During the Global Consulting Project, MBAs form teams to consult with blue-chip multinational corporations or international organisations on a particular aspect of their business. We asked a selection of the GCP teams to send us a snapshot of their week’s activities. Come back for next week’s installment.
CLIENT: BNY MELLON – ASSET MANAGEMENT
Team-members: Chris Millar, Evgeny Mlodik, William Sterling, Siobhan Sweeney
On Tuesday, we travelled to London to meet the team at BNY. The VP Global Distribution took us on a tour of the firm explaining the unique structure and its internal stakeholders. We then spoke with senior strategists about the current issues facing the business and also the intended strategic direction of the bank. The following day, we had an impromptu meeting with the CEO of BNY Asset Management EMEA and Global Head of Distribution for Investment Management and had the unique opportunity to test out our ideas with him (however crazy they may be!). We now have a solid understanding of the client’s needs as well as the scope of the project. We are looking forward to developing innovative and well-reasoned recommendations that will add real value to BNY. We’ll keep you posted.
CLIENT: ALSOL
Members: Thanawan Wichienkuer, Richard Doig, Neil Madden, Miriam Noceda and Giulia Seri
While ‘last minute’ packing on the day of our flight to Uberlandia, Brazil, I contemplated how the Cambridge MBA has really ‘upped’ the challenge this semester with the Global Consulting Project. What do I mean by that? In a few hours, I will travel to a country I’ve never been to, work with four classmates I have never worked with and at the end of four weeks, produce solid and actionable deliverables for a client in an industry entirely new to me. What fun!
Our client founded a renewable energy start up through a business incubator funded by one of Brazil’s largest and well-known conglomerates. From the beginning, we were impressed with how welcoming and down to earth the top management in Brazil are; we spent some time chatting and joking with the 80-year old founder of a multi-billion dollar company and ended the day over drinks with our client and his old school friends.
While there are nuances of adjusting to a new environment, such as finding out where to do your laundry without knowing a word of the local language, after the first GCP week we have developed a firm understanding of the renewable energy industry, the challenges it faces, and framed our deliverables. We can pat ourselves on the back knowing we have done well to adjust, not only to Uberlandia, but to working with each other and creating a strong, cohesive and respectful team.
CLIENT: SIAM COMMERCIAL BANK
Members: Yusuke Kobayashi, Jerry Dulayakometh, Maura Lightfoot, Yenson She and Wimonrat Wachiraksasawakul
This first week marked the beginning of our project work in Thailand, kicking off on Monday when we met with our client (one of the largest commercial banks in Thailand).
We learnt about the strategy and challenges of the company, and Thai banks overall, as they expand overseas we have been conducting background research on the banking industry, specifically international banking strategy, as well as relevant countries and companies. Over the next two weeks we will be holding more than twenty internal and external interviews.
We have adjusted well to the new environment and despite the heat, the average temperature exceeds 35℃, we had a fantastic weekend enjoying authentic Thai cuisine and visiting the historic city of Ayutthaya and the famous temples in Bangkok. Refreshing ourselves in body and spirit ready for next week.
Team Siam Commercial Bank
CLIENT: CITIBANK
Members: Shreetama Datta, Jianwei Ji, Zhao Liu, Anton Timakov and Li Yu
Our GCP kicked-off at the Citi London office on Friday to discuss the project scope with our clients. We interviewed several business heads and by the end of the day, we were in the game, with the project scope getting clearer.
The following Monday we were back in London – we had three more interviews, with an economist at Citi, and heads of businesses at Citi. Each of them provided their own perspectives on our problem and also talked about their work, which not only helped our project but also enriched our understanding of the finance and banking sector.
Our project is split between London and Cambridge, so the following three days we meet at the School to use the database library for further research and to discuss next steps with our supervisor Prof Dissanaike. We are then back to the Citi London office at the end of the week and enjoy dim sums in Chinatown to celebrate the first week of our exciting GCP journey!
CLIENT: AFRICA’S VOICES FOUNDATION (ALSO KNOWN AS SIMBA’S PRIDE)
Members: David Pepper, Render Braswell, Sarah Burslem and Vera Vasilyeva
We’ve just started! It’s incredible the amount of stuff we need to do but after a few meetings with the main stakeholders we’ve got a plan! Tomorrow we have to get up very early at 2.30am and we will be flying to Kenya for the rest of the project. We’re very excited as there are lots of people we will meet from the BBC, UN and other organisations so watch this space for our next update!
Don’t forget to search for #CambridgeGCP on Twitter too!