The wallet Project The most important goal for the IMBA program is to put students into real-life situations. Where the rubber meets the road. Where the customer’s decision is final. Where money is made or lost. Most MBA programs require classroom projects with imaginary results, IMBA’s activities require realworld results. One such example was the Wallet Project. This seemingly simple exercise required students to create a “wallet”, which they had to sell. Not write a plan. Not make a presentation. Simply create a real product that real customers would pay money for. In keeping with the creative atmosphere at IMBA, the term “wallet” was defined broadly by each of the student teams. One team went for the simple and direct approach: they developed a wallet with a couple of innovative features and worked to get to the market fast. Another team defined wallet as “something to carry things” and eventually developed a slim, stylish bag for carrying a computer laptop. Yet another team took the hightech route, defining wallet as “something to manage your cash.” Their solution was to develop a mobile phone application for keeping track of expenses as purchases are made. This linked to a web application, which manages all of the accounts and allowed budgets to be set. Web reports show how well the plans were being met. Each of the projects was required to make actual sales, which led to some innovative solutions: the team making the mobile phone app for managing cash worked with a local bank to create a training program for school children to help them learn the importance of money management. Meanwhile, the team making laptop bags is moving on and starting an actual company to continue the business. The next batch of IMBA students will face a different, and even more-difficult, challenge. But one goal will remain the same: to get IMBA students out of the classroom, away from the text books, and finding real-world solutions to real-world problems. This is what IMBA means about Moving Into Action.
A team from the Wallet Project selling their products at Chulalongkorn University’s Commencement Day