There are a wide variety of projects you might want to get involved in. Use the expandable titles below to find out more about each type of project and for ways to submit proposals.
The Global Consulting Project is the culmination of the core course and provides the opportunity for our MBA students to apply their knowledge and skills in the real world. The host organisation identifies an important management issue it would like investigated and a team of five MBAs works for a four-week period to analyse the issues and generate recommendations. Project Proposals are required by January and projects take place in from mid-March to mid-April.
These live projects reflect our belief in ‘learning by doing’. The student teams work closely with global blue-chip companies and international organisations to tackle projects which have real business impact. Many companies go on to implement the recommendations and strategies developed during these projects.
The Management Consulting Projects is a module in our MPhil in Management Programme. During the programme students acquire essential business skills. The Management Consulting Project allows students to apply and practice these skills in a real world setting.
The projects take place during Easter Term and involve students working in teams of four to five in order to solve business problems that client companies want them to address. At the end of the project the student teams present their analysis and recommendations to the client companies. We normally invite three companies to each submit three proposals. The projects can be from all business areas. They should pose real world challenges your company is facing and should be doable within a month. It is essential the projects not only involve desk research but also decision making, interaction with employees of your company and clear recommendations moving forward.
This hands-on, part-time engagement is based on five MBA students working as a team of consultants in a local business, addressing a specific market need. The Cambridge Venture Project is an ideal opportunity for local organisations with limited resources to benefit from fresh, unbiased and objective market research evaluations. Project proposals are required by September and projects take place between October and December.
The Master of Finance Group Consulting Project (GCP) is an educational collaboration between a host organisation and MFin students. Clients benefit from an international team of bright, motivated and capable professionals who are able to bring their considerable range of skills and experience to bear on a real business issue that would usually require the services of a consulting firm. In previous years, GCPs were hosted by companies including Citi, Barclays, IMF- World Bank, Abu Dhabi Islamic Bank, Firtree Partners, Standard and Poors and Newton. The project takes place for five weeks during the Easter break.
The MPhil in Technology Policy Final Group Project (FGP) is an educational collaboration between a host organisation and the School. It is intended to be the capstone of the Cambridge MPhil in Technology Policy. Students work in teams of four to six. The project takes place during the University Easter vacation and continues during Easter Term. Companies benefit from an international team of bright, motivated and committed young professionals who are able to bring their considerable skills and experience to bear on a real technology policy issue.
The project may cover any aspect of technology policy broadly defined, which included public policy, corporate strategy and technology development. The organisation may be located in any commercial, industrial, public sector or not-for-profit organisation. Projects can include complete strategic reviews, benchmarking and best practice analysis, diversification assessments, new market strategies and policy analysis. The project must involve some element of placement with the host organisation.
The one-year Management Studies Tripos course (MST) at CJBS attracts outstanding Cambridge University undergraduates, who come to us from a variety of disciplines to gain a thorough grounding in the discipline of management practice. For the final part of their course, students are required to work in teams of three on a four-week project with a local organisation, addressing a real management problem that the host has identified, under the guidance of a University academic supervisor.
We welcome projects from organisations of all kinds, as long as the scope is well specified and the company is a commutable distance from Cambridge.
It is intended that the project should draw on at least one of the theoretical areas covered in the course, namely: business economics; industrial organisation; financial costs and accounting; marketing; data collection and sampling; organisational behaviour; industrial relations and human resource management; quantitative techniques and uses of IT in management. The project runs during Easter Term for four weeks throughout May.
MBA students have the option of working on an Individual Project (IP) between July and September, and many choose to link this to an individual consultancy or research project for an outside organisation. Others may choose to complete a company-based Work Placement (WP) or internship. Recent projects have included product extension strategy for a financial services company, analysis of the US railway sector, branding strategy development for a national retailer and derivatives modelling. It is not unusual for students to receive expenses to contribute towards their costs for such work.
This is an optional project spent working for a financial institution or completing a research dissertation. The project is deliberately flexible to accommodate the varying needs of the students and provides the opportunity to apply what has been learned to real world situations and problems. Projects take place between July and August.
The project is an opportunity to do a reasonably long and substantial piece of research of around 12,000 words. Options include doing a purely academic piece of research, doing a piece of research based on external interviews and/or other data, or doing a piece of research linked to an internship for a host organisation. The last option can be used as a device to network and interview people in any area of finance that would be useful for job-seeking. While you’re a student of Cambridge University, you can request an interview of all sorts of people as part of a research project.
All students must have an academic supervisor to mark and provide guidance on the project. The supervisor must be a faculty member of the University, or an external person who is a fellow or associate of Cambridge Judge Business School. The Individual Project will be marked by the supervisor, however this mark will not be included in the overall mark for the MFin.