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Spotlight Go Forth— Consult! One of the best ways business schools have of putting students into the fray of business activity is by put- ting them to work—as management consultants. How to make it even tougher? Make them secure their own clients. In 2007, Concordia University's Molson School of Business in Mon- treal, Canada, began offering an elec- tive course in consulting for second- year MBA students. Ulrich Wassmer, an assistant professor of strategy and a former consultant, developed and teaches the course. The experience helps students "build a consulting skills toolbox" and use what they learned their first year in a real-world context, he says. The course is structured around three areas. It opens with an intro- duction to the consulting process, which includes lectures, case studies, and presentations by guest speakers from leading consulting firms. Next, students develop their consulting skills through experiential learn- ing and role-playing exercises. With those skills in hand, they undertake a 13-week consulting project. With few exceptions, students are not assigned projects—instead, they must learn to sell their skills and find projects on their own. So far, Wassmer has been impressed by his students' ability to secure high-quality engage- ments in industries such as beverages, lighting, travel and tourism, and logistics services, as well as in the nonprofit sector. International students, however, often find it more difficult to secure clients because they lack local con- 80 BizEd SEPTEMBER/OCTOBER 2009 The experience helps students 'build a consulting skills toolbox' and use what they learned their first year in a real-world context. nections. For that reason, Wassmer keeps a list of firms interested in being part of the class. He "staffs" these projects with students unable to find appropriate clients on their own. Some students work on high- profile projects—for example, last spring a team developed a market- ing strategy for a leading Canadian airline, which flew them to different locations to conduct focus interviews. Others work on more modest—but no less successful—endeavors, such as one team's work with an entrepre- neur to write a business plan. One challenge of the course is that such varied student-chosen projects result in different learning outcomes, These Molson MBA students secured their own consulting project with Globe, a lighting solutions company. The team evaluated how trends in environmental sustainability would impact Globe's brand development efforts. says Wassmer. Students who find work with larger companies learn how to navigate a client organization; students working with individual clients learn more about one-on-one interactions. Some students choose not to become consultants at course's end, but they leave with experience presenting their ideas, navigating large projects, and managing client expectations effectively. After the course, some companies ask students to continue work on their projects; others hire students as summer interns. What's important, says Wassmer, is that students learn to think on their feet and use what they know in ways that no final exam could measure. "The learning occurs 80 percent outside the classroom," he says. "It's great to see how the students accelerate and grow during the course." ■ z