INCORPORATING THE STAKEHOLDERS INTO
THE LEARNING PROCESS:
THE CASE OF THE BUSINESS CONSULTING
COURSE
Moshe Banai
Professor of Management
Zicklin School of Business
Baruch College, City University of New York
One Bernard Baruch Way, New York, NY 10010
Tel: 646-312-3631; email: moshe_banai@baruch.cuny.edu
The course: Background
Twenty four to thirty two best MBA
students formed into teams of four
 Teams investigate client organizations to
provide management and employees
with answers to business and
organizational problems
 Course is instructed by two professors:
one with a wide theoretical knowledge
and another with a vast business and
consulting experience
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The course: Clients
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Clients included large and small
organizations such as:
Microsoft
 Delloitte Touche
 Federal Home Loan Bank of New York
 CUNY
 Con Edison
 Standard and Poors
 Barr’s pharmaceutical company
 Big Apple Limousine
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The Course:
Problems Visited
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The problems reviewed:
launching new products
 Increasing market share
 Country’s entry mode
 Gaining customers loyalty
 Analyzing financial instruments
 Recruitment and selection of employees
 Quality control
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The Course: Time Table
The course is run over 28 meetings
 The first 12 meetings are dedicated to:
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Forming teams
 Assigning teams to projects
 Instruction of theory and practice
(examples)
 Preliminary sites visits
 Definition of projects’ objectives
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The Course: Time Table
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The next 12 weeks are dedicated to:
Refining projects’ objectives
 Strategy and methodology formulation
 Instruments design
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Observations
 Document analysis
 Interviews
 Questionnaires
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The Course: Time Table
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The next 12 weeks (Continue):
Data Collection
 Data Analysis
 Interim Report writing
 Receiving Feedback from Clients
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The Course: Time Table

The last 4 meetings are dedicated to:
Presenting project reports to clients in class
 Receiving feedback from clients in class
 Clients evaluation of projects
 Conclusions and exit
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Making it Work
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To ensure commitment clients pay $500.00 to
cover students expenses
To ensure quality students must complete 26
credits to qualify
Groups are formed to include students with
diverse backgrounds (majors)
Each team presents its project to the whole
class throughout the process to facilitate
cross-teams learning
Teams provide ideas and feedback to the
other teams to increase creativity
Making it matter

Students learn to:
Manage a project
 Manage time
 Survey databases
 Use research tools
 Write a report
 Make public presentations
 Work as a team
 Work in cross-teams (competition and
cooperation)
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Making it matter
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Instructors learn:
Up-to-date management methods and
practices
 Environmental changes (political- legal,
economic- competitive, societal- cultural,
technological, ecological)
 New real time cases to be used in future
classes
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Making it matter
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Clients receive value for money
Students experience real life management
processes and ethical dilemmas
Students experience consequences beyond
grade
College receives recognition and reputation
Each project report could be used for writing a
case study