Dr Nadia Millington MAR 5.37

This course is compulsory on the Global MSc in Management, Global MSc in Management (CEMS MIM) and Global MSc in Management (MBA Exchange). This course is not available as an outside option.

Students must have completed GMiM Capstone Course - Management in Action (MG488A).

The capstone/ business project provides an opportunity to apply, integrate, and/ or deepen the knowledge, insights, and skills that students learn in the GMIM Master's programme at the LSE or an affiliate university that forms part of CEMS. 

The project is a quasi- academic/ applied project which aims to analyse a real-world problem in a broadly related domain of the Master’s program at one of LSE’s corporate partners.

More specifically a quasi- academic / applied project requires that students  support their analysis of the client partner’s challenge /brief,  with relevant theory - sourced from academic journals - and with some primary data collection where  possible, leading to an evidence-based analysis and compelling recommendations. Every effort must be made to collect some first-hand evidence using standard research methodologies, but in different ways and to different degrees depending on the project.

One notable criterion for evaluation will be the way theory/research from academic journals whether taught in the degree programme/ independently sourced, are used to strengthen the analysis and recommendations of the project. Another criterion is the strength and implement-ability of the recommendations in relation to the client partner’s objectives/ brief.

Project details

The projects will be sourced by LSE and are allocated, on average to groups of 4-6 students.

Client partners range from large multinational organisations to small social enterprises, located both in the UK and globally.

Students will be asked to indicate their project preferences and every aim will be made to place students in one of their preferred projects by week 3 of the term.

Within the first 3 weeks of the term, the course leader is responsible for 3 separate lectures

• Course introduction
• Project Introduction
• Project kick-off

Further details about these sessions can be found in your timetable.

In the third week of the term/ beginning of the 4th week, each team will be provided with a dedicated faculty coach who will

1. provide guidance and advice throughout your project
2. approve your research ethics form- (Student groups must complete an Ethics Review for their project)
3. if required, co-sign a non-disclosure agreement with your client partner and other members of your team. Should the client request one, a standard LSE non-disclosure agreement is available (see moodle/ dom.gmim), but students may also be required to sign company-specific non-disclosure agreements.

Students are expected to work with their client to produce a work product as agreed, so it is important to establish expectations early.

The faculty coach may also require sight of certain work products to keep the team on track, but there is no formal deadline for any formative course work as each project is so idiosyncratic.

There are no specific readings for this course since all the projects differ greatly. However, many student groups utilise interviews / qualitative research as part of their data collection. The following book is very useful: An Introduction to Qualitative research – UWE Flick.

Assessment path 1
Project (65%) and class participation (10%) in the AT and WT.
Essay (25%, 2000 words) in the AT.

Assessment path 2
Project (100%) in the WT.

LSE Students will follow Assessment Path 1

Winter Term CEMS Exchange Students will follow Assessment Path 2

Student groups will be assessed via:

• An oral presentation (approx 30 minutes)
• Written material- PowerPoint Slides of the oral presentation + appendices illustrating evidence in support of analysis and recommendations. There is no specific word count for this submission but all written material must conform to LSE standards of post-graduate academic work, including explicit prohibitions against plagiarism.

Deadline for presentations will be established in the first week of the course.

For details relating to class participation and essay, see MG488A course guide.