An excellent finale to an eye-opening year

The MBA is an experience and adventure filled with high paced twists and turns. No sooner than completing the core programme and electives, it’s time for the final “Business Mastery Project”. 

This project is meant to draw on many elements of the course and tackle a real world business problem. With the help of a dedicated supervisor lecturing in strategy and quantitative methods, I’ve suddenly become a consultant for a start-up business!

I have designed my project around an international e-commerce company looking to gauge their market opportunity, refine their strategy, and secure venture capital funding. The deliverables will be a market feasibility study, a review of relevant strategic frameworks, and a business plan for future fundraising pitches to investors.

During my first meeting with my supervisor, ideas on strategic frameworks, entrepreneurial owners as people, international markets and trade-law, valuation, and sales and marketing are discussed openly and frankly. A straight to the gut and no holds barred dissection of the situation begins and the learnings from several MBA courses flash by. After an hour of what seems like mental gymnastics, the real issue begins to emerge and it’s time to meet the company for the first time.

The next day, entering an office mid-way through the daily conference call between the three founders, I’m instantly transported back in time to “work mode” as if the MBA year had not passed. The same sights and sounds, the same artefacts, the same coffee! But something feels very different inside. I feel calm, I feel in control, confident with my MBA toolkit at the ready. I’m looking forward to working with inspiring entrepreneurs and giving what I can from my MBA perspective in order to help their business succeed. I feel great!

We start the meeting, they are open for help, they want to grow the business but don’t know where the real value lies. Together we can crack it and after a lot of listening from my side, it becomes clear that they like my initial thoughts. This is going to be an excellent finale to an eye-opening year.

Henrik Karlberg