This time, the IfU Business Project will be held in collaboration with tink, an online retailer and leading expert for everything related to the Internet of Things, and focus on the topic of “Explosive Growth in an Innovative Start-Up: Managing the Austrian Market". Specifically, students will be consultants who will test the firm’s business model and, with the assistance of revenue generation and customer preference analyses, identify further growth potentials in the Austrian market. In addition, central differences to the German market should be identified, so that Austrian-specific measures are possible. Your work will result in recommendations for action that are presented to tink’s top management team at the end of the project.
This is a real-life consulting course that blends research and practice. This award-winning (WU Excellence in Teaching, Ars Docendi State Prize) course is unique, as participants will be both WU’s SIMC master and IfU bachelor students. The master students will act as team leaders.
In a collaborative project with our partner, students are asked, inter alia, to:
- conduct an in-depth analysis of the industry, including the key drivers of change and prevailing trends,
- investigate customer preferences and perceptions surrounding Smart Home Gadgets,
- evaluate revenue models suitable for tink,
- analyze central differences between the Austrian and surrounding markets.
LEARNING OPPORTUNITIES FOR STUDENTS:
- Students will learn about business model analysis in a fast-moving environment as reflected in tink's fast growth over the last years. You will gain consulting experience in research-focused consulting project and learn how to do a practically relevant research study. Students will gain unique real-world insights into the smart home and online retailing industry and will have the opportunity to learn empirical research methods, such as expert interviews and survey study.
- Students will be able to develop and train their team-working and leadership skills. According to the “IfU Business Project Approach“ which has been awarded the Austrian State Prize for teaching (Ars Docendi) in 2016, up to five Master Students will take the role of team leaders and lead small teams of Bachelor students. The experienced challenges of leadership will be discussed in class and all students (Bachelor and Master students) will have the opportunity to get invaluable „learning by doing“ leadership experience for their future career.