So concludes the second week of my multidisciplinary action project (otherwise known as MAP) in Sweden. When I was going through the business school application process last year, MAP was one thing that differentiated the Ross School of Business for me. Based on what I have discussed with alumni then and what I have read when researching the school, I understood the concept to MAP. However, it wasn’t until I stepped foot into Arlanda airport in Sweden thirteen days ago, traveled to Taby, and then went into the Novartis offices to meet up with our sponsors (after 15 hours spent travelling!) that I knew what MAP truly entailed.
MAP is about applying what we have learned during our first three quarters at the Ross School of Business to real life business situations. During the meeting that we had with our sponsors, it was emphasized that the results of our project will be utilized by top executives within the organization and that our recommendations to the company will be integral to their organization going forward. Subsequent to our meeting, a single thought emerged from my mind … this was no longer a 7.5 unit class that I need to take in order to complete my MBA. This was about going into the business world and coming up with the requested economic models and recommendations that will determine how a pharmaceutical company will allocate resources and strategically market its launch products in the next three to five years. What we do matters. Somehow, my MAP team of six students will put our brains together for the next six weeks to develop forecasting models and propose recommendations to executive management personnel who have been in the industry for 15 years. Our value add is that we will be armed with tools that we learned from some of the best minds in academia (courtesy of the Ross School of Business) and the fact that we will be looking at the pharmaceutical industry and company with fresh pairs of eyes and multiple perspectives.
During our two weeks in Sweden, we were exposed to a multitude of people who worked for the sponsoring company. Our goal was to obtain a thorough understanding of the pharmaceutical industry and how the company successfully launches its products. We then strategized on how we can accomplish our goal during the remaining four weeks in A2. To backtrack, I was very impressed with how the MAP office put our team together. We have six people on our MAP team, including three CPAs, two engineers, and one real estate developer. Of the six of us, we had two people who had exposure to the healthcare industry … a medical device engineer and an auditor who specialized in the healthcare industry. To say that the learning curve was steep was an understatement. And yet we managed. Team members shared thoughts and information and questions were posed to our sponsors during the six hours’ worth of interviews we had every day. Although our personalities varied, our group works well together. There is no one dominant voice in the group and individual members of the team are willing to work hard. For example, when one person takes notes for a meeting, another person would automatically volunteer to do the same during the next meeting. If someone works on the midpoint presentation, another person is more than happy to take over the engagement letter and faculty status report. In short, we have a good team.
The challenge of the next four weeks will come in the execution of the scope that we discussed with our sponsors. Although the scope of our project is broad, our team members are ambitious and aim to excel. We also want to ensure that relations between the Ross School of Business and our sponsoring company are well maintained as this is the first year that our sponsoring company has initiated MAP with the business school. Our team’s performance this year may potentially dictate how many projects the company will sponsor for the following year. We are approaching the end of our second week here in Sweden and will be flying back to the US in two days. And that’s when the tools that the Ross School of Business has given us will truly emerge to help us exceed the expectations that both the sponsoring company and the school has of us. More to follow …
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