Experiential Consulting Course for 4th Year Commerce Students

Timeline
  • September 5, 2023
    Experience start
  • December 9, 2023
    Experience end
Experience
2 projects wanted
Dates set by experience
Preferred companies
Hamilton, Ontario, Canada
Non profit, Large enterprise, Any, Small to medium enterprise
Any industries

Experience scope

Categories
Market research Operations Competitive analysis Market expansion Environmental sustainability
Skills
project planning business consulting business strategy data analysis research
Learner goals and capabilities

4GR3 is the capstone course for the GR0 program. It has been designed to incorporate problem-solving, collaboration, communication, and self-management to provide students with the opportunity to work collaboratively with peers. During this course students analyze real business problems and create innovative and holistic solutions by partnering with leading and progressive sectoral organizations. This is a great opportunity to have fourth year Commerce students provide consulting-type work focused on a challenge or scenario that is important to your organization!

What does client/community partner engagement look like?

  • Clients will provide the students with a case or challenge (consulting, research, etc).
  • Organizations will be committing to at least one term, Fall or Winter, for the 2023-24 academic year.
  • There are 3 in-person components required for the clients; project kick-off, client check-in, and final presentations

Learners

Learners
Undergraduate
Any level
450 learners
Project
50 hours per learner
Learners self-assign
Teams of 5
Expected outcomes and deliverables

Students will provide companies with:

•A research report provided by the students to share analytical insights that inform possible strategic solutions as part of the client’s stated challenge.

•A summary PowerPoint document presented live by the students highlighting recommended solutions to address stated challenge.

Project timeline
  • September 5, 2023
    Experience start
  • December 9, 2023
    Experience end

Project Examples

Requirements

The recent pilot offering of this course has covered work in the following areas:

  1. ESG compliance: students have been required to perform intensive research, analyze (real) client self-assessments of the company’s current ESG state. The students formulated their pitches highlighting potential areas of improvement and further exploration with the secondary client.
  2. Fair banking: more generalized, students did not working specifically with secondary clients, however they were required to perform research and analysis, and pitched ideas to the client, relating to how the institution may provide Canadians with improved fair banking options.

Additional company criteria

Companies must answer the following questions to submit a match request to this experience:

A representative of the company will be available to answer questions from the teaching team, and students in a timely manner both leading up to the start of term (Sep 5, 2023) and for the duration of the project.

A representative of the company will be available for a pre-selection discussion with the administrator of the course to review the project scope.

If selected, a representative of the company will be available to attend the in-person classes, at McMaster University, 1280 Main St W in Hamilton, on three (3) separate occasions for the duration of the term (project kick-off, client check-in and final presentations).