Putting MBA learning into practice on the Strategic Consultancy Project

As a participant on Warwick Business School’s Full-time MBA, you can choose from a range of capstone options to tailor your learning to your career ambitions.

For Abdullah, Megan and Joanne, the Strategic Consultancy Project provided the opportunity to apply their MBA learning to a live business challenge, working with London-based advisory firm Eisenberg Solutions to explore the potential for a scalable training business for UK wealth managers.
 

Why did you choose to undertake a Strategic Consultancy Project?

Abdullah: I spent four years in banking. I wanted my last big piece of work at Warwick to have a real client and real numbers behind it. A dissertation would have taught me the literature, but the SCP made me put it to work on a live business question. Hence the choice was easy.

Megan: I spent six years making documentaries in New York. I came to Warwick to move into commercial roles, and I wanted to test that on a real business before I left. Financial services was a completely new world to me, so that was the appeal.

Joanne: I learn best by doing. When I worked at Pixar and NEO Studios, every problem came with a deadline and someone waiting for the answer. The SCP felt much closer to that than a purely academic dissertation.
 

Which company are you working with for your Project, and how did you choose it?

Abdullah, Megan and Joanne: We worked with Eisenberg Solutions, a boutique advisory firm in London founded by Adam Eisenberg. Adam wanted to know if a scalable training business for UK wealth managers could work. The introduction came through Toby Cross, a WBS alumnus at Rothschild & Co. The CareersPlus and Employer Relations team helped set up that first conversation when Toby attended as a panelist for Finance Experienced Hire day. The brief suited our mix. Between us we had a trading floor, Netflix, Apple TV+, Pixar and an Amazon documentary. We split the brief into three streams, one each. Joanne took the market and what firms need. Megan took learning platforms and how firms adopt them. Abdullah took commercial strategy and pricing.
 

What has your experience working in your Strategic Consulting Project company been like so far?

Abdullah, Megan and Joanne: Adam is generous with his time and his contacts. We covered a lot of ground in our early calls and built a clear picture of what he wanted. We then took the initiative to reach further across the industry. Those conversations let us test the propositions properly and put forward a solution that holds up. Adam also gave us real freedom to shape the project and the research. That trust made a big difference.
 

How have you put your MBA learnings into practice?

Abdullah: Stream 3 was commercial strategy, so the Strategy and Corporate Finance modules did the heavy lifting. I sized the UK market from 4,000+ regulated advisory firms down to a reachable target market. I then built a subscription model across three adoption scenarios and developed pricing strategies. Barney's resource-based view gave me a test for what Eisenberg could actually defend. Research methods mattered too. I coded more than 230 interview segments before I let myself draw a conclusion.

Megan: Stream 2 looked at how firms roll out learning platforms and whether people actually use them. Organisational Behaviour gave me the change management side. Design Thinking made me start with the adviser, who has to fit a module into a day full of clients. I also knew the problem from production. When I worked at Imagine Entertainment, I designed a new archival workflow and then had to get a whole company to adopt it.

Joanne: Stream 1 mapped the training UK wealth managers get today against what the regulator expects them to know. The Strategy module gave me the tools to break down a market I had never worked in. Our Strategic Challenge on ASML helped too. If you can get your head around semiconductors in a few weeks, private banking feels manageable.
 

How will the Strategic Consultancy Project support your future career goals?

Abdullah: I want to work in strategy and advisory in financial services  in London. The SCP is the closest thing to a commercial due diligence I could do as a student. Sizing a market and pricing a product are questions  teams deal with every day. I now have a finished answer to both with my name on it.

Megan: I am moving from producing documentaries into commercial and strategy roles. The SCP gave me a finance client and a finished strategy project to talk about in interviews. It also showed me that running a production and running a consulting project have a lot in common. Both come down to deadlines and keeping a lot of people happy.

Joanne: I want to work in strategy and operations. Stream 1 dropped me into an industry I had never worked in and asked me to come out with a clear view. That is the skill I want to sell to employers. Now I have a real project to prove it.
 

What have been your highlights of the Strategic Consultancy Project so far?

Abdullah: The interviews. Nine conversations with people who have spent decades in wealth management, and each one moved the argument somewhere new.

Megan: Our interviews at a private bank. Seven years ago I was a production assistant on a BLACKPINK documentary. This summer I was asking a head of private clients how his bankers learn. Very different green room.

Joanne: Interviewing an adviser who also sits on a professional exam panel. I got to see how competence is tested from the side that writes the questions. Working as a three was a highlight too. Each of us brought something the other two did not have.
 

Has anything surprised you?

Abdullah: How much training in this market is given away for free. Asset managers supply a large share of it. So, my question moved from what to charge to why anyone would pay at all. My first revenue model was also about eighteen times too optimistic. One email from the client with a real dataset and feedback on it sorted that out quickly.

Megan: One provider told us completion on paid self-paced courses can be as low as four per cent. Building the platform turned out to be the easy part. Getting a busy banker to finish a module is the hard part.

Joanne: I expected the gap to be content. It was not. Firms have plenty of training. What they struggle with is proving any of it worked. Adam also believes a banker's confidence in front of a client matters more than technical knowledge. Coming from Pixar, I expected the technical side to win.
 

Have you had support from the CareersPlus and Employer Relations team and/or academics for the Strategic Consultancy Project? 

Abdullah, Megan and Joanne: Yes. Employer Relations made the introduction that got the project started. They helped us navigate the approval process smoothly, and ensured the project remained on track despite a few initial hiccups. Our supervisor, Dr Christos Kolympiris, was direct in the best way. Early on he helped each of us shape our streams, while also making sure that the project remained focus on the client deliverable.
 

Do you have any advice for prospective MBA applicants on how to make the most of the Strategic Consultancy Project?

Abdullah: Write your hypothesis down before your first interview. Mine failed, and that failure became the most useful finding in my report. Also ask the client for real numbers early. Assumptions are cheap.

Megan: Pick an industry you know nothing about. You learn it faster than you expect, and every question you ask in an interview is a genuine one.

Joanne: Agree the scope in writing, and do it early. A clear email beats a long call. Everything after that gets easier.