Hello MBA students:

A unique opportunity for MBA students has become available with Schulich’s Centre for Customer Centricity (CCC).  The Center aims to engage Schulich MBA students in experiential learning projects via consulting assignments.  Students routinely describe this as the best experience in the MBA program.

Schulich Professor Ajay K. Sirsi leads this consulting opportunity, and the deadline to apply for this 3.00 course (MKTG 6904) is November 15, 2022.

 

How does this work? 

  • Students will be chosen to work on a customer-centricity problem for a real company
  • Working in groups, students will work on a consulting project from January to April 2023 by conducting primary (in-person) and secondary (library) research
  • Students will present their findings to the company in April
  • Professor Sirsi and his team will provide coaching and guidance every step of the way
  • There are no pre-requisites for this course, and all are welcome to apply

If you want to take part in this unique experiential learning opportunity for elective credit, submit a resume and cover letter to Prof. Sirsi at asirsi@yorku.ca explaining why you should be selected. Students will be notified if they have been chosen by December 15.  Student Services will follow up with the selected students about enrolment details for this Winter elective.

 

Please read the testimonials from two students who participated in this unique educational opportunity.

 

Testimonial 1

 
As a proud member of the first cohort of the Centre for Customer Centricity, I write this testimonial to share my memorable five-months experience in working with Prof Sirsi and our client Royal Bank of Canada on the Newcomer project. Professional experience could be more rewarding when you got an opportunity to apply the skills learned from past work experiences and to learn new skills from the project you would work on. With more than 7 years of work experience in Banking in India, I was fortunate to experience both with my Customer Centricity Project.

Prof Sirsi assigned team members and clients to each team after rigorously screening the profile of each candidate and the client. To the students from India, the greatest asset in working in this project was working with team-mates in Keele campus. We had an opportunity to learn the business environment, corporate culture and customer expectations while staying thousands of miles away from Canada. The primary research methodology that we adopted, “Depth Interviews”, was an incredibly insightful strategy which helped us retrace the decision-making journey of each interviewee that we interviewed. Prof Sirsi guided us all along the process with his valuable inputs and feedback. Having over two decades of experience in conducting depth interviews, we could not have thought of someone more qualified than Prof Siri to guide us through this assignment.

I plan to pursue my professional career in banking and finance industry in Canada. Working for RBC on the Customer Centricity project helped me understand both the banking industry in Canada and the expectations of the customer in the highly commoditized banking industry in Canada. These experiences would be a great asset when I would interview for a bank in Canada and suggest products that would meet the expectations of their customers. Overall, I would suggest students to strongly consider this course to have a superior understanding of the Canadian corporate and customer culture to kickstart a longer professional career in Canada.

Warm regards,

Dinesh Jegatheesan

MBA (India Campus)

 

 

Testimonial 2 
This innovative course complemented my MBA with experiential learning that’s hard to duplicate in a classroom setting. Consulting on a “real life” problem for a bona fide client allowed me to utilize the skills I was learning in the classroom, as well as strengthen my navigation of the dynamics of a consulting team. I would recommend this course to anyone looking for a holistic learning opportunity that both challenges you with solving a client’s problem and rewards you with the achievement of a satisfied client, all the while preparing you for the realities of the consulting world.

Thanks!

Kasia Pytlik

MBA (Toronto campus)