The Asian Institute of Management’s MBA program includes the prospect of maximizing our students’ experiential learning opportunities in addressing real-world challenges faced by various business organizations through an action consulting project.

The action consulting project consists of a real-world business challenge or issue posed by participating organizations to teams of MBA students who are expected to:

• identify issues faced by the organization and its root cause;
• provide a diagnosis of the business challenge and recommend solutions to the specific business issue/challenge; and
• generate a detailed implementation plan.

Last year, twenty-nine (29) companies from India, Singapore, the UK, and the Philippines participated in the program. Some of the projects that our student-teams worked on were in the areas of digital and marketing strategy, strategic HR planning, channel strategy and development, redesign of digital marketing operations, employer branding and engagement, sustainability, and process review, to name a few.

We are delighted to inform you that we are currently accepting projects for this program.

HOW IT WORKS

• Companies propose a project by completing the Project Brief Form. The ideal project is multidisciplinary but, at a minimum, should cover at least two functional areas.
• A team of AIM faculty will review the proposal to ensure that the scope and complexity of the project can be completed within the time allocated for the action consultancy project.
• A team of 3-4 students and a faculty mentor will be assigned to each project.
• The organization and the student-team meet to finalize the Terms of Reference, fine tuning expectations, deliverables and timeline of the project.
• A Memorandum of Agreement (MOA) and a Data Outsourcing Agreement (DOA) will be provided for the engagement. Organization-specific data will be provided by the companies upon receipt of the signed non-disclosure agreements from student-teams and mentors.
• Partner-organizations assign technical representatives who will work with the assigned student-team from the initial study until completion of all deliverables.
• The action consulting project is scheduled during Term 3 after students have completed all their core courses, and student-teams work full time on their projects for six (6) weeks, beginning May 24, 2021.
• Student-teams’ final output include a written report and a presentation of their findings and recommendations. The project will not include execution of the plan but the organization has the option to hire the students for plan execution. This may be initiated only after the students have successfully completed their MBAs and will be subject to a separate work agreement between the organization and the students concerned.

BENEFITS TO PARTNER-ORGANIZATIONS

Organizations benefit from their participation in the action consultancy project by:

• Utilizing a cost-effective way to gain fresh insights into an important business issue that the organization may not have the resources to handle in-house;
• Drawing on the skills and experiences of AIM MBA students who will be supported by highly qualified faculty mentors; and
• Previewing prospective employees and testing their abilities.

EXPECTATIONS FROM PARTNER-ORGANIZATIONS

Partner-organizations should designate a primary contact for the student-team. Ideally, this would be a decision-maker for the organization, who can:

• Be available to take calls and messages from the student-team;
• Attend all student-team meetings with specific units/key management personnel in the partner-organization (a minimum of four meetings with the student-team is proposed; at the beginning of the engagement, two meetings in between, and the final presentation);
• Provide access to pertinent materials and information, and assist the student-team in networking with other potential sources of information;
• Provide constructive and practical feedback throughout the process;
• Meet with the AIM faculty-mentor and/or the AIM consulting manager, as needed, to discuss progress of the project or troubleshoot any issues that arise. The AIM consulting manager will be the primary contact of the partner-organization. Out-of-pocket expenses incurred by the student-team will be covered by the partner-organization (such as, but not limited to, travel to another location as directed by the organization, purchase of research reports, etc.).

TIMELINE

CONTACT US

We look forward to discussing this program with you. Please contact Ms. Anika de Leon (adeleon@aim.edu) so we can set up a meeting.