thinking Applied

2 Manchester Business School Projects At Manchester Business School we understand how precious your time and money are, particularly in the current economic climate. It can be difficult to find the resources for new or speculative projects to take your organisation forward. Through our internationally acclaimed MBA programme, you can access a pool of talented, experienced, international professionals who can bring original thinking to your business issue for a fraction of the cost of external consultancy. You get a fresh perspective and the chance to work with the business leaders of tomorrow; they get outstanding practical experience with high-calibre clients. What you get Up to 2,000 hours of intensive consultancy work Support from a world-class academic who knows your industry A tangible, high-quality outcome Access to the School s extensive network of business leaders and academics. What you need to provide A budget for travel and expenses (depending on the type of project) A time commitment to develop, monitor and evaluate the project An open mind and a willingness to embrace fresh ideas. Your team The people who gain entry to our prestigious MBA programme are not ordinary students. Our MBAs typically have six to ten years international business experience before they join us, and teams can include people from a wide range of industries and cultures, and with a variety of languages. Excellent academic guidance You ll get an experienced, talented and enthusiastic team to work on your project, and the reassurance of a supervising academic tutor who supports both you as the client and the student group. Our academics are all active researchers in business and management issues and many have previously worked in industry. Be part of our business network Working with MBA students is about more than simply undertaking a project. It can be the beginning of a relationship with Manchester Business School that will bring long-term benefits to your organisation, the School and business education as a whole. As well as projects, our MBA programme is also an excellent source of interns and full-time employees. You can raise your company s profile by taking part in our Guest Speaker Series, or tap in to research and expertise that improves your organisation s performance. Working with our MBAs can open up a wealth of opportunities for you and your company and help improve UK business education in the long-term. The project is just the beginning. Original thinking worth up to 100,000* *The value of an MBA project based on current academic consultancy fees. go.mbs.ac.uk/mba-projects

3 UK Consultancy Project Original Thinking Applied

4 UK Consultancy Project The UK Consultancy Project (UKCP) is the first major consultancy project in the MBA programme. At this stage of the programme, towards the end of the first year, students are keen to test out their skills and hungry to work with real clients on real business challenges. UK Consultancy Projects can come from any business area and any sector, and can be UK-focused or international in scope. Your company may be based in the UK, but your project doesn t have to be. Your business issue could be international in nature and would benefit from the global perspective of our MBAs. Equally, you don t have to be a UKbased company to take advantage of a UKCP. Recent UKCP clients have been based in India, for example. When you get involved in a UKCP you re not just assigned a student team. Your project has to compete with many others and students will bid only for the most valuable and interesting projects. There is no guarantee that your project will be selected so your brief must be compelling and attractive to student teams. However, our academics are on hand to offer support and guidance on creating a winning brief, should you need it. Our MBAs are on an incredible learning journey we want you to be a part of it. Why do a UK Consultancy Project? More than 800 hours of intensive work from a team of MBAs An average of seven days support from a world-class academic A consultancy project worth 35,000 in equivalent consultancy fees Access to MBS s worldwide network of business leaders and academics An opportunity to be part of global business education. What will it cost? Typical costs are less then 1,000. This includes a project fee of 500 to cover administration costs, plus students travel within the UK and other expenses. The UK Consultancy Project usually takes place between April and July. The process Step 1 Agreement in principle to undertake a UK Consultancy Project (N.B. you are under no obligation to proceed with a project, and you are free to pull out of a project at any stage). Step 2 Develop project brief Whether you have clearly defined objectives and deliverables, or just a vague idea of the issue you need addressing, we can help you develop a brief that will give you the outcome you want. Step 3 Submit brief to students All project briefs are posted on our secure, password-protected intranet. Student teams will choose up to three projects to bid for, ranking them in order of preference. Your project could be chosen by up to 12 teams or none. Step 4 Make a shortlist If your project has been chosen by one or more teams, you will be sent bidding documents that set out the way each team proposes to approach your project. You need to select a shortlist of three for interview. Step 5 Choose your team Each of your selected teams presents their project proposal to you. This is your chance to quiz them on their ideas and methods and see how they work as a team. You then make an offer to the team you think will best suit your requirements. Remember: your first choice team might have accepted another offer, so you may have to accept your second, or even third, choice. (N.B. interviews, and subsequent meetings can be conducted remotely via video conferencing/skype if you are based outside the UK). Step 6 Begin your project It is up to you how much time you commit during the project but we recommend regular dialogue to check the team s progress and discuss any issues. The more time you put in, the better outcome you ll get. Step 6 Get the results Your student team will present the outcomes of their research to you. This will be followed up with a formal report. You will be asked for your feedback on the project as part of our commitment to continually improving the UK Consultancy Project for future clients and students.

