Live project - Business Creation and Development

The Master program in Business and Management (MBM) attracts students with various backgrounds from all over the world. It assumes a business development perspective, which means that it focuses on developing a firm’s competitive position, its processes, people and products, its networks, and resources. Business development mixes theory and practice and includes areas such as market, strategy, and leadership to be managed in order to succeed.

What the project involves

As part of the MSc course Business Creation and Development, groups of 5-6 Master students work on real-world strategic challenges submitted by companies. Over 7-8 weeks in early fall, the students act as external consultants — analysing your case, applying business frameworks, and delivering well-grounded strategic recommendations. The project accounts for about 1-2 days of work per week and runs in parallel with lectures and seminars.

These projects are hands-on and rooted in real needs. Past partners have reported lasting impact from the students' findings.

What makes these projects valuable

The course focuses on value creation and value capture - core principles behind any successful business model. Students learn to apply structured frameworks, including the Business Model Zoo, to analyse how organizations interact with customers, deliver value, and stay competitive.

They also explore how companies can innovate, adapt, and evolve their business models - for example, by moving from product-based to service-based offerings or rethinking how value is delivered digitally.

All of this is applied directly to your case. You benefit from the combined efforts and fresh perspectives of SSE Master’s students, whose analytical skills and diverse experiences often lead to surprising insights and actionable recommendations.

What we are looking for

We are looking for business challenges with a strategic angle - defined enough to provide direction, but open enough for exploration.

Examples of suitable challenges include:

Exploring new value creation opportunities through digital, service-based, or customer-led innovation
Rethinking how your organization interfaces with customers or delivers its value proposition
Innovating an existing business model or evaluating alternative ones
Developing a new offering or identifying a path for market expansion

The projects are most effective when companies bring a real question or ambition they are already thinking about, ideally tied to business development, strategy, or innovation.

What you will gain

Concrete, structured insights from a team of engaged and analytical SSE Master students
A detailed final presentation and report with strategic recommendations
Exposure to frameworks and ways of thinking used in leading strategy consultancies and innovation units
A low-effort, high-reward way to address a live challenge in your business

What we ask from you

A defined challenge:
Provide a challenge for students to address. However, the ultimate research focus is for students to define in line with the course materials.
Collaboration & feedback:
Assign a company contact to provide data, contacts within the company, and some guidance.
Openness to new ideas:
Be open to the fresh, innovative solutions our students will bring to your organization. Please also know that, despite the clear benefits, this is first and foremost an educational project for students.
No NDA:
SSE students cannot sign a non-disclosure agreement (NDA) for this project for practical and pedagogical reasons. In certain cases, NDAs nevertheless need to be put in place. For these cases, we have prepared an NDA that is appropriate for an academic setting. Please note that the school, not the students, would be the signatory party. We ask that you let us know as soon as possible if your participation is likely to require the use of an NDA.

We also ask for a one-page brief outlining your organization and an initial challenge or area of interest, as well as contact information. This material will be used by the students as an initial introduction to the organization and challenge at hand.

Do you want to host a live project?

Bring your questions or project suggestions to us by May 30:

Email: andreas.dahlberg@hhs.se
Phone: +46(0) 73 022 35 27