Participants of the International MBA need a tangible way within a real business setting to acquire the competencies they need to complement their existing skill set.

As all participants are required to have a minimum of three years working experience, they already know what it is like to function within a company structure.
This is the reason why the International MBA programme includes a year-long consulting project; the Entrepreneurial Leadership Project (ELP). Working on the project throughout the year allows participants to immediately put the academic knowledge into practise, allowing them to continuously make the most of their learning experience.

The ELP projects cover many areas of business expertise, whether it be finance, marketing, change management, or the start-up of new activities.

Shortly after the start of the programme, and based on their competency profile, participants will select one of the projects screened by the programme committee, and work on it within a team that complements their learning needs. All projects are set up in collaboration with an international company, and deal with concrete issues the sponsor organisation is facing. The teams are supported throughout the project by both a company tutor as well as an academic tutor.

The ELP’s are screened to meet several criteria:
- Academic criteria; a project needs to be educational within the framework of the International MBA programme
 - Practical criteria; the project needs to address a current issue the sponsor company is facing, and cannot be fictitious or purely theoretical
 - Participants’ learning needs; participants who choose a project need to be able to develop the competencies they are looking for.

"Undoubtfully, the most exciting experience during my MBA was ELP (Entrepreneurial Leadership Project). Dealing with a real company, solving an urgent business issue, applying theoretical skills to business practice, sharing my own work experience and learning from the team members – my ELP was extremely rich in all respects. Moreover, the findings of this project are fully applicable to my present job."
Margarita Bolganova
International MBA participant 2009/2010 

• Some examples of projects:

  

Corporate & Start-Up Projects
Assisting start-up activities
Analysing the feasibility of a new product development
Searching for opportunities in emerging Markets
Analyzing internal innovation process

Social & Public Projects
Solutions for inner-cities
Regional economic development
Improving the international scope of public services, museums, airports