MBA Students at St. Edward's Take on Consulting Projects in Berlin

By Robyn Ross

The St. Edward’s University MBA degree culminates in a Capstone course, in which students work in a team to complete a management consulting project for a real company. Students can choose a Capstone option in Texas or go abroad with the global Capstone course.

The Spring 2019 global capstone course worked with companies based in Berlin. In March, the students traveled to Germany to meet face-to-face with their clients, which included an international travel company, a marketer of new food products and a humanitarian group helping refugees plan for their eventual return home. Here's a snapshot of their Capstone experience.

Grad students discuss a project as they work on their laptops.

A team spends a busy morning working with FoodBuzz, a startup that markets niche food products.

Graduate students walk together on the streets of Berlin.

The team heads out for a lunch break and explores the city for a bit before returning to work with the client.

Two graduate students stop and read about the Berlin wall with pieces of the wall framing the information.

The team working with Pointers International, a travel company that helps tourists find destinations off the beaten path, pauses in front of a piece of the Berlin Wall in Potsdamer Platz.

Professor John Mueller and two graduate students in Berlin.

On their walk to lunch, Assistant Professor of Management John Mueller and the team working with the International Sustainable Impact Cooperation pause for a photo in Potsdamer Platz.

A graduate student group is meeting inside a glass walled room with a few of the city surrounding them.

The team consulting for International Sustainable Impact Cooperation meets with ISI members in a Berlin hotel that has been repurposed as housing for refugees. The ISI project focused on strategies to help Afghan refugees who have come to Germany eventually return to their home country.

A graduate student puts sticky notes on the window as he and his team brainstorm ideas.

The team working with travel company Pointers International brainstormed places in the U.S. that Germans might want to visit — beyond popular destinations like New York City and Disney World.

Graduate students eat lunch with Professor John Mueller in Berlin.

The ISI team and Assistant Professor of Management John Mueller confer over lunch in a restaurant in Potsdamer Platz, a part of the city that was completely rebuilt after the fall of the Berlin Wall. The building with the restaurant was constructed over the site of the wall, and a line on the floor shows where the wall used to stand.

A graduate student takes notes on her iPad as her and her team discuss food products on the table.

Members of the FoodBuzz team examine product packaging and taste-test products, like cold-brew coffee and a chia drink, that their client may introduce to the market.

Team members collaborating with Pointers International take a look at lesser-known travel destinations in the Balkins.

Photography by Stefanie Loos