Project-Based Learning

Consult with Students

Goizueta Business School

Fresh Insights on a Company Challenge

Partner with a team of Goizueta students and faculty to finally solve that problem that has kept you up at night. You bring the problem and we’ll put our best minds on it. Our top-ranked faculty oversees a small team of students ready to build on the knowledge, skills, and tools they’ve learned at Goizueta. You gain new, creative perspectives, implementable solutions, and access to rising leaders as we work together to push through the questions to get to decisions and actions.
  • Goizueta IMPACT Annual Clients

    (MBA Student Projects)
  • MSBA Practicum Annual Clients

  • Undergrad Student Teams for Annual Clients

    (BBA Capstone)

Program Rigor: A top-20 ranked MBA. Goizueta prides itself on providing an academically rigorous curriculum with abundant experiential learning opportunities for real world application of what is learned in the classroom. Goizueta IMPACT is a required course for all MBA students.

Project Types: The best projects are what we call "figure it out" problems, for which there is no one clear solution or answer OR one specific analysis that can solve them. We are looking for messy, ambiguous, real problems that organizations are facing and require an action or decision, and we are able to work across a range of business disciplines.

Project Length: Semester-long, conducted in the summer, fall, and spring depending on MBA program type

Timeline:

  • One-Year MBA – Summer Semester (6-week duration)
  • Two-Year MBA – Spring Semester (15-week duration)
  • Evening MBA – Fall Semester (12-week duration)
  • Executive MBA – Fall Semester (12-week duration)

Goizueta's Role: We provide faculty experts to advise the student teams and provide you access to Goizueta knowledge and research. At the project’s conclusion, students will present the findings and actionable recommendations to your suggested leadership team.

Student Audience: All MBA students (full-time, evening, and executive)

Student Team Size: 5-6 students per team

Client's Role: You provide a clear scope of the project, access to the relevant company data, two dedicated company liaisons to work with the students, and pay project fee, determined based on scope and duration of project.

Goizueta IMPACT brochure

contact us

What Makes A Good Project?

  • Goizueta IMPACT (MBA)

    We’re looking for a problem: the type with no one clear answer; the type that may require weighing the input and objectives of multiple stakeholders, integrating multiple functions, considering multiple disciplines and alternatives, all while managing uncertainty and risk. We’re looking for the type of problem that balances all those variables yet still requires a timely decision or action.
  • MSBA/xMSBA Analytics Practicum

    Challenges requiring business data scientists, meaning people who speak the combined languages of technology, business, and data, are perfect for our MS in Business Analytics students to tackle during their spring semester.
  • BBA Capstone

    Ideal BBA Capstone projects allow students to tackle a real-world challenge for a firm using key communication tactics, providing strategic ideas across channels such as social/digital media and traditional branding. Deliverables feature student presentations with tangible recommendations and visuals to articulate their data findings and suggestions.

Project-Based Learning Case Studies

MBA IMPACT
MSBA/xMSBA Analytics Practicum
BBA Capstone
  • The Challenge
    A leader in customizable haircare and beauty products, the client worked students to determine how they should market the sustainability benefits of their offerings to increase sales.
  • The Approach
    The team designed and conducted significant primary research, including a survey to the general haircare market with nearly 1,400 respondents, a max/diff analysis, and a price sensitivity analysis. They also completed a competitive analysis, examining 6 months of social media content from 7 competitive beauty brands to understand the role sustainability played. Lastly, they analyzed the client’s transaction data from 2020 to better understand consumer behavior.
  • The Outcome
    The team recommended that the community (i.e. social awareness and responsibility) and process (i.e. eco-conscious manufacturing) benefits of sustainability were the most important to the client’s target segments, and that sustainability should play a peripheral, not central, role. They advised the client to strengthen related messages on the product, packaging and social media platforms. To make progress toward this position in the short-term, they recommended creating an inventory of all sustainability assets at the company, connecting that inventory to their research results, and prioritizing social media messaging pilots over product and packaging changes.
  • Emory Healthcare

    The Challenge
    Hospitals could improve post-operative care for all patients if they had an efficient, accurate, cost-effective way to identify the likelihood of infection among post-operative patients.
  • Emory Healthcare

    The Approach
    MSBA Capstone students partnered with Emory Healthcare to analyze a database of 6,482 patient records in which 317 had a wound infection and 227 had a systemic infection. They then trained a classifier with doctors’ notes as independent variables and the outcome label (infected or not) from NSQIP database as dependent variables, so that the classifier could learn to detect infection based on the doctors’ notes.
  • Emory Healthcare

    The Outcome
    The classifier developed by the Capstone students had a specificity of 0.92 and a sensitivity of 0.89 to classify whether each patient was infected after surgery. The implication is that post-operative patients can be labeled for infection and more closely monitored. Even better, Emory Healthcare can help doctors identify crucial symptoms related to infection and take steps to potentially reduce the infection rate.
  • Mercedes-Benz

    The Challenge
    BBA Capstone students partnered with Mercedes-Benz USA to identify a communications strategy for Mercedes to launch the first A-Class sedan in the U.S. market, and specifically one that appealed to potential Millennial buyers.
  • Mercedes-Benz

    The Approach
    Students had to think strategically and creatively to analyze potential buyers, clarify their ideal message outcome, then craft a message that would resonate with Millennials. Mercedes-Benz leadership was actively involved in the process and interested in connecting with students to hear their perspectives.
  • Mercedes-Benz

    The Outcome
    At the end of the project, the top student teams presented their communication strategies, platforms, and messaging to Mercedes-Benz USA leadership, including CEO Dietmar Exler.

Select Past Corporate Partners

Project FAQ

Prior to the project launch, expect to spend a few hours with the faculty who will assist with defining the problem statement and project scope. Depending on the program, you may meet as few as 3 times or as often as weekly. Meetings can take place virtually, or in person, based on location.

In projects where a fee or donation is assessed (MSBA and Goizueta IMPACT), these monies are reinvested into the program to cover program costs.

All our students, faculty and staff working with the team sign non-disclosure agreements as well as a data protection agreement (where applicable).

We welcome companies outside of Atlanta and will set up virtual meetings for you and your team.

The company owns the intellectual property rights to the final deliverable.

Problem Solvers