First-year MBA students present results of their consulting project to Medtronic executives in Spring 2018 as part of the Integrated Company Analysis capstone course.
EDUCATION INTO ACTION APPLIED LEARNING PARTNERSHIP PROVIDES MBA STUDENTS A CHANCE TO CREATE REAL-WORLD SOLUTIONS
BY JANE BURNS | PHOTOS BY PAUL L. NEWBY II
Real-world learning opportunities have long been a foundational experience for Wisconsin School of Business students. In the Wisconsin Full-Time MBA Program, specializations offer applied learning projects that tap into executives’ knowledge and expertise while setting up students for future success. A new cross-disciplinary experience further enhances learning opportunities for full-time MBA students, better integrating core classwork and preparing them for corporate leadership roles. This capstone consulting course and project—the Integrated Company Analysis (ICA)—comes through a partnership now in its second year between WSB and Medtronic, a global leader in medical technology. Philanthropy enabled faculty and staff to redesign the ICA, thanks to support from WSB’s Innovation Fund and the Lehman Distinguished Chair for Inspired Learning in Business held by Associate Professor of Management and Human Resources Martin Ganco, who played a lead role in restructuring the ICA. The result has been an impact for students that goes well beyond the classroom. “The ICA course provides first-year MBA students the opportunity to
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solve a real-world business challenge presented by a corporate partner,” says Blair Sanford, assistant dean of the Wisconsin Full-Time MBA Program. “Students use insights and data from Medtronic along with other resources to provide recommendations to executives.” Prior to the Medtronic partnership, student teams used only public data to identify a theoretical problem and find a theoretical solution. “Providing recommendations to a real organization takes the learning to a new level,” Sanford says. At the end of the semester, all student teams present to faculty. Four of the MBA teams advance to present their strategy to Medtronic executives, who travel to WSB and also participate remotely from across the globe. A COLLABORATIVE EXPERIENCE Four to five students from a variety of specializations make up each ICA team. Medtronic executives come to campus in January to present their strategic challenge, giving students time to learn about the company and each other before the ICA class begins in February. Throughout the