Robert Sullivan, dean of UCSD’s Rady School of Management, says executive mentors transform classroom experience into business relevancy. (photo/lambertphoto.com)

MBA students often finish their studies by taking a capstone course or doing a final project that demonstrates what they learned in business school. They might tackle a work-related project or serve on a consultant team for a local organization. Some compete in online business simulations. For others, creating a business plan has replaced the thesis usually associated with a master’s degree.

Debbie Veale started working at T-Systems International about the time she started her capstone course at University of Phoenix. She had been hired in September 2003 as an administrative assistant at the company, which manufactures drip irrigation systems for agricultural use. Veale’s duties included managing projects for her boss, and she was assigned to map out the company’s order process system.

She turned the assignment into her six-week capstone course. Veale interviewed company officials and researched creation of an internal supply chain. “I narrowed the focus for six weeks and expanded it after the class,” she says. Her bosses “were very encouraging. That’s why I was hired. They were very happy to get someone completing an MBA.” While the project was temporarily shelved last year, Veale again is working on it, this time in greater depth.

Capstone projects like Veale’s benefit students and their employers, says Michael Reilly, chair of the College of Graduate Business and Management at the Phoenix San Diego campus. “A capstone course with a summative project provides the students with an opportunity to apply all they have learned to solve a real or model business problem using a business interdisciplinary approach,” he says.

National University

As an MBA student at National University in 2002, technical writer Kai Schumann fulfilled his capstone requirement by writing a business plan for the nonprofit San Diego Oceans Foundation. Some classmates created business plans for fictitious companies, but Schumann wanted to aid the foundation where he already was involved in projects like the reintroduction of white sea bass into local waters. Schumann served as the foundation’s vice president when in graduate school and made it his goal to provide a “workable business plan” that would help the foundation with grant applications.

“It’s very easy to make a business look great on paper,” he says. “Doing it for a real organization takes a lot more care. I’m sure it helped the foundation obtain grants.”

Schumann’s efforts were praised by assistant professor Kenneth Goldberg. “He was asked to do a business plan and provided a meaningful contribution to the community,” he says.

A job transfer took Schumann out of the area after graduate school, but he is back in San Diego and expects to be named foundation president in January. His goals include updating the business plan. “It’s a living document. As president, I already know I have changes to make,” says Schumann, who works for Validation Technologies.

San Diego State University

Chuck Luby, manager of proposals and marketing at General Atomics, was at first skeptical of San Diego State University MBA students serving as consultants. But the company took on a team and Luby says the results were ‘a smashing success.’ (photo/lambertphoto.com)

At SDSU, teams of MBA students serve as consultants to organizations ranging from the Marine Corps to La Jolla High School. Consulting on issues such as the feasibility of converting La Jolla to a charter school serves as a substitute for writing the traditional thesis, says Ken Marino, head of the College of Business graduate program. Businesses pay a $3,500 stipend for the student consultants, money that Marino says is placed in the business dean’s discretionary fund. Teams of three to four students are supervised by faculty members with expertise in areas such as accounting. Each student must work on the project at least 150 hours, says Jeff Glazer, director of the Aztec Business Alliance.

Glazer has placed student consulting teams with organizations for about eight years. MBA consultants work on projects such as business plans and human resources studies. “They’re really important projects,” he says. Consulting may lead to jobs for students, but Glazer says “that’s not the primary purpose” of this capstone course.

Calls for consultants come from previous clients, through word-of-mouth referrals and from Glazer promoting the arrangement in the community. That’s how Chuck Luby learned about the team concept in 1999.

Luby, General Atomics manager of proposals and marketing, listened to Glazer extol the program. “Yeah, right,” Luby admits thinking. However, he took the idea back to work, and General Atomics agreed to take on a team. “It turned out to be a smashing success and got the attention of senior management,” Luby says. “Success breeds success.”

The first project involved research into commercial uses of a radar system developed for the military. The all-weather system can “see” through clouds and in the dark. Students came up with seven nonmilitary applications. The five that showed promise included monitoring coastline erosion and use by the Border Patrol, says Luby.

Another student team in 1999 was assigned to an international project. They worked on a business plan for the commercial use of high-temperature battery technology developed in Russia. The project brought together students from Russia and the United States, Russian scientists and representatives from General Atomics and the State Department. General Atomics also worked with students from Auburn University and the University of New Mexico. The goal of the international project was to develop technologies and create business opportunities, says Luby. Uses for the high-temperature batteries include oil drilling. So far, General Atomic has worked with 29 SDSU teams. “We’ve been very pleased,” says Luby. (For information about consulting teams, contact Glazer at (619) 594-3012.)

DeVry University

The capstone at Keller Graduate School of Management of DeVry University is the creation of a business plan. Students team up and may work in pairs, says Thomas Horstmann, San Diego campus dean. During the final week of the semester, students give oral presentations to a faculty panel. Horstmann says most plans are for fictitious businesses. However, some students create plans for potential businesses.

