In E&I Business Project, participants take on the role of junior consultants and will be provided with the opportunity to conduct a real-life consulting project with a well known, internationally operating company.

This winter term's business project at the E&I institute will be dealing with a topic that has proofed to be highly relevant in management science as well as in the practical realm: New business development (NBD). NBD, which comprises the systematic search for, evaluation, and exploitation of new business opportunities, is a major element of the business strategies typically pursued by technology-driven multinationals or start-ups. The basic logic of their strategies often is to transfer existing technological competences into new fields of application that are technologically feasible and commercially attractive. However, despite its importance, many companies fail to conduct those activities effectively: Getting out of the box (the existing target market) and creatively developing ideas of new business opportunities is cognitively challenging and calls for fresh perspectives and ideas from outside the company.

Participants of this term's E&I Business Project will learn how to master challenges in NBD by systematically applying sound methodological approaches. Besides a clear project goal and a straight-forward project structure, participants will be supported by external consulting coaches and field experts. Apart from supporting the project progress, this gives students the opportunity to gain practical insights and extend their professional network. In turn, participants will be asked to commit themselves to the project, devote a reasonable amount of their time to it and to work on the project self-responsibly.

After completing this course students will...

• have the ability to apply systematic methods of creativly searching for new business opportunities 
  
• be able to efficiently evaluate new business opportunities
• know how to conduct market and competitor analyses
• be able to design reasonable business models and commercialization strategies

In addition, students will...

• have learned how to manage innovation projects
• know how to handle external stakeholders (e.g., the project partner)
• be able to structure and present complex matters
  
• be able to manage difficult decision processes and discussion within project teams
• improve their self-organization competence and time-management skills
  

The final grade of the course will depend on

• participation at the internal kick-off meeting and during coaching sessions (15%)
  
• the mid-term and the final presentation (20%)
  
• quality of the 4 written reports (status updates) (40%)
• final business proposal (20%)
  
• executive summary, touchdown presentation (5%)
• peer-ratings can influence the final grade
  

 In order to pass the class, all of these performance indicators have to be positive!

Attendance: In order to successfully pass this course, your absence is limited to 20% of our appointments.
Please note that the full-time presence at the kick-off days and the E&I Touchdown is obligatory!

Dr. Kathrin Reinsberger:

• Email: kathrin.reinsberger@wu.ac.at
• Phone: +43-1-31336-5582

Last-minute changes to appointments should be expected, due to the fact that students will work on a real-life project with an external partner. Reliability, flexibility, and tolerance for ambiguity are of utmost importance!