The
Accelerated One-Year MBA Program
Consulting Project
After completing the Foundations Module and both Core Modules, students in the full-time MBA program will participate in a 10-week, six credit hour consulting project. Each project involves immersion into a dynamic, real business environment to address issues being faced by managers in partnering firms.
Anthony Turner
Joan Oruwari
Jody Jordan
Joe Patch
Miguel Fuertes
Patrick Brown
Robert Denning
Corporate Partners
The success of the consulting projects depends in large part on the relationships we have built with our corporate partners. Past partnering firms for the consulting projects have included Wal-Mart, Procter& Gamble, Alltel, SAP America, Tyson Foods, Hewlett-Packard, Staffmark, and J.B. Hunt as well as numerous smaller firms.
Real World Experience
The consulting projects provide students with an opportunity to bridge academic and “real world” concerns. During the consulting project, students work closely with managers in partnering firms to identify and research opportunities, explore alternative courses of action, develop recommendations for the firm, and present recommendations to the firm’s top managers. Students gain hands-on experience exploring actual business problems and making recommendations that have real consequences for the partnering firm. Through the consulting projects, students develop skills and knowledge to make immediate contributions to their organizations upon graduation.
High Impact Learning
Recent graduates report that the consulting projects are one of the most beneficial components of our program. This is particularly true for students who do not have a strong record of business work experience. Because they are conducted in teams under the guidance of both faculty members and industry leaders, the projects serve as the equivalent of apprenticeships.
Partners in Progress The Partners is Progress program has been challenging University of Arkansas MBA students for over eight years and serves as an MBA Consulting Project every spring semester. This program involves teams of students working with industry leaders from Procter & Gamble and Wal-Mart under the guidance of a senior faculty advisor.
In the spring of 2001 several teams of MBA students were given two projects to work on. One project investigated customers’ perceptions and purchasing habits of expanded food offerings within Wal-Mart Discount Stores. Students conducted research by administering 461 surveys at nine stores, conducting in-store shop-a-longs, and making store observations. Wal-Mart competitors were also observed, with students making over 25 visits to other retailers. The other project dealt with investigating how customers’ perceptions of the fresh departments (meat and produce) at Wal-Mart Supercenters affected their overall perceptions of the store. Students visited eight different Supercenters across the country to gather data by administering in-store surveys, conducting shop-a-longs, and meeting focus groups. In early May the students of Partners in Progress presented their reports to the corporate sponsors at Wal-Mart’s Bentonville headquarters in front of an audience that included three of the top seven department heads of Wal-Mart and key contacts at Procter & Gamble. Each year many of the recommendations from the MBA teams become action plans for the partnering firms.
Finance Portfolio Management Project
Students who are pursuing the finance concentration may elect to participate in the 10-week, six credit hour Finance Portfolio Management Project. The purpose of this project is to give students hands-on stock portfolio management experience using techniques developed by modern portfolio theory. The portfolio is a real fund created through a
donation of $250,000 by Dudley and Ken Shollmier to the Walton College of Business. The primary objective of the overall project is to invest these funds most appropriately in the industries and stocks selected through the students’ research and meetings with industry financial advisors under the guidance of a senior faculty advisor. Students participate in seminars to learn to use advanced financial databases, attend key investment meetings
from industry experts, and make several presentations on their portfolio management strategy to business leaders and key sponsors of the project.
The consulting projects provide students with an opportunity to bridge academic and “real world” concerns. During the consulting project, students work closely with managers in partnering firms to identify and research opportunities, explore alternative courses of action, develop recommendations for the firm, and present recommendations to the firm’s top managers. Students gain hands-on experience exploring actual business problems and making recommendations that have real consequences for the partnering firm. Through the consulting projects, students develop skills and knowledge to make immediate contributions to their organizations upon graduation.
The Partners is Progress program has been challenging University of Arkansas MBA students for over eight years and serves as an MBA Consulting Project every spring semester. This program involves teams of students working with industry leaders from Procter & Gamble and Wal-Mart under the guidance of a senior faculty advisor. 
Students who are pursuing the finance concentration may elect to participate in the 10-week, six credit hour Finance Portfolio Management Project. The purpose of this project is to give students hands-on stock portfolio management experience using techniques developed by modern portfolio theory. The portfolio is a real fund created through a
donation of $250,000 by Dudley and Ken Shollmier to the Walton College of Business. The primary objective of the overall project is to invest these funds most appropriately in the industries and stocks selected through the students’ research and meetings with industry financial advisors under the guidance of a senior faculty advisor. Students participate in seminars to learn to use advanced financial databases, attend key investment meetings
from industry experts, and make several presentations on their portfolio management strategy to business leaders and key sponsors of the project.
