New Business Models and Consulting

URL study guide

https://studiegids.vu.nl/en/courses/2024-2025/E_BA_NBMC

Course Objective

Learning goals include:
- Structuring unstructured problems
- Understanding how tools can be useful to structure unstructured problems
- Teamwork, interview skills, learning to get access to a company
- Understand the nature of business models

Course Content

This course requires students to develop (in a group) a new business model for a real life consultant or consultancy of their choice. Based on theoretical input, students are guided through the process of business model innovation. The course focuses more on application of academic knowledge and analysis of complex problems than on theory development (even though there is quite some attention for the theory behind business models). In the course you will learn to develop a value proposition, use the business model canvas, calculate a business case and develop an implementation plan. The best models participate in a Dragon's Den and will be judged by experienced entrepreneurs.

Teaching Methods

- Lectures (2hr per week)
- Tutorial (2hr per week; attendance obligatory)
- Work on assignments (8hr per week)
- Read literature and doing research (8hr per week)

Method of Assessment

The final grade consists of grades of various assignments, some individual and some group assignments. This includes an individual exam.

Literature

Various academic articles

Target Audience

Students interested in both Management Consulting and business model development

Additional Information

This course is challenging because it requires students to do a consulting assignment that is unstructured and that may have various right and wrong answers. Students that look for certainty, continuous guidance from the teachers and expect the teachers to tell them the right and wrong answers have mostly failed this course or found it frustrating.

Recommended background knowledge

It is highly recommended to have some knowledge about consultants and how the consultancy industry works. The course should fit well for MC students, people with experience in consulting or students that followed a consulting course elswhere. Financial knowledge is helpful as students need to calculate a business case. Students without such knowledge have found the course difficult in the past. For students without knowledge about consulting, it is recommended to at least read the next two articles before the course starts: Kipping, M. 2002. Trapped in Their Wave: The Evolution of Management Consultancies. In T. Clark & R. Fincham (Eds.), Critical Consulting: New Perspectives on the Management Advice Industry: 28-49. Oxford: Blackwell. Tavoletti, E., Kazemargi, N., Cerruti, C., Grieco, C., & Appolloni, A. 2022. Business model innovation and digital transformation in global management consulting firms. European Journal of Innovation Management, Vol. 25 No. 6, pp. 612-636. https://doi.org/10.1108/EJIM-11-2020-0443