5 Case study 1 Client Alexander Brown, Director of Cloud and Managed Services, Cisco Business Worldwide leader in innovative technology solutions. What was your business issue? The way people consume IT services is changing. Harsh economic times coupled with technological advances, such as virtualisation and high-speed ubiquitous internet access, are leading more and more companies to move to a cloud computing model of IT consumption. This promises lower cost and greater flexibility as services would be delivered remotely by service providers and will significantly reduce capital expenditure on IT. This shift will have major implications for the entire IT supply chain from IT manufacturers and service providers to CIOs and IT departments to end users. Cisco is committed to preserving partner value and loyalty. We wanted to understand the long-term impact on our partners businesses of the transition to cloud computing, and how Cisco can gear up to address these issues. What were the project objectives? To provide an analysis of the problems and opportunities for our partners in a cloud enabled world, including: the skills and capabilities required to adapt to the shift future sources of value and differentiation cash flow implications key priorities for Cisco in helping partners adapt to the change. How was the project carried out? The team carried out interviews with a cross-section of partners at varying stages of the transition to cloud-based technology, as well as undertaking some desk research. We had regular dialogue with the group throughout to check their interpretation of the brief and to scope the project to make sure they weren t going off at a tangent. How has the project impacted on your business? The team provided us with a workable model we can use to help our partners with scenario planning. They also gave us access to the intellectual property for the model, so that we can develop it in the future, which was an unexpected bonus. It has given us a baseline to work from and a real idea of how the business might evolve in the future. We could not have reached this point ourselves in such a short space of time. What are the benefits of taking part in a UK Consultancy Project? You get a fresh perspective on a problem from people who are outside the industry. As students they seem more willing to take risks; the team we chose had a very inventive take on the project and we were intrigued to see what they would do with it. You also get to work with ambitious people who are full of enthusiasm and energy, which is very refreshing. What was the biggest challenge? The main challenge for the team was doing it all in the allotted time. If I did it again I would narrow down the brief and focus on one or two issues, so the team could approach them in more detail. However, considering the wide-ranging brief, the outcome was exceptional. How did you find the project process? Just taking part in the process makes you think about your project differently as you get such diverse interpretations of the brief from the bidding teams. The fact that the groups are all from varied backgrounds and with differing cultural perspectives helps to remove geographic barriers and enriches the outcome of the project. How would you sum up your UKCP experience? It was a really worthwhile experience. The research was very insightful. It didn t just give us a snapshot in time, it produced a useable model that has longevity it has given us a great platform for the future. The team did so much more than just corroborate our own ideas, which is what we were expecting. They really impressed us with their insight and some of their findings were quite surprising. Alexander Brown, Director of Cloud and Managed Services, Cisco

6 UK Consultancy Project Case study 2 Client Peter Massey, Head of Product Chemistry, Syngenta Business World-leading agri-business committed to sustainable agriculture through innovative research and technology. What was your business issue? Syngenta is working with several collaborative partners on a Technology Strategy Board-funded project, SYield. The project aims to develop new biosensor technology that can be used in the field to help with early detection of crop disease and pests. This will enable growers to produce more food without increasing chemical inputs and help to improve the UK s long-term food security. We needed to develop a robust business model for taking this emerging technology from concept through to market. As we had worked with MBS on a project before we thought this would be a good opportunity to engage with MBA students again and see what they could do. Other recent UKCP clients include: Alliance Healthcare Archive Solutions AstraZeneca Bunzl Cash Management Systems Join the Dots Living Ventures Restaurants M&I Materials New World Bar Company Yorkville Advisors What were the project objectives? To review a proposed deployment strategy for the sensornetwork and to produce a cost versus benefits analysis, showing potential return-on-investment for users. How was the project carried out? We gave the team a comprehensive briefing about the project on the day of the bids, then we invited them to our offices in Cambridge for further on-site meetings. The team also interviewed several members of staff and farmers involved in the project, as well as developing and sending out a questionnaire to potential end users. We had a weekly teleconference with the team to discuss the project, iron out any problems and test ideas. The team presented their findings to us at the end. How has the project impacted on your business? It has made us look again at the way we might approach the deployment of the biosensor technology in the future. The team came up with several options and their analysis surprised us for example, an idea we had previously thought wouldn t be suitable, they considered a good option. They came up with some novel solutions and some compelling justifications for their choices. We won t now waste time and money pursuing certain business models that we know won t be effective. What are the benefits of taking part in a UK Consultancy Project? You get a perspective on the project that is outside your own thinking and not coloured by any prejudices or preconceptions you might have from people with a background in the industry. You also get a cost-effective way of accessing quality consultancy you are not working with undergraduates with no experience of the workplace, these are high-calibre professionals. What was the biggest challenge? Giving the team enough information to produce a meaningful report in a very short timescale. Keeping them supplied with information, answering questions and general communications requires sufficient time to get a valuable output. Also, the subject matter is pretty complex so it was a challenge for them to take it all on board and produce something as good as they did in such a short time. How did you find the project process? It was very interesting as each of the three teams that bid for the project offered very different interpretations of the brief and ways of approaching the task. We were extremely impressed with the quality and experience of the students we selected. How would you sum up your UK Consultancy Project experience? Very positive. They delivered exactly what they had promised when they originally pitched to us and the outcomes were quite different to what we were expecting. We were surprised by their insight into what is a very complex and specialised industry. I was impressed by how comprehensive the final report was because I know what a heavy workload the students have, and this project was just part of it. They went beyond what was expected to produce a very useful piece of work. Peter Massey, Head of Product Chemistry, Syngenta go.mbs.ac.uk/mba-projects