The case write-ups should be no more than three double-spaced pages (750 words). You may choose any two cases to analyze. Submit each write-up on the night before the case is to be discussed. These are individual assignments; please write up the case on your own, not with your team. The write-ups are intended to be analytical discussions of some issue central to the case. Please do not write a summary of the case or repeat case facts except to bolster your argument. Based on the information provided in the case materials, please be analytically critical and evaluative. You should propose alternate managerial views and action plans whenever appropriate and discuss the relevance and applicability of the frameworks proposed in the readings and lectures. In short, you should write what you think of the situation in the case and not merely what the author of the case says.
Participation in class and small-group interactions, combined with feedback from your host company, will account for 25 percent of the grade. We will cold-call students throughout every session. Attendance at and preparation for every class is expected. Please talk to us if you need to miss a class. We are willing to consider any reasonable explanation for why you can't attend class, but each unexplained absence reduces your grade by 5 percent. Missing 3 classes, breakout sessions, or group meetings during class hours with faculty or outside advisors constitutes an automatic failure of the course. There will also be an intra-team evaluation at the end of IAP. In other words, you get to say who did the work.
We will post the list of potential host companies and projects on the G-Lab external site during September. Each team will have a faculty member serving as the advisor for all aspects of the project. It is your team's responsibility, however, to negotiate and manage all aspects of the work plan and the project. After your team has been matched with a host company, you will make contact, begin building the relationship, and discuss the project. Based on those discussions, your team will create a detailed workplan outlining the project scope, deliverables and milestones. Your team will submit the workplan on Ses #12 for faculty review. Once your faculty advisor has given you feedback, you will incorporate the feedback into a revised workplan and obtain your host company's sign-off by Ses #14.
Your team will undertake a great deal of preliminary research and analysis on your project during the fall. The IRR will provide an overview of your team's work from two primary perspectives:
The internship goal is for your team to work professionally on-site with senior management and staff as effective consultants. Your team must be all together, on-site, for a minimum of three consecutive weeks (Monday-Friday). As in any professional endeavor, you are to deliver analysis, advice and recommendations that are value-added, appropriate, and immediately useful to your company. You will make a formal presentation to your company at the end of your onsite internship and provide them with supporting written analysis and data as appropriate.
You will deliver a copy (or summary) of your company deliverables to your team advisor upon your return to MIT. The final report is due on Friday, one week following end of internship. The final written report should demonstrate your understanding of the company, its comparative strengths and weaknesses, and your project focus. In addition, you should integrate material relevant to the four goals of G-Lab, as outlined in the syllabus. For example, what specific issues does the company face because of where it is located? How exactly did you add value? How exactly have you added to your network of contacts? You should also provide reasonable forecasts for the future of the company, given your projections of the relevant macroeconomic and microeconomic environment.
The final report should be 20 double-spaced pages of text (approximately 5000 words), plus any tables and appendices that help the reader. One required appendix is the Resource Report, which is your team's compilation of all relevant resources on which you relied to get your project done efficiently. This will include not just bibliographical and standard research and trade industry data, but practical, networking and/or entrepreneurial resources you drew on. We will discuss the Resource Report and its content in class.
Note: In past years, outstanding teams have prepared their final report in a form that can be used effectively as a teaching case in MBA classes. We encourage this approach but do not require it. If your team would like to write its report as a case, please speak to your faculty advisor for approval.
We will hold a major G-Lab event on Monday, 10 days following end of internship, 11am-2pm. This will be open to the entire MIT community and is intended to highlight and publicize your work. Every team must prepare a poster and staff a presentation position during this event. It will be widely advertised and you should expect considerable interest, scrutiny, and questions.