Ross Students Spread Far And Wide For Experiential Learning

A STEEP LEARNING CURVE

“At this point, all of the team members have either had no engineering experience or are fairly far removed from that experience,” says Zhu. “There has been a very steep learning curve in understanding the nitty gritty of what exactly is going on.”

Lan says the learning process has been an eye opening experience.

“We’ve listened to presentations from people across all business units,” he points out. “I’m really appreciative and impressed with the amount of time and resources they have put into getting us up to speed as quickly as possible.”

Lan also says being outside the comforts of a classroom has proven to be a challenge in itself.

“One of the biggest challenges and growing points of the overall MAP project is not just learning the specific industry quickly—it’s being able to understand and evaluate the problem outside of the classroom,” he says. “When you’re learning about strategy in business school, there is a guide to help you through the cases. There is no set strategy or challenge. It’s more complicated than that.”

Gopalrathnam agrees the project has been an extension of the classroom.

“This is a very real life example and we can see all of the moving parts,” he explains. “This is about extending outside of the classroom and applying the analysis and strategies we have learned. Once we get a full-time offer, we can leverage this and look at similarities.”

‘THE INTERNSHIP BEFORE THE THE INTERNSHIP’

Lan thinks the opportunity to use this experience for a real-life project might come sooner than the full-time offer.

“One of the main benefits I see getting out of this particular project is developing a set of skills for consulting,” he says. “That’s what I’m going to be pursuing. It’s a broad problem with imperfect data and without specific guidance. A project like this gives us a head start to summer work. We’ll be a lot more prepared for a summer internship.”

Baker also describes the project as “the internship before the internship.”

“They want a truly actionable result,” says Baker. “We are able to provide a fresh perspective to real business issues that real companies are facing.”

FLEXIBILITY AND ADAPTIVENESS KEY

Lanen says whether the students are in a new country or new industry or not, the key is to be flexible. “It’s important to be willing to adapt to a changing environment,” he explains. “Things are no longer structured. At school you know when you have to be there and what you have to do and there are only two groups involved—the students and the professors. With MAP, you bring in a third learning partner in the sponsor. It is important to be willing to adapt and be willing to deal with ambiguity.”

According to Lanen, it is the student’s ability to do just that that has led to the continuation of the program for more than two decades. “Meetings will get canceled, plans will change, stuff happens. For the most part, the reason we are still doing this program is our students are very good at adapting to change. They are mature and communicative. We stress that communication is essential so everyone knows what’s going on.”

Andy Lawlor, a Ross strategy professor, is serving as the Woodward team’s faculty advisor and has been a MAP faculty advisor since 1994. He says another key for MAP success is measuring time well. “I think students think there’s going to be plenty of time because it is a quarter long,” Lawlor says. “But given the business problems, six or seven weeks is not long. They have to figure out the scope of the problem right away and make sure they meet deadlines and deliver the deliverables they need to.”

‘NO OTHER SCHOOL DOES IT AT OUR SCALE’

Lanen points out it’s the scope and history that keeps MAP part of the Ross curriculum.

“No other school does it at our scale,” Lanen says. “The fact we’ve been doing it for over 20 years is an indicator that this is a program that brings value to the students and sponsors. We have sponsors come back year after year. It is certainly not a unique way to tie together core courses and solve real-world business problems, but it is a valuable and large-scale way to relate content to strategy.”

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