The course comprises a research project on the analysis of real-world strategic questions with support from the analysis of decision data. Students will be divided in teams, take on the role of management consultants, and will be provided with the opportunity to conduct an academic consulting project. Different teams will study different research questions. If the project is run with an established company, then the project questions will be developed jointly with the industry partner. (For example, if the industry partner is an online trading platform, one team may analyze their selling mechanisms.)

These analyses will rely on information and data provided and will target strategic research questions of direct value to the partner or real-world application. The focus is on problem-oriented data acquisition and analysis, intuitive understanding of business challenges, logical argumentation, and immediate applicability.

The project course requires a particular degree of motivation, initiative, perseverance, and self-dependence. You will train yourself in grasping strategic problems and in the evidence-based generation and application of problem solutions. The goal is to give students the opportunity to apply the knowledge and skills they obtained in their previous studies, such that it is highly recommend (though not formally required) to complete the other courses of the SBWL prior.

On successful completion of the course, you should be trained in:

• identifying specific strategic business problems,
• planning of a business consulting project,
• identifying and obtain relevant data for problem analysis,
• choosing appropriate methods to analyze the data,
• evaluating and analyzing data and deriving conclusions,
• critically reflecting the findings,
• presenting and discussing research process and conclusions in front company representatives and academic experts, and
• working collaboratively to complete complex tasks.

The projects usually start with a kickoff meeting (in which an industry partner may be present). After a definition of research question and scope of project, the teams will work independently, under close guidance of advisors. The project work will result in an intermediate presentation of preliminary results, a final project report as well as a project presentation (once again with possible presence of an industry partner).

During the project you will have several meetings with the instructors of this course in order to provide you with timely feedback on the project’s progress. 

The final grade of the course will depend on

• Participation at the internal kick-off meeting and during coaching sessions (15%)
   
• Intermediate presentation: 20%
  Presentation of project’s intermediate results and current progress.
   
• Final presentation: 25%
  Presentation on project question, methods, results, and conclusions (in presence of the company’s representatives).
   
• Project report: 40%
  Written document that covers the whole project work, including research question, data and methods used, findings and conclusions.