The CEMS International Business Project (IBP) is designed as a real-life learning experience for students. It provides students with a unique opportunity to gain insights into corporate practice of an international player. Student teams deal with a real-life management challenge as a one-term activity tutored by university faculty and the CEMS IBP partner.

CEMS IBP partner: MTOP

MORE THAN ONE PERSPECTIVE (MTOP) is a social enterprise and advanced training program that offers various workshops, trainings and mentoring to prepare highly qualified refugees to enter the Austrian labor market. MTOP enables them to find work suited to their skills, knowledge and experience. The associate program also helps employers to find talent and increase the diversity of their staff. MTOP’s mission is to make the high potential of refugees accessible to the labor market and to break down negative stereotypes. For more information about the program visit www.mtop.at.

In 2017, MTOP won the Social Impact Award and Nina Poxleitner and Lisa-Maria Sommer, the two co-founders of the program, were just included in the prestigious Forbes 30 Under 30 Europe ranking.

Project focus areas:

-  Definition of value proposition of MTOP to companies

-  Sustainability / duplicability of MTOP’s business model

For this CEMS IBP, suitable participants should

• have an interest in and knowledge about NGOs and social entrepreneurship
• be able to systematically carry out analyses using both qualitative and quantitative approaches
• be willing to acquire the knowledge and skills required for successfully completing this CEMS IBP. This also includes basic project-management skills and competencies.

Please note the following:

• Possible changes: Due to the dynamic nature of projects, all information, contents, and dates can be subject to change.
• Workload: When you plan your semester, consider that the CEMS IBP will require substantial time (approx. half the workload of a full semester). Thus, have in mind the workload of a CEMS IBP when you determine your semester's workload.
• Attendance: Continuous attendance of all scheduled sessions and meetings is a firm requirement in this CEMS IBP. The current syllabus contains ALL possible meeting dates. After registration, you will receive a schedule that delineates all mandatory meetings. Those dates include presentation, coaching, discussion and/or feedback meetings, which are crucial for the successful completion of the project. We expect that you are fully available for these dates. The remaining dates are fallback options relevant only in case additional meetings should be required.

The aims of the CEMS IBP are

• to investigate and structure a complex management challenge that an international player, a NGO or a social enterprise faces
• to provide an in-depth analysis of the status quo
• to provide strategic recommendations that are viable under the given organizational conditions

After completing this CEMS IBP students will have

• gained insights into what challenges an international player, a NGO or a social entreprise faces in its management environment and how it deals with such issues
• learned how to analyze and structure real-life management situations in an international context
• combined and applied several conceptual approaches to the international management challenge
• received feedback from various stakeholders on the outcomes of their analyses and the viability of their recommendations

Students will have the ability to

• develop critical thinking and defend their arguments in front of corporate representatives
• organize teamwork and "sell" their solutions in a professional way, based on in-depth research and through solid presentation skills

The sessions involve a mix of presentations, discussions, and workshops with both the project partner and faculty. Consequently, continuous attendance of all scheduled sessions and meetings is absolutely mandatory as it is critical to the success of the project and will determine your grade. In order to support your work throughout the project, you will have plenty of opportunities to get qualified input and feedback.

Students' grades will be determined as follows:

60% team grade

• 5% work-plan presentation
• 15% mid-term presentation
• 20% final presentation
• 20% final project report

40% individual grade

• 10% IBP commitment (attendance, contributions to discussions, dealing with questions from faculty and project partner, etc.)
• 10% process handling (ability to work independently, meeting deadlines, timely submissions of peer reviews, etc.)
• 20% peer review

Attendance of all scheduled sessions and meetings is a firm requirement for participation in this CEMS IBP project.

Marius Brand
marius.brand@wu.ac.at
Phone: +43-1-31336-5291

Günter K. Stahl
guenter.stahl@wu.ac.at
Phone: +43-1-31336-6014