Global Consulting Project

Projects form a vital part of the Cambridge learning experience, both team and individual projects. Our projects allow you to put your classroom learning to the test as you progress through the programme, to work with a wide range of peers, and gain valuable experience with clients from different sectors – some of which you may be considering for future career moves.

Cambridge Venture Project

The Cambridge Venture Project (CVP) in the first term allows you to test your learning via a market analysis for a Cambridge or wider-UK based client. The project runs alongside the Management Praxis core course, and is designed to develop your team skills in particular. You will be allocated to a diverse team and a project client, and work with a mentor to help you deliver a valuable project outcome for your client.

Working in teams of 4 to 5 you can expect to:

investigate market opportunities for a new product, service or treatment
evaluate consumer behaviour and competitive forces in relation to these, using qualitative and quantitative analysis techniques
generate insights into potential strategies, opportunities for commercialisation and possible routes to market

Global Consulting Project

The Global Consulting Project (GCP) is a highlight of the Cambridge MBA for many, providing a valuable opportunity to apply learning, experience new sectors or roles, travel and to build networks with a view to post-MBA career goals.

During the GCP small teams of students consult with blue-chip multinational corporations or international organisations on a particular aspect of their business. Students are able to either pick their top 3 choices (which informs how teams are created and selected), or they can source their own project.

Recent GCP client companies

Actis, Aston Martin, BookingGo, BP, Carnegie Hall, Coffee Distributing Corp (CDC), Citi Bank, Cambridge University Press, Dev Equity, Faurecia, Google, Gympass, Hilding Anders AB, Hostmaker, Hotels.com, IBM, IKEA, Vorarlberger Illwerke AG, Kylin Prime, Lloyds, Lori, LSEx, Mayfair Capital, McLaren, Narai Group, Patagonia, Piper Heidsieck, PouchNation Easy Touch, Praekelt, Prime, Proparco, R3, SPARK, Sunew, The World Bank Group, Tonaton, Transformative, Trina Solar, Uber EMEA, UNDP, Waterbridge Ventures, WHO.

Want to see more?

Read GCP stories in the student blog

Read case studies of recent GCPs

Concentration Project

You will choose from one of these Concentrations to participate in during the Easter Term (term 3).

Concentrations cover the following areas:

Culture, Arts and Media
Digital Transformations
Energy and Environment
Entrepreneurship
Health Strategies

Finance
Strategy
Marketing
Sustainable Business

At the end of each Concentration you will undertake a team project, in which you will present your findings in a simulated boardroom situation.

Summer Term activities

To allow you to tailor the MBA towards your own individual career objectives, we offer a choice in the final Summer Term.

Please note: the Cambridge MBA is a full-time 12-month MBA programme which runs from mid-September to mid-September. Students may work full-time in a work placement/internship for their summer option, but are not able to start in full-time permanent employment until mid-September, when the programme has finished.

The Individual Project (IP) gives students the opportunity to experience real work as a consultant on a business problem, anywhere in the world. Students can use this opportunity to gain valuable experience for their CV and as a first step into their new career. Students can expect to work full time for 6 to 8 weeks during July to September depending on the client’s requirements and their post-MBA plans. The IP may cover any aspect of management and may be located in any commercial, industrial, public sector or not-for-profit organisation, anywhere in the world. Recent projects have included product extension strategy for a financial services company, analysis of the US railway sector, branding strategy development for a national retailer and derivatives modelling.

Work placements give students the opportunity to gain additional knowledge and valuable experience for their CV within a sector or company of interest. They can also lead to offers of full-time employment. Students can expect to work full-time for 6 to 8 weeks during July to September. Previous employers offering internships include: the Financial Services Authority; Credit Suisse Private Banking; Google; Amazon; and Asian Development Bank. Students often self-source their own internships based on their particular interests.

This course is an opportunity for students to learn by doing. Students will individually choose an organisation to base their case study on. They will investigate through interviews and desk research a major business challenge that the organisation is facing. Based on their research, students will then write up a case study of the firm and the options it can employ to address the challenge it is facing. The case will be written as a pedagogical tool that can subsequently be used in the classroom for learning through role play and discussion.

The International Business Study Trip is a week-long visit to a global location carefully selected based on current economic trends around the world with all lectures for the course delivered during the trip. Course themes include:

globalisation and international business
formal institutions: varieties of capitalism
varieties of innovation
understanding cultural distance
differences in economic and institutional development.

All participants on the IBST are expected to pay for travel and a portion of expenses. Following the one-week study trip, students are required to use the remainder of the Summer Term to write a research paper, drawing on a number of research materials, alongside the experience of the study trip itself.

Further requirements for this research paper are the same as the requirements for the Research Paper option, as above.

The individual project was an excellent conclusion to the Cambridge MBA as it gave me the opportunity to work as an intern at Google where I could broaden my experience and apply what I had learned throughout the year.

Matt Dodds, Canada, Director of the Volaris Group