University of Pittsburgh

MBA

Interdisciplinary Project Courses

Project courses provide MBA students a meaningful and measurable business experience prior to graduation. Projects offer the opportunity for students to apply the various analytical tools and concepts learned at Katz while providing valuable and practical project assistance to participating businesses.

Dozens of businesses participate. These include industrial, consumer, financial, supply chain and health services companies such as:

  • GENCO
  • Westinghouse
  • GlaxoSmithKline
  • FedEx Kinko’s
  • Matthews International
  • Highmark Life & Casualty Group

For 2008, nonprofit, medical, and governmental organizations will also participate.

The projects course has two components:

  1. The company project. Project courses each focus on an academic discipline, such as marketing, strategy, finance, accounting, MIS, etc.. Each project course is led by a faculty advisor. Four to five students comprise the team, with one student designated as team leader. Each course works with a single company. That company provides the team with a project of immediacy as well as an executive dedicated to working with the team.
  2. Four Management consulting workshops are held for participating students. Past guest consultants have been practitioners from Deloitte Consulting and Booz, Allen & Hamilton.

Prerequisite: Accounting.

Logistics: Meeting times are flexible, to accommodate student schedules.

  • Four company meetings (minimum) will be held, typically in late afternoons as agreed between students, faculty advisor and the company.
  • Project teams meet at their own schedule. Faculty advisors typically meet their teams weekly.
  • The four workshops will be scheduled for Saturday mornings.

Faculty: A faculty advisor will have responsibility for each project. Coordination of project courses, company liaison and management consultants rests with G.M. (Bud) Smith, Jr.

Deliverables include:

  1. Project proposal to client company
  2. Progress reports as agreed with client company
  3. Final report to client company

Report format (written, PowerPoint, verbal, etc.) will be decided by the company and faculty advisor.

Grading: The Katz School’s master’s program grading guidelines are applicable, and grading will be guided by the following criteria:

  1. Individual performance, including how well the student contributes, and his/her relationship with the project team and the company.
  2. Team performance, the teams’ project proposal: quality and completeness of their data gathering and analysis, the final report, and oral presentations, and project management.

Grades will be decided by the faculty advisor, with input from the company and team members.

Course Materials may be purchased over the web:

  • Block, Peter. Flawless Consulting, 2nd edition. 1999.
  • Corey, E. Raymond. MBA Field Studies. Harvard Business School Publishing, 1990.

Contact

For additional information, contact Bud Smith.