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Real business problems and real business pressure for MBA students

Real business problems and real business pressure for MBA students

Full-time MBA students at Rotterdam School of Management, Erasmus University (RSM) have spent two weeks addressing real business challenges from three global organisations; Eneco, Photanol, and Philips Lighting and Healthcare, during the annual two-week Living Management Project (LMP).

The LMP is a regular part of the RSM MBA programme, and is always a highly challenging and intense experience. It requires analytical skills to identify and solve business problems, and objective decision-making skills – and is conducted under a tight schedule and under the type of pressure found in top global businesses. It is designed to develop students’ ability to analyse and synthesise complex problems according to high ethical standards, to think critically, and to broaden their social environmental awareness. Students consider it adds value to their studies and prepares them for the kind of challenges they will face in their future careers. The challenges presented by participating companies this year ranged over the span of the MBA curriculum. They enabled students to use a wide variety of new skills they learned over their first two terms.

Three business cases presenting specific challenges from the participating companies were assigned randomly to teams of full-time MBA students, who were asked to address the challenges by relating concepts and knowledge from their MBA courses, and to apply their findings to the real business world.

The students had exactly one week to propose a solution and present it as an executive summary to their client company, and also present the work to a panel of representatives from the businesses. The executive summary was developed as a result of company presentations and meetings with business consultants, who assisted students in drafting their proposals.

The challenges dealt with sustainable business, weather energy production, distribution and saving, and two of the challenges involved the healthcare services industry.

“I was positively surprised by the amount of in-depth and structured research they did during this short period of time. Some of the groups even reached out to their own network in India and China getting first hand insights from relatives and even local hospital management.” Hanneke van den Bos,
Consultant Healing Environments Professional Services, Philips Healthcare.

“Company executives were enthusiastic about students’ suggestions, which contained relevant research and analysis of the issues, and offered potential new solutions,” said Academic Director, Dr Arkadiusz Mironko. “As in other years, some findings and presentations made by RSM MBA students will find their way to corporate boards and some will be implemented. We look forward to hearing more about the progress and implementation of the ideas the students presented.”

Rotterdam School of Management, Erasmus University is consistently ranked amongst the top 10 business schools in Europe. It is located in the international port city of Rotterdam where core Dutch values of openness, flexibility and acceptance of diversity have attracted businesses on a global scale. Our emphasis is on ground-breaking research and practices relevant to business; our primary focus is on developing business leaders who carry their innovative ideas into a sustainable future. RSM ranks second globally for faculty research on sustainability according to the Aspen Institute's Beyond Grey Pinstripes Report in 2011. Our portfolio includes a broad array of bachelor, master, doctoral, MBA and executive education programmes.

For more information on RSM or on this release, please contact Marianne Schouten, Media & Public Relations Manager for RSM, on +31 10 408 2877 or by email at mschouten@remove-this.rsm.nl