Role of Company Project Sponsors for Field Studies
The Company Sponsor and Company Key Contacts are critical to the
success of the Field Study team and their projects. The Company Sponsor
defines the project and clearly articulates what they want the student team
to deliver. The Key Company Contact works with the students throughout
the semester to ensure that they stay on track with the needs of the
company and have the resources necessary to succeed in the project.
Critical Tasks and Responsibilities of the Key Company Contact:
a. Contact your team before or during the first week of school and set
up an initial meeting (and formal kickoff meeting if appropriate).
b. Schedule regular weekly meeting times throughout the project (15
minutes to one hour is normal, but some weeks the meeting will
not need to be held and other weeks may require more time).
c. Establish a process for how you will communicate between
meetings.
d. Agree on the final deliverables and when they will be due (as part
of the engagement letter).
e. Give regular feedback to the team to let them know how they are
doing.
f. Approve team expenses necessary for the completion of project
deliverables (approved expenses will be invoiced at the conclusion
of the project).
g. Complete the company sponsor surveys that are sent to you at
mid project and after the final presentation.
Important Factors for success:
1) It is important that the objective/goal of the project be clearly defined in
the original application, but it is normally necessary to revisit the
objective/goal once the project kicks off at the beginning of the semester.
The final project description and deliverables of the project should be
clearly articulated and documented for the team in the engagement letter
you develop with them.
2) It is good to maintain regular contact with the students to ensure that
they are on the right track, answer questions, and assist with resources. It
is most common that the company will have weekly meetings with the
student team (please never go longer than 2 weeks between updates with
the team). These meetings may be in person, by Skype, by Webex, by
teleconference, etc.
3) While the student will benefit greatly from the company contact’s
experience and expertise, it is important not to try and steer them too much
from the perspective of one's personal experience. One of the benefits of
the student team is that they bring a fresh perspective and have recently
been trained in some of the most recent approaches. Share your insight
and perspective with them, but encourage them to seek fresh outlooks
throughout the project.
4) It would be beneficial to set up conference calls for the students with
subject matter experts within the sponsor company so the students could
gain their perspective on the topics being researched. Please make
available to the students all of the information sources within your
company. If you have promised internal data to the students please provide
it promptly so as not to delay the project timeline.
5) Where possible, it is helpful when you can provide contacts from your
industry that are knowledgeable on the project topics. If the students are
benchmarking or doing industry analysis, your personal or corporate
network could provide valuable contacts that the students could meet with
or interview for insight and understanding.
6) We encourage you approve expenses for the team that are relevant to
the project. If you ask the team to travel we have BYU rental cars. We also
ask you to approve the cost of printing reports and presentation, as well as
materials needed to complete the project. We will reimburse the students
and invoice you for the costs at the end of the semester.
7) Complete the company surveys (mid-term and final) concerning the
students to help BYU in grading the students, giving them feedback and
improving the program.