Projects

Project Assignments

You will form teams and jointly submit project applications after reviewing the available project opportunities, following the guidelines of the Teamwork and Match Process. All teams will be assigned a faculty mentor who will advise them throughout the development of their project.

Project Work Plan

Although your team will have one or two faculty member(s) as your mentor(s) for all aspects of the project, it is your team’s responsibility 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 work plan outlining the project scope, detailed methodology, deliverables, milestones, and travel dates, as well as providing signature lines to obtain client’s approval.

Your team will submit a draft work plan by Ses #12 for faculty review. Once you have your mentor(s)’ feedback, you will incorporate it into a final work plan and obtain your host company’s signoff by Ses #14. You will submit your host’s signed copy of the work plan to your mentor(s).

Peer Review

You will complete a Peer Review worksheet for each member of your team twice in the semester. The Peer Review will give you the opportunity to provide qualitative and quantitative feedback on each individual’s contribution to the team and working style. The first Peer Review will be done at the completion of your Research Report. At your next mentor meeting, your mentor(s) will lead you in a discussion about the reviews. At the conclusion of your internship, you will complete a second Peer Review and submit the information to your faculty mentor(s).

Remote (MIT-based) Internship and Remote Research Report (RRR)

Your team will undertake a great deal of preliminary research and analysis on your project during the fall. This research is to be encapsulated in the RRR, a substantial, stand-alone deliverable to your host. RRRs are often industry analyses, market research findings, technology studies, or similar reports that give clients new insights and guidance. They are not data-dumps of everything you ever read. Although you should negotiate the scope of your RRR with your client and mentor(s), you should expect to produce at least 20 double-spaced pages of text (approximately 5000 words, not including tables and appendices) of analysis, synthesis, and interim conclusions. A great RRR is a critical step in making your on-site internship and client relationship successful.

The RRR includes an Executive Summary, proper citations throughout, and a bibliography. The Executive Summary should be 3-4 sentences, no more than 100 words, describing the host company and the project as you would explain it to an outsider – such as a journalist.

Your team will submit a draft RRR on Ses #19 for faculty review. Once you have your mentors’ feedback, you will incorporate it into a final RRR and submit it to your host company and mentor(s) by Ses #22.

On-site Internship, Poster, Company Deliverables, and Final Internship Report

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 work weeks (Monday-Friday). As in any professional endeavor, you are to deliver analysis, advice and recommendations that add value, are appropriate, and will be immediately useful to your company. During and after the on-site internship, you will have the following deliverables:

You will make a formal presentation to your company on the first day of your onsite internship summarizing your RRR. You will deliver a copy of this presentation as part of your company deliverables to your team advisor upon your return to MIT.
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 according to your agreement with your client. You will deliver a copy (or summary) of your company deliverables to your team advisor upon your return to MIT.
Debrief & Reflection Session: After your internship, you will attend a required session. This will be the final classroom commitment of G-Lab, and an opportunity to reflect on everything you’ve learned. You must be back on campus for this session.
Poster: We will hold G-Lab Day a week after your return. This major G-Lab event draws a large and enthusiastic audience from the entire MIT community. To highlight and publicize your work, your 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.
Final Internship Report: due after G-Lab Day. The final written report should demonstrate your understanding of the company, its comparative strengths and weaknesses, and your project focus. In addition, you should
1. Provide an Executive Summary about your project, similar to the one produced for the RRR but covering the total scope, results, and learnings from the project.
2. Answer all of the following questions (in any order):
  - How did this internship meet the four goals of G-Lab, as outlined at the beginning of this syllabus?
  - How exactly did your team add value?
  - What was your team’s greatest learning from this internship?
  - What specific issues does the company face because of where it is located?
3. 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 a minimum of 15 double-spaced pages of text (approximately 3750 words), plus any tables and appendices that help the reader.

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 mentor(s) for approval.

Resource Report: A required appendix to your final report. The Resource Report 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.

After Action Review

At the conclusion of your on-site internship, we ask you to write an “After Action” review of what you learned. This will be the time to reflect on your experience of the team, the client and company, and living and working in another country. The essay should be approximately three double-spaced pages (750 words).

Your essay should include a reflection on the class sessions, mentoring sessions, experience working with your client and your team. This is not a summary of what you did but rather a reflection on what you learned from these experiences. You might consider discussing what you will take away from the class as a whole: how your experience will affect your conduct in a future team, what you did well and what you would do differently in working with a client, how have you added to your network of contacts?

Team Formation Process

G-Lab will entail extensive team work. You need to build a team with diverse and complementary skills. This is key to success in your internship. Think carefully about the people you want to work with (and even temporarily live with) and how you will allocate responsibilities within your team. We will help you as much as possible, but ultimately team selection and operation is your responsibility.

During Ses #3, two classes before match forms are due, there will be an in-class mixer to give you an opportunity to find or complete your team and ask the faculty questions about particular projects that interest you.

Match Process

Questionnaires are submitted by the host companies. They contain substantial background information on the projects and the proposed focus for a G-Lab team. Many list one or more faculty or other advisors to contact for more details. If you have questions regarding the proposed project, please talk to those faculty. You should not contact any company until matching is complete.

Please note that most of the questionnaires include a section asking for required or requested skill sets or background, including language. As you review questionnaires, bear in mind the requirements that the host companies have laid out. They will carry great weight in the match process.

By Ses #5, your team must submit a team project application. Treat this as a job application. You’ll rank 3 projects in order of preference, submit a team profile, and write short persuasive statements on your team’s strengths and particular suitability for each project – in short, a cover letter. The persuasive statements are vital to the application process, and many great teams have shot themselves in the collective foot by writing a lousy cover letter. You must also attach your resumes and a photo page to your application. Your resume should be 1 page and no longer than 2. The photo page should include a picture of each member of your team alongside your contact information. The photo page and resumes will ultimately be sent to the client.

The match process is confidential and conducted by the faculty. Their decisions are final. Historically, roughly 60% of teams get their first choice and another 20% get their second or third. Every team will be matched, and every team will have a great experience.

Mentoring

Your G-Lab team is assigned a faculty mentor with whom you will meet at regular intervals throughout the course. The team-mentor relationship is designed in such a way that the team takes primary responsibility for working with the client and leading the project. The faculty mentor plays a supporting role in which she/he:

Coaches the team and team members on working together for successful completion of the project
Shares and facilitates feedback with the team on project management
Provides understanding of protocols for working with the client
Mediates relationship with client as necessary
Gives feedback on course deliverables and team dynamics, if appropriate
Grades course deliverables

A mentor is your advisor, not your supervisor. Your team will own your relationship with the host company. You, not the faculty, will be responsible for negotiating and managing all aspects of the work plan and the project, during the fall and IAP.

Meetings may be scheduled during designated class time or outside of class. You should anticipate meeting with your mentor roughly three times during the Fall, though some teams find it helpful to meet more often. In addition, faculty mentors will often travel to host countries to meet with you and your client, as schedules allow.

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Global Entrepreneurship Lab: Asia-Pacific