The International Business Projects reinforce the CEMS partnership between universities and companies in jointly shaping international management education. The course is designed as a real life learning experience for students. It provides students with a unique opportunity to gain insights into corporate practice. International student teams solve a real business, strategy and/or management problem as a one-term activity tutored by university faculty and the company.

Corporate Partner:       Jaeger-LeCoultre (Richemont Group) 

One hundred and eighty different expert skills are brought together under one roof, to breathe life into the heart of the watches and to animate each infinitely small component. Design, assemble, decorate or crimp; every different stage required for the creation of a Jaeger-LeCoultre timepiece is conducted within the Grande Maison. 

Since the beginning, the Maison has created more than 1200 calibers, which today have earned it unique renown in the watchmaking industry. Its iconic collections, such as the Reverso which was born of the Art Déco movement in 1931, the Master, with classic and refined masculine lines, or even the Atmos, the pendulum watch with almost perpetual movement, form the foundation for the Manufacturer's pride and the satisfaction of their loyal clients. 

First watch Manufacture in the Vallée de Joux, it has around 1,200 employees working over an area of 25,000 m2. Of our employees, 1,000 are concerned with industrial activities, including around 200 watchmakers.

In the heart of the Vallée de Joux, in the Swiss Jura Mountains, the Manufacturer Jaeger-LeCoultre has continuously renewed its creativity and collective invention since 1833.

We are rare in the watch industry in that we simultaneously produce around 50 different calibres each year. Thanks to its spirit of innovation and its philosophy of “product integrity”, the Manufacture is able to present an average of 5 new calibres each year.

Our Maison is part of the Richemont Group, owner of prestigious Maisons (Cartier, Mont Blanc, Chloé, etc.), recognised for their excellence in jewellery, watches, fashion and accessories, and distinguished by their craftsmanship and creativity. The Group's unique portfolio also includes leading online distributors (Mr. Porter, Net-à-Porter) that are focused on expert curation and technological innovation to deliver the highest standards of service.

Project Title:              Jaeger-LeCoultre Experience Offer            

The aims of the course are to:

• investigate and structure a complex strategic management challenge that a company faces in its international market environment,
• conduct an in-depth analysis of the current status,
• provide alternative strategic solutions that are viable under the given organizational and financial constraints,
• propose a decision for the most promising solution, and
• support this decision with key arguments based on theoretical considerations and empirical findings.

Participants have to attend min. 80% of the sessions.

The course will be delivered in a hybrid mode. The first session of the course will take place in-person on campus, for the remaining sessions participants and faculty meet remotely in synchronous online sessions (MS Teams), all of which are mandatory.

This business project uses a combination of discussions with company representatives, feedback sessions, presentations, group coaching and feedback, 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 supervising faculty, the challenges and milestones of the real-life international strategy and/or management case are outlined. At the same time, students are familiarized with the guiding principles of project work, with the project plan and rules in handling supervising faculty/corporate partner interaction.

After familiarizing the students with the international strategy and/or management challenge, contact with the corporate partner is established. In a plenary session, the corporate partner outlines the business challenge from their perspective and provides useful input into the business, the market situation, and the specific challenge to be dealt with.

Subsequently, groups of students work on their assigned real-life international strategy and/or management case the firm is currently facing. Groups collect relevant data through secondary and primary (qualitative and/or quantitative) market research. Based on these analyses, recommendations for the specific international strategy and/or management challenges are prepared and substantiated through theory and market research results.

Throughout the process, various feedback loops (in coaching sessions with the individual faculty supervising group work, in plenary sessions with all groups/academic supervisors (mid-term presentation), or in coaching and feedback sessions with the corporate partner) are installed to make sure that students are on the right track and get the input needed in each project phase.

Results are presented to the corporate partner 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.

It is the express 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, corporate partner, and faculty, presence in sessions is mandatory

Assessment

Assessment is based on the quality of the mid-term presentation and end-term presentation, the participation during the classes, group members’ peer rating, and the final report. The minimum score to pass the course is half of the highest score for each of these elements.

Students will be assessed on their ability to

• understand and analyze international strategy and/or management challenges,
• use appropriate analytical techniques and deliver relevant market research information,
• present results in high quality.

This implies an ability to work in teams. Students failing to participate in their teams will lose the marks for that piece of work and thereby fail the entire course.

Group level (70%)

- Tentative presentation (20%)

- Final presentation (30%)

- Final report (20%)

Individual level (30%)

- Peer review (10%)

- Participation (20%)

Only CEMS MIM students are eligible to take ethis course. 10 students make a course viable at MSc Level unless Special circumstances prevail. If fewer than 10 students register, the course will not run

Plagiarism and cheating

The University’s general guidance for students on plagiarism and cheating can be found at http://www.wu.ac.at./cems/program.

Email accounts and learn@wu platform

All matriculated students automatically receive an e-mail account from the University. This is known as a student’s WU email account, and the email address is of the form: h1234567@wu.ac.at. Students can access their emails via a direct web interface, allowing access from most web browsers virtually anywhere on the internet.

The Institute and other University services such as the Library and CEMS office will use this email address (only) to contact you. You should therefore check this email account frequently and regularly. Should you wish to read your email on an account other than your WU email account, you should enable an email auto-forward from your WU account to this other address by following the advice on the IT Services (ZID) web pages: http://www.wu.ac.at/zid

The course website can be found on the Learn@WU system, which you can access through the WU Student portal (https://learn.wu.ac.at/). You will be able to find a copy of this course outline, course handouts, announcements, etc. It is important that you regularly check the Learn@WU system in order to keep up to date with the course. Course instructors and secretaries will use the system Learn@WU Mail function to send out important announcements to the whole class. It is vitally important that you check your WU mailbox regularly or set it up so that it forwards messages automatically to your regular e-mail account

Please note: The syllabus and all information related to this project may be subject to changes. This document will not be updated once the course has started; refer to the arrangements communicated during the course.