Business Strategy Capstone

SMO 641
Closed
University of Alberta
Edmonton, Alberta, Canada
Tony Briggs
Executive Professor, University of Alberta
(5)
6
Timeline
  • September 9, 2020
    Experience start
  • September 18, 2020
    Projects Selected
  • October 2, 2020
    Project Scope Approval
  • October 29, 2020
    Final Report
  • October 30, 2020
    Project Feedback Review - in class
  • December 4, 2020
    Final Project Presentation
  • December 9, 2020
    Experience end
Experience
3/5 project matches
Dates set by experience
Preferred companies
Canada
Any
Any industries
Categories
Accounting Leadership Organizational structure Market research Product or service launch
Skills
business consulting business strategy competitive analysis data analysis research
Learner goals and capabilities

Capstone projects use students' competencies developed throughout the MBA program to solve real-world business problems supplied by a variety of organizations and are completed in the student's final term. Capstone projects are experiential learning in action that mutually benefit students and organizations.

Chosen projects are required to be strategic in nature, integrated across multiple functional areas (finance, operations, marketing, human relations, etc.) and can be completed in a 3-month time frame and are sufficient in scope to provide an average of 10hrs/week commitment from a 3-5 person student team.

Once the proposals have been selected by the students, the assigned team will reach out to their successful organization to arrange the first meeting. If your proposal is not successful, you will be contacted to see if you are willing to move your project to the following term for consideration of a new group of students with different areas of interest.

Learners
Graduate
Any level
45 learners
Project
40 hours per learner
Learners self-assign
Teams of 4
Expected outcomes and deliverables
  • Each team will make a formal presentation based upon their project to the project organization. The presentation will 20 minutes long and allow for 5 minutes of questions (25 minutes in total). Presentations will be open to the class but, in some circumstances, may be closed at the request of the project organization.
  • A final 30 page project report discussing current strategies and potential relationships using multiple frameworks from the strategy class.
  • Please note: We will be accepting projects after speaking with the company. The next step will be for our students to review all accepted projects and select the projects they will be working on by September 17, 2020. If no students select your project, we will un-match your project for this term and provide you a few details as we may be able to work together during our Winter semester.
Project timeline
  • September 9, 2020
    Experience start
  • September 18, 2020
    Projects Selected
  • October 2, 2020
    Project Scope Approval
  • October 29, 2020
    Final Report
  • October 30, 2020
    Project Feedback Review - in class
  • December 4, 2020
    Final Project Presentation
  • December 9, 2020
    Experience end
Project Examples

Check out this video that talks about this course including examples of past company projects in the past!

Companies must answer the following questions to submit a match request to this experience:

Attend the final presentation and provide feedback.

Provide a dedicated contact who is available to answer periodic emails or phone calls over the duration of the project to address students' questions.

Sponsors should expect three meetings (or more) with their team during the semester.