MBA Blogs @ Manchester Business School

I don’t know about the others but I must admit that I kind of miss my MBS Classroom environment.

Currently all full-time students from class 2012 (like myself) are under our final mission, the International Business (IB) project. The IB Project is a consultancy project that a group of student will have to work with the client to guide them through their global ambition. We have to conduct a rigorous business research (will try our best, sir!), provide the best possible recommendation to clients and at the same time provide the best impact on MBS reputation. This project is called IB because it involves serving international clients or clients with global ambition. (The pre-requisite of this project is the international travel). This year we have 22 groups serving around 20 clients (and will travel to at least 10 countries around the world, depend on the project)

My client is a very successful company in the UK. They have recently expanded to the US. They are so successful that now they want to conquer the world with aggressive business expansion plan. They are not afraid of the competition. (It’s blue ocean business) My project is to identify the highest potential markets and provide them the market entry strategy. Sound fun but there were a lot of blood, sweat, and tears behind it. We identified 20 variables to be studied and used them to rank 60 countries. ( 20 X 60 = 1,200 data points to be collected in 2 weeks. Let alone identifying the weights of these factors). We had our top 10 finalist today and ready to be discussed with the client tomorrow! XD

Do You know that normally we cannot choose our own group to work with at MBS? Basically, the school will randomly assigned a group for us for every subject. (I think it is good for students because we have chance to work with many people. And finally, you know what kind of people you enjoy working with) However, there is only 1 course that we can choose our own team member, and it is the final one, the IB project. So my previous experience on working with many classmates came in handy. I have teamed up with all 3 of my friends from my marketing group (my first group at MBS), one from my UKCP group, and one new. We compose of a PHD Russian bombshell, an ex-IBM peruvian consultant who can speak Italian, an ex-P&G brand manager who was born in Myanmar, an Egyptian political activist who worked in finance, an incredible IT guy (McKinsey-to-be) who hope that his family will find him a wife, and myself, an accountant who won a marketing award that changed her life (Hopefully, my MBS will twist it again). lolz

My group works from Monday to Friday (and sometimes during the weekend) from 10am to 6pm or more. (Others might run on a different schedule. As far as I know, one group manages to work from 1pm to 9pm everyday ) I like my project but sometimes I can’t help missing studying in the classroom during my first year. Studying in the classroom requires less brain to function. You can just attend the class. You have options to note down the key points, or to just sit back and relax (not recommend!). You can express your opinions during class discussion, if you like. At the end of the course, you study for the exam. Easy right? But the real life is much more complicated. In the IB project, you work on the real business problems. There is no powerpoint presentation from the Professor but the expression from the client’s face that we have to identify the underlying needs. There are millions of possible solutions to be explored. Only the best one should be identified, and justified. Follow by some options as alternative plans. There is a result to be delivered every week and we are trying our best to deliver the best project. I must admit that it is much easier to study in the classroom than to work in the consulting project. However, as part of our MBA life, we need to be able to combine our past experience with what we have learned in MBS, and move higher. And the IB project is the perfect final step that will sharpen our skill more before going out to the real world (again).

Best of Luck for the interim presentation week!!!

P.S. Since I am on the mission, I can’t tell you the name of my client or the name of my agents (team members). Sorry for that XD