The CEMS International Business Project (IBP) is designed as a real-life learning experience for students, providing 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.

Project partner: Coca-Cola HBC Austria

This CEMS IBP involves three projects, all of which interlink in various ways along the broad theme of sustainable development. Students self-assign themselves to one project based on interest, expertise, considerations of diversity, and skills. Each project involves comparable research-, analysis-, and recommendation-tasks and requires examining the Austrian and international markets based on primary (e.g., in-depth interviews, focus groups, etc.) and secondary research. A good command of German is not a strict requirement but certainly a plus for analyses focused on Austria. To foster joint learning and cross-fertilization, all students in this CEMS IBP will be involved in critical discussion and provision of feedback regarding all three projects.

Projects 1 and 2: Sustainability as a Competitive Advantage in the Austrian Beverage Market

This CEMS IBP will likely be of interest to you if you have or to build expertise in

• sustainable development and corporate responsibility
• B2B or B2C marketing and sales
• marketing communication
• organizational development

Project 3: Organizational Benefits of Inclusive Age Diversity

This CEMS IBP will likely be of interest to you if you have or aim to build expertise in

• sustainable development and corporate responsibility
• diversity, inclusion, and HR management
• corporate communications
• organizational development

The aims of the CEMS IBP are

• to investigate and structure a complex management challenge that an aspiring international player faces
• to provide an in-depth analysis of the current state of affairs
• 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 firm faces in its management environment and how it deals with such issues
• learned how to analyze and structure real-life management situations
• 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