MBA Consultancy Project by Robert Gordon University

MBA CONSULTANCY PROJECT

FRESH IDEAS FRESH FACES

ABERDEEN BUSINESS SCHOOL

ABERDEEN BUSINESS SCHOOL MBA CONSULTANCY PROJECT

CONTENTS Consultancy Project Overview

MBA Consultancy Project

Benefits to Business

Examples of MBA Consultancy Projects

Case Studies

Consultancy Project Lifecycle

Roles And Responsibilities

It is my pleasure to provide an overview of the Consultancy Project and to set this in the context of the overall MBA Programme. The MBA is a strategic general management programme that is specifically designed to accelerate career development through a blend of theory and practice. The programme is accredited by the Association of MBAs (AMBA). One of the requirements of this accreditation is that students should have a minimum of three years professional experience after obtaining their first degree (or equivalent professional body qualification) and that the cohort of students should have an average of five years experience. Our MBA exceeds this requirement and you can be assured that our students can bring a lot of prior experience to bear alongside their MBA education whilst working on your project.

The consultancy project serves a number of useful purposes:

The MBA covers all of the functional aspects of management including accounting, finance, economics, operations, people management, and marketing together with strategic management. The MBA Oil and Gas Management additionally contextualises much of the content to the needs of the energy industry.

Yours sincerely

1. It provides you with the ability to undertake a relevant investigation with resultant recommendations and conclusions. 2. It provides you with the opportunity to consider recruiting students who have performed well. 3. The project may be individual or team-based and this provides an opportunity for students to put their learning into practice on an agreed real live issue. As is explained in more detail later in this brochure, the consultancy project is agreed in advance and the scope will determine the size of the team involved. I do hope that you will find this opportunity to obtain some mutual benefit an attractive proposition and will proceed to contact us to explore this opportunity further.

Prof Ken Russell Associate Dean

ABERDEEN BUSINESS SCHOOL MBA CONSULTANCY PROJECT

MBA CONSULTANCY PROJECT

BENEFITS TO BUSINESS

The MBA Consultancy Project is designed to provide graduates with the experience of providing real life consultancy services to a client organisation.

Consultants can bring a number of benefits to your business – including experience and knowledge not currently available within the organisation.

A team of up to four MBA students will act as external consultants working on a real issue identified by you, the client. You can expect up to 1,000 hours of consultants’ time depending on the number in a team. Start: July Duration: 12 weeks

The MBA consultancy project enables you to achieve these benefits at no cost whilst providing invaluable experience to our MBA students – business men and women with no less than three years’ managerial experience. A consultancy team can provide an independent review of the organisation at a strategic level and propose unique solutions which reflect your compan y’s circumstances and aspirations. Other benefits include: • Speed of action. You will benefit from the consultants’ ability to dedicate full attention to the problem at hand - this project will be their sole focus for 14 weeks. • Exposure to expertise derived from other industries and sectors, or indeed other countries. • Provision of specific technical skills that are either non-existent or in short supply in-house, and often the transfer of such skills to in-house staff. • Change management skills, as well as the ability to remain distant from internal cultural and political issues. • Exposure to expertise derived from other industries and sectors, or indeed other countries. • Provision of specific technical skills that are either non-existent or in short supply in-house, and often the transfer of such skills to in-house staff. • Change management skills, as well as the ability to remain distant from internal cultural and political issues.

ABERDEEN BUSINESS SCHOOL MBA CONSULTANCY PROJECT

examples of MBA CONSULTANCY PROJECTS

CASE STUDIES

Some of the areas which our MBA Consultancy projects have focused on are:

Expansion into China

• Preparing investor ready business plans • Completing market research studies • Assessing strategic options for the SME Evaluating expansion options • Developing HR policies • Evaluating and recommending business process improvement to supply chains • Application of knowledge management • Financing new product development.

An international oil contractor, faced faced with stiff competition, was considering expansion into the Chinese market but recognised that they had limited knowledge of the Chinese market and culture. The Consultancy Team identified that the key issue was to clarify the Client’s understanding of the Chinese contracting industry and identify the strategic drivers and their impact on the relationships between the various players. The Consultancy Team comprised three Chinese and one Mexican student, none of whom had any prior knowledge of the oil and gas sector. Through an in depth appraisal of the sponsor company’s business model, a detailed analysis

of the Chinese market a range of strategic options were presented to the Client’s business development team. The real value to the Client was the Consultancy Team’s ability to combine the company’s strategic management principles within a context of Chinese culture. Maintaining entrepreneurial spirit

practices alongside the CEO’s passion to maintain and develop an entrepreneurial outlook across the company. The team presented their findings to senior management and the client recognised the challenges presented and the value in continuing the relationshipwith the University and future MBA consultants to implement the model.

