I'm currently supervising, in one way or another, eight different MAP projects. MAP is the 7-week program that almost all MBAs go through at the end of their first year. It is a project in which 4-6 MBAs work on a single problem defined by a single company. It's a difficult but highly engaging process.
It's hard to say exactly what students get out of this process, but they clearly (to me, anyway) do get a lot out of it. I've been thinking a bit about this recently. I alluded to it in an email I sent to a member of one of the teams that I supervise:
You need to focus on developing an actionable plan for [the company] based on data. Keep picturing yourself giving the final presentation and having them ask you "why should we believe you?" — what you're doing now is essentially writing the answer to that question, the question that broadly determines the success of your project.
If the students take this lesson to heart, then — to me, anyway — they have learned what they're supposed to learn from MAP. When you're in business, it's no longer about being smart. It's no longer about doing the best analysis. It's about making your company successful. And this involves doing things and not simply ordering more analysis to be completed. These things usually involve making stuff (faster, more efficiently, more effectively, or just better stuff) or selling stuff (more of it, for a higher price). And, generally, doing MAP drives this point home in a most effective way.
There's nothing like standing in front of a CEO and having him or her, at the end of your presentation, say something like "Yes, I hear you, but why should I believe you? Other smart people have told me to do the exact opposite thing." And you realize that you haven't collected enough (or the right) data in order to back up your conclusions. Or, even worse, "Uh, that's all nice, but what are we supposed to do about all this?" And you realize that you've analyzed the situation but you haven't gotten down to the bare details of what specific people are supposed to do at specific times and what the payoff will be for those tasks.
Business is about doing the right things well. MAP drives this point home for the MBAs.
1 comment:
In recent weeks, there have been so many positive articles about the MAPs! This is an example, as well as one that appeared in the MSJ. Could BBAs get to work on a MAP-like project?
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