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MBA Students Deploy VCM Model for Bayer
MBA Consulting Field Project Becomes a Stellar Internship Experience
Four MBA candidates could not have realized the potential for the Consulting Field Project they began in spring 2009 with Bayer Material Sciences, LLC. Working with Katz clinical professor Bud Smith, the students' objective was to create internal buy-in for a demand-driven internal service model. Their success on the project led to internships at Bayer and the students learned firsthand how to apply the skills they gained in the classroom to a multinational corporation.
Team members working on the Bayer project were part-time MBA candidate Robert Berdanier, and full-time MBA graduates Tien-I (Grace) Shen (MBA '09), Saahil Goel (MBA '09), and Tanuj Keshav (MBA '09). Together the interns developed a teaching case that integrated activity based costing and demand-driven internal service, or Variable Cost Model (VCM). The teaching case promoted the benefits of these concepts such as visibility into internal service cost, reallocation of resource to growth, and the establishment of strategic and collaborative partnerships between internal organizational units. The case complemented a deployment methodology already in use—a model the interns optimized. As an extension of the Consulting Field Project, Bayer asked the Katz team to continue their work and deploy their model to Bayer HealthCare headquartered in Wayne, N.J., and Bayer CropScience headquartered in Shawnee, Kan., during a three-month, three-credit, summer internship under Joe Bozada, Chief of Staff, Bayer North America.
This double dose of experience-based learning has made an impression on the students as well as the client. "I've met more senior leadership in this internship than I'd met in my entire working career (to date)," says Goel. "Working at a strategic level in a multinational and diversified company such as Bayer allows me to exercise skills such as finance, accounting, marketing, project management, impact analysis, and business process redesign on a regular basis," he adds.
Keshav, a finance major, welcomes the hands-on experience with VCM. "VCM is a very useful decision-making tool that provides cost visibility in the organization," he explains. "My experience allows me to look at the VCM concept from the point of view of the implementers, users, decision makers, and others—a full 360-degree view." Keshav hopes to learn more about the impact of change management and the importance of stakeholder buy in on a project prior to its implementation. "It can't get any better than working with professional consultants and senior leadership at Bayer," he adds.
Berdanier, a public accountant with 20 years experience, expects to learn firsthand how to implement change management. "The problems are not difficult, but how do you get something that obviously works to be embraced?" speculates Berdanier. He is confident this experience will build his network base, offer unique exposure to areas of senior leadership, and allow him the opportunity to confidently approach new issues. Berdanier borrows from his experience to take the long view. "Your career and educational experience are like a mosaic. Every day you're in that realm, you're creating an image of yourself with individual pieces of experience. What do you want your picture to be?" he reflects.
Shen, who is from Taiwan, appreciates being able to learn the culture of an international company like Bayer. Shen says, "The VCM we've been working on has taught us a lot, not only about managerial accounting in the real world, but also on how an organization designs and implements common practices." She's also pleased that both the Bayer supervisor and the Katz faculty advisor acted as mentors to the team, creating the potential for an even bigger career boost.
For more information on Katz Consulting Field Projects like this, visit http://www.business.pitt.edu/katz/mba/courses/project-courses.html
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