UCSD Rady School of Management

Capstone courses and projects are usually associated with the end of a graduate program. There’s a different emphasis at UCSD’s Rady School of Management. “Real-world” projects and case-based studies aren’t limited to the final course, says assistant dean JoAnne Starr. “The goal is to be integrative.”

Students in the Rady School’s first MBA classes started classes in September. The charter students are cohorts in the two-year Flex-MBA program designed for working professionals. They work in learning teams of five to six students, says Dean Robert Sullivan. The teams bring together people from diverse backgrounds and industries. These teams are guided by executive mentors who will help transform “classroom experience into business relevancy,” says Sullivan.

Core courses in the program include “Managerial Economics” and “Leadership, Values and Team Management in Technology-Driven Firms.” The “From Lab to Market” course is described on the Rady Web site as a “mini-capstone.” In the four-unit course, students work through in-depth cases. Topics covered in the course include evaluating commercial potential of a new technology, what venture capitalists want, typical funding stages, recruiting and managing the founding team, intellectual property strategy and the sales and marketing of new products.

Planning, analysis and teamwork are among the lessons learned as students put into practice lessons learned in business school. Whether they participate in a business simulation or serve as consultants for an actual organization, the emphasis is on applying a business education to a “real-world” setting.

Cal State San Marcos

At CSU San Marcos, students in the capstone course work in three-member teams on final projects. Their goal is to take on one problem in depth from start to finish, says Keith Butler, MBA program director. The MBA project may be a business plan or a feasibility study, but “the key part is a real-world solution to a problem.”

Students may address a problem from the workplace. Butler says “a fair amount” of projects are for nonprofit organizations. Some people base projects on starting or marketing a foundation, and one student created a manual about staging fund-raising golf tournaments. While the manual was aimed at one organization, it was written so it could be marketed to other businesses.

National Graduate School

A master’s business project (MBP) is woven into the MS degree in quality systems management at National Graduate School. The project is targeted to an organization and may be the student’s workplace, says Laurie Broedling, a professor who serves as a faculty adviser.

The project is the subject of three MBP courses in the one-year degree program. The remaining nine courses cover subjects such as team dynamics and strategic planning. In the first MBP course (Project Management), a team of three to five students selects a project to improve. National began offering its degree program at the U.S. Coast Guard base this year, and Broedling says some projects target simplifying the acquisition process for the Fleet Industrial Supply Center. Aspects of this process include reducing cycle time. The next MBP course is Focused Analyses, and the final course is Assessment Results. Teams will give their final presentations on graduation day.

Chapman University

Rhonda Fuller completed her MS in human resources degree at Chapman University by taking a comprehensive, day-long exam. The test “is answered in essay format,” says Fuller, Hollandia Dairy human resources manager. “Studying for it is to recap a huge body of knowledge. As an older, well-established company, many HR processes were already in place when I came on board three years ago. My knowledge, sharpened and updated through my master’s training, helped me update many of these existing processes.”

Although Fuller didn’t have a final project, she says that an earlier course assignment was beneficial. Her compensation class project was to create an organization from the ground up and formulate a comprehensive compensation program. “There was a lot of research that went into the project,” she says. “We could not rely upon one or two salary surveys and sometimes data was very hard to find. This was a great, hands-on project.”

University of San Diego

Students meet twice weekly in USD professor Gary Whitney’s capstone course, where each of the eight rounds represents one year in the life of the business. (photo/lambertphoto.com)

USD is among the campuses where the MBA capstone is a course which students participate in an online business simulation. Students work in teams during the 13-week course. The teams represent five fictitious businesses that manufacture products ranging from inexpensive toys to aerospace sensors. The game is played around the world, and students can monitor the decisions of other companies on the Internet.

Students meet twice weekly in USD professor Gary Whitney’s capstone course, where each of the eight rounds represents one year in the business’ life. Since September, Paul Baker’s team has tackled issues such as whether to focus on a market segment or to sell more products to a wider audience. Should money be spent on research and development? Will the company issue stocks and bonds? In November, union contracts were up for renewal. “If labor costs rose to $30 an hour, we’d sit back and think, ‘What are other companies going to do?’ I really like doing this. It places you in the shoes of senior executives,” says Baker, a product line manager at Motorola. “I started the MBA to get the position I’m in now.”

Baker learns this month how his imaginary business fared. In addition to offering the simulation course, Whitney says that USD hosts a business simulation competition that attracts students from around the world.

Alliant International University

A sense of competition also is present in the capstone course offered twice yearly at Alliant International University. In addition to the experience gained playing the capstone game, the names of each semester’s winning team members are displayed on a plaque in the College of Business office. Students “love it. They think it’s prestigious,” says Ali Abu-Rahma, acting dean of the business college. The game receives excellent evaluations from students who say they “put the things they learned to practical use.”

University of Redlands

A simulation game is the basis of the six-week capstone seminar at University of Redlands. “The simulation forces students to draw from all of the (previous MBA) courses,” says Keith Roberts, associate dean for the School of Business. Students work in teams of five to six people. However, competition extends beyond the class to other Redlands campuses. “We teach all over Southern California and can have San Diego competing against Orange County,” Roberts says.