Students will be working on a Business Project with coaching from volunteers from McKinsey & Company.

Overall project aim

#SpeedUpTalent: How businesses can attract women/diverse talent fast?

Project Details and expected Objectives

1. Assessment of status quo

In a first step, students are expected to look into the host university’s national environment in terms of what companies are currently doing to attract women and diverse talent, measure diversity and effectiveness of their diversity efforts, as well as what the main challenges are. Students are also expected to analyze women and diverse talents' preferences and how Covid-19 influenced these preferences.

2. Development and implementation of recommendations

In a second step, students should propose solutions based on their findings. Students are also expected to prioritize solutions based on a matrix of effectiveness and feasibility and develop a high-level implementation plan.

McKinsey consultants will provide guidance to students with background literature on the topic, as well as narrow the topic focus based on specific use cases. Students are not expected to have any background knowledge in recruiting or any related fields. More details on specific tasks and research questions will be provided to the selected student team in the beginning of the project.

Knowledge and Understanding:

After completing this course, students will have:

• extended their knowledge on strategy processes  
• 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 strategy 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.

As this course format heavily relies on personal interaction between students, McKinsey consultants 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.

This business project uses a combination of discussions with McKinsey representatives, feedback sessions, presentations, group coaching, as well as individual/group work outside the classroom.

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 and McKinsey interaction.

Afterwards, the students will officially kick-off the project. In a plenary session, McKinsey consultants 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 McKinsey.

Throughout the process, various feedback loops (in coaching and feedback sessions with the faculty and/or McKinsey) 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 McKinsey 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.

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.