This Client company, a product of a recent MBO, has expanded rapidly both in the home and international market. The Consultancy Team’s remit was, through a series of focus group meetings, to conduct a culture audit. From this, a model of cultural change was developed which brought together the theoretical underpinning of culture and change management and applied these to the company’s current 5

ABERDEEN BUSINESS SCHOOL MBA CONSULTANCY PROJECT

CONSULTANCY PROJECT LIFECYCLE The MBA Consultancy Project mirrors the process that would be followed when using the services of commercial consultants. Five distinct phases are recognised: Scope

Develop

Implement

Review

Client and Consultancy Team agree on a scope of work, the Project Brief. This determines the expected deliverables and the responsibilities of the team. At this stage the Consultancy Team will complete a Project Briefing Document, which, once agreed, will be signed off by the Client sponsor and Aberdeen Business School mentor.

After the Project Briefing Document is sanctioned, the Consultancy Team will develop a full project plan, complete with time lines, resource requirements and deliverables. This serves two functions: to ensure that the Clients expectations and consultants understanding of the brief are in line and to ensure that the scope of work is both sufficient in scale and complexity and achievable within the time allotted for completion of the project.

Once the plan is approved, the Consultancy Team begin the project. Monitoring of progress is the responsibility of the Client and where necessary you will be asked to provide guidance and support to the Consultancy Team. At the same time the Aberdeen Business School mentor monitors progress both from an academic and business perspective.

Towards the end of the project period, the Client and Team should meet for a formal review of progress and a discussion of the outcomes of the project. In conjunction with the Aberdeen Business School mentor, the Consultancy Team are challenged to support their findings and recommendations. At this stage changes can be made that reflect specific objectives of the Client organisation.

At the close of the project, the Consultancy Team deliver a formal presentation to the Client organisation with an emphasis on the key findings and the recommendations. Where possible, we would encourage senior management of the Client organisation to participate in this presentation. This presentation effectively marks the close of the project and following minor amendments the final Project Report is submitted to the Client.

ABERDEEN BUSINESS SCHOOL MBA CONSULTANCY PROJECT

ROLES AND RESPONSIBILITIES

Next Steps

CLIENT SPONSOR

MBA CONSULTANCY TEAM

ABERDEEN BUSINESS SCHOOL MENTOR

Identify suitable Consultancy Project that addresses a real issue within organisation

Develop a Project Brief that meets Client need

Ensure project deliverables are achievable within allotted time and resources are available to complete the Project

Negotiate project brief with Consultancy Team and approve final document

Put Client interests first and work diligently to deliver promised outcomes in Project Brief

Provide assistance to Consultancy Team such as access to essential and agreed resources within organisation

Engage with Client and staff with sensitivity at all times

Meet regularly with Consultancy Team to review, progress and advise Aberdeen Business School mentor of any potential problems

Provide well reasoned, honest and transparent analysis of business problem

Attend and encourage senior management to attend the formal Presentation

Be sensitive to Client’s commercial activities and demands on time and resources.

Sign off at project completion

Report any difficulties at earliest opportunity and work to resolve any difficulties to the satisfaction of the Client

Meet with Aberdeen Business School mentor to discuss the outcomes and benefits of Project.

Be open to review and challenge of analysis and recommendations

Through regular contact with Client, ensure that Consultancy Team is providing a professional level of service Attend planned review meetings with Consultancy Team and Client Attend final review presentation Meet with Client to review benefits of project within 3 months of project completion. Treat all Client information confidentially

Treat all Client information confidentially

Through regular contact with Consultancy Team, ensure that Project remains on schedule and analysis is moving towards appropriate recommendations

If you believe that the MBA Consultancy project will be of benefit to you then please contact us to discuss further. You might want to consider the following points: • An outline of the proposed project scope • The expected benefits to your company • The expected deliverables from the project • The principal location for the project. If you would like to receive additional information about a suitable scope for a project or indeed any aspects of the process then we can arrange a meeting with the MBA Consultancy Project Management Team. Contact Lisa Lloyd-Jones, Placement Manager E:l.j.lloyd-jones@rgu.ac.uk T: 01224 263837

Top Modern University The Sunday Times 2012 Designed and printed by The Gatehouse, Design & Print Consultancy at Robert Gordon University in Aberdeen. Robert Gordon University, a Scottish charity registered under charity number SCO13781