In keeping with the mission of the MBA-IB program to develop high-potential professionals, the Business Project is the capstone of the program. The Business Project is conducted in the student's final trimester, and is designed to integrate knowledge gained through lectures and seminars.
The objective of the Business Project is to learn practical business competencies, such as problem-solving and organizational management in actual business settings.
Students can choose one of the following projects as Business Project.
The In-Company Project is a project carried out at the student’s workplace, and generally involves some aspect of research, development or planning that is important to the student’s employer. It represents an opportunity to apply classroom knowledge to real world business situations. While the Program anticipates that students will apply knowledge acquired at MBA-IB to their jobs and welcomes evidence thereof, the In-Company Project must be more than simply a report on the student’s regular employment. Students are expected to develop a new model and/or make and implement new plans that bring new value to their employers.
The Business Plan Development is a unique entrepreneurial experience of creating a start-up business plan. The student will have to cover a wide range of issues regarding the key business areas of finance, accounting, marketing and management. The focus of this experience is to select a concept and create a complete and persuasive business plan that, among other things, will effectively accomplish the goal of acquiring financing.
For the IRR, students are expected to write an academic dissertation equivalent to that of a master thesis. Students will need to review relevant literature, establish a research question or analytical framework, develop hypotheses, and collect and analyze public or original data and information (questionnaires, interviews, simulation, etc). The form of the dissertation must follow the form used in the relevant academic field.
Students will experience practical training in a foreign country by interning with a foreign company or a subsidiary of a multinational company (including a Japanese-affiliated company) located overseas. Students are expected to devote a minimum of eight, 40-hour weeks to tasks assigned by the host company.
Through internship either in a foreign-affiliated or Japanese company in Japan, students will experience practical training in an industry or company new to them. Student reports are expected to include observations and analysis of both the company where they interned and the tasks they were assigned. Students should also conduct a rigorous self-examination on how they applied their core competencies to the internship and how those competencies improved as a result. Students are expected to devote a minimum of eight, 40-hour weeks to tasks assigned by the host company.
