Harvard Business School (HBS) is seeking B2C companies who would like to participate in their MBA Field Immersion Experiences for Leadership Development (FIELD) program. This is your chance to develop a new consumer product or service concept with assistance from one of the most prestigious business schools in the world. It will only require 5 to 10 hours of your time during October through December, 2012. There is no cost or fee associated with participation in the FIELD global immersion program (HBS will be responsible for student travel, lodging and meals during the immersion).
Please email your company project idea and contact details to Kurt Piemonte ([email protected]) by August 15th. All project ideas will be reviewed by HBS on August 17th, 2012. Your project idea should be less than a paragraph. Please see examples below.
Program Description:
Students will begin work on the project in Boston in late October 2012 and then travel to Qingdao in January (January 7-14, 2013) to work on-site and to test their ideas with local consumers / customers. The students will be in Qingdao from January 6-14, 2013 where they will:
• Meet with the organization’s English speaking Project Sponsor and relevant function managers to complete the design of the new product or service;
• Validate their proposal and test their ideas with local consumers; and
• Share the final proposal in a formal presentation to senior management at your offices on Monday, 14 January 2013.
** There is no cost or fee associated with participation in the FIELD global immersion. HBS will be responsible for student travel, lodging and meals during the immersion.
The academic focus for this module of the FIELD course is product / service design. As such we are seeking project proposals that include the following elements:
• Customer Interaction: The customers for which students design the new product or service must live near the city center where the students will be staying when in country as students cannot travel outside the metro area.
• Design: The target must be a tangible product or service for local consumers / customers. For existing products or services, the innovation should be on the identification of a new need. For example, what design improvements can be made to “white goods” products in order to make these household appliances more accessible to disabled consumers?
• Product / Service Innovation. Students should be able to make suggestions without extensive background training. This will rule out those that require deep technical expertise (i.e. drugs, food, or mechanical design).
Below are some examples of project ideas to give you a sense of what we are seeking:
• Design and develop a new, interactive retail experience for video game and entertainment software.
• Develop a concept for an online shoe store that attracts more consumers. An important goal is to enhance the buying experience for online customers.
• Develop a concept for a software-based service or an application that enriches the PC/notebook experience of the local consumer. What service would increase the adoption of PCs and notebooks?
• Design smart energy metering products for a utilities company that appeal to residential customers. What features will such a product have? How will consumers use it?
• An online merchant that allows customers to buy electricity tokens would like students to design novel services that leverage its existing technology and market position.
• Develop an innovative insurance product targeted at the mass market.
Complete details about the FIELD global immersion, including testimonials from past Global Partners, may be found on our web site.