Defining a rulebook to improve the performance of a sales team with ABB

This Business Project represents a unique opportunity to collect real-life project experience in a very dynamic environment. ABB is a pioneering technology leader that works closely with utility, industry, transportation and infrastructure customers to write the future of industrial digitalization and realize value. You will be collaborating with ABB’s Marketing & Sales (M&S) Performance Management department and will be directly in contact with the department’s Vice President.

The project’s goal will be to define a rulebook to improve the performance of a sales team. Due to ABB’s business being spread around the whole world, the company realized that there is a need to harmonize and standardize local processes (if possible). Therefore, you will conduct analyses for global account managers both internally and externally so that a standardized rulebook can be developed. For the internal research, you will work with divisional and local unit rulebooks that are already available. Externally, you will focus on collecting and analyzing best practices.

The whole analysis will be based on ABB’s global salesforce.com (SFDC) implementation. In this respect, ABB is a pioneer as one of the few big multinationals that have fully implemented SFDC. You will highly benefit from this company experience and will obtain a rigorous training on SFDC. Additionally, you will most likely also collaborate with external solution providers (i.e. Accenture) and will have the chance to get to know ABB in more detail by flying to their headquarters and visiting a fair with them.

For these reasons, this business project will allow you to have a real impact at ABB and to help them in improving the performance of their sales teams. You will define the precise scope of the project at the kick-off event with ABB and will then work on a highly interesting project with unique opportunities.

Knowledge and Understanding:

After completing this course, students will have:

• extended their knowledge on international customer relationship management and related software solutions (i.e. SFDC) 
• learned how to collect, analyze, and structure data
• developed project management skills
• received feedback from practitioners on the outcome of their analyses and the viability of their recommendations

Cognitive & Subject Specific Skills:

Upon completion of the course, students will have the ability to:

• develop critical thinking and defend their developed arguments in class and in front of practitioners
• apply tools for analyzing challenges in the global environment

Key Skills:

Students upon completion of the course will have the ability to:

• conduct research on global sales processes
• gather and filter information efficiently and effectively on a specific research topic
• organize teamwork including presentation and report writing skills
• shift material quickly and efficiently to structure it into a coherent argument and to present it in a concise way tailored to a professional audience
• present this business project to the partner in a professional way, through personal presentation skills and support of suitable media,
• utilize the theoretical knowledge and the interpersonal skills developed throughout their studies to solve a real-life challenge.

This business project uses a combination of discussions with ABB representatives and external solution providers, feedback sessions, presentations, group coaching, as well as individual/group work outside the classroom. Groups of students will be formed in the kick-off session.

In a first kick-off session with the supervising faculty, the challenges and milestones of the case will be outlined. At the same time, students will be familiarized with the guiding principles of project work, with the project plan and rules in handling the supervising faculty/ ABB interaction.

Afterwards, the students will officially kick-off the project in collaboration with ABB. In a plenary session, ABB will outline the challenges from their perspective and provide useful input for the project (e.g. experience on former, related projects) and the specific challenges to be dealt with. As a result of that, students will come up with the precise scope of the project.

Subsequently, the students will receive training on the needed software solutions and will start the collaboration with ABB.

Throughout the process, various feedback loops (in coaching and feedback sessions with the faculty and/or ABB) will be installed to make sure that students are on the right track and get relevant input needed in each project phase.

Results will be presented to ABB managers at the end of this process. The verbal and printed presentations will be assessed. Students will have to actively participate in class, hold group presentations and summarize their findings in a final report (final presentation document). It is the policy of the class that no late assignments will be accepted under any circumstances. As this course format heavily relies on personal interaction between students, ABB and faculty, presence in sessions is mandatory. More than two times absence during the sessions announced at the beginning of the seminar will lead to exclusion from the seminar.

Assessment is based on the quality of the mid- and end-term presentation, the participation during the classes, group members’ peer ratings, and the final report (final presentation document).

Group assessment:

• Mid-term Presentation (PowerPoint Document): 20%
• Mid-term Presentation (oral Presentation): 10%
• End-term Presentation (PowerPoint Document): 30%
• End-term Presentation to Corporate Partner: 20%

Individual:

• Peer rating: 20%

Students will be assessed on:

• their ability to understand and analyze international strategy and/or management challenges,
• their ability to use the appropriate analytical techniques and to come up with relevant advice,
• the quality of the presentations and the written reports; by quality in this context we mean the clarity and persuasiveness of each bit of work. This implies an ability to work in teams.

Students failing to participate in their teams will lose the marks for that piece of work.

WU will retain a copy of all coursework for Teaching Quality Assessment as part of the ongoing quality assessment program. It is important, therefore, that students make a second copy for their own purposes.

Univ. Prof. Dr. Phillip C. Nell - phillip.nell@wu.ac.at

Jan Schmitt - jan.schmitt@wu.ac.at