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Business Solutions Teams at Fisher

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Business Solutions Teams (MBA 805-806)
Professor P. Konstantina Kiousis, Fisher College of Business, The Ohio State University

Management consulting firms provide companies with an important means of developing, acquiring, and processing much needed knowledge and information to managers at all levels and across a wide variety of administrative functions. Business Solutions Teams (BST) is a two-quarter consulting practicum at the Fisher College of Business designed to introduce students to the art, practice, and problems associated with management consulting. The course places emphasis upon approaching business problems with rigorous analytical tools. Students are expected to learn and apply scientific tools a real world problem faced by their client. In doing so, they will then make strategic recommendations regarding their client's proposed challenge.

Course Structure

Welcome to MBA 805-806. This course is designed to engage students in an opportunity to apply rigorous methods to real world problem. The course is demanding in that research, analytical, and presentation skills are applied in a real world setting. This course is structured differently from other courses in the MBA program. Because of the applied nature of the course, BST meets in formal class sessions in the form of a bootcamp early on. These sessions not only introduce students to the consulting process and projects but require students to engage themselves in the process of problem solving.

After the first few sessions, students will organize themselves into engagement teams of 4 or 5 students. These teams will work independently with the client under faculy supervision for the remainder of the following two quarters. Student engagement teams will meet with their instructors on a weekly (or bi-weekly if appropriate) basis and should keep their instructors updated on any important developments. A schedule for these meetings will be established during the second formal session in the fall quarter. It is expected that all students will attend their meetings fully prepared. Good preparation is the sine qua non of good consulting. In addition to these engagement team meetings, at the end of the fall quarter, each team will provide a presentation summarizing the status of their project. During the end of the winter quarter, teams will be asked to present material which they intend to deliver to their client organization.

Readings and Material

Client Presentation Template | Deliverable Template |

Presentations

In class presentations are designed to serve as a dry run for client presentations and will give teams the opportunity to learn from each other and share their experiences. Each Team will have 1/2 hour to present a status report on their project to the class. Time limits will be strictly enforced. Presentations will be done using PowerPoint, using a template provided to you by your instructors.

Midterm presentations must include the following discussion areas. Individual teams can choose which areas they wish to emphasize to the class and may add additional content.

1. Project Scope
2. Analytical Process & Methodology (Models)
3. Status: Where are you now?
4. Research Performed and Planned (Data Collection and/or Analysis)
5. Deliverables
6. Project Value to the Client
7. Specific Lessons Learned (process, client, team, professor)
8. Questions and Discussion (leave five to seven minutes at the end)

Evaluation Forms

Each student will be required to submit presentation peer evaluation forms. During the quarter, teams will be required to present their work to one another. This will allow students to receive feedback from all students in the course.

Each student will be required to submit team evaluation forms. This will allow each team member to evaluate his peers. Individuals who have no contributed their fair share or who have engaged in unprofessional behavior will have their individual grade adjusted down or will be asked to leave the course.

Each student will be asked to submit feedback to their professors in the form of professor evaluation forms. These forms are intended to aid their instructors in course development.

Each student will recieve evaluation forms from their professors. A sample professor feedback form is available for your perusal. Unfortunately, due to confidentiality issues, it had to be significantly shortened.