During their 2nd trimester, all MSc in Strategic Management students were involved in the much appreciated course "Praxis Streams" - a real-life consulting project conducted in companies whereby students analyse a company's problem and propose a solution to professors and the professionals concerned.

In the Praxis Stream project, groups of three are assigned to a small to medium sized company to conduct a strategic consulting session.  The aim of the project is to provide students with the opportunity to apply existing knowledge and develop new knowledge in dealing with practical strategic assignments.

One group, Alberto Diaz Perez (Spanish), Dorthée Michaud (French) and Mantas Armonas (Lithuanian) worked with a company that rents audiovisual equipment and provides a full range of installation and maintenance services for public and private events.  The company has been experiencing constant growth and has become a successful and reputable player on the market. The company's managers have been thinking about further development possibilities and asked the EDHEC MSc consulting team to explore their growth opportunities, such as geographical stretch or a service range expansion. 

Mantas Armonas explains how the team used the theoretical knowledge acquired in the MSc in Strategic Management programme and how they applied this knowledge to a real-life business situation. "The fundamental idea that we have learned in this Master programme is that no matter what the business is, it has to have a strategy, i.e. a company needs to know exactly what its objectives are and how it plans to achieve them.  From the initial stage, our team opted to follow a specific strategic-analysis model that we had previously learnt in the Entrepreneurship class, to help us identify particular business challenges and successively provide possible solutions.  We began by familiarising ourselves with the company's field of activities, identifying the company's mission, its values and core competencies.  Parallel to this, we analyzed the business environment, studied competitors' activities, attempted discerning particular trends and forecasted possible market changes.  After having processed all the relevant information, we were able to crystallize certain areas of concern and provide concrete strategic propositions how to safeguard company's market position as well as exploit new opportunities for further growth."

As in real consultancy, in the final stage of the project the team had to submit a final written report on their findings and present the conclusions in front of the client - the company director.  The team's proposed solution included tighter cooperation with certain partners through creating specific alliance-based relationships, applying the knowledge that they had gained from the Mergers & Acquisitions class.  The client was highly appreciative of the team's work and acknowledged that it helped him find novel insights, and that he would apply some of the recommendations.

Because most of the students in Strategic Management class plan to steer their careers into the consulting field, the Praxis Streams course proves to be an excellent opportunity to apply the acquired theoretical knowledge as well as gain hands-on experience in dealing with existent businesses.  Mantas Armonas sums up the experience well in his final statement. "The course certainly facilitated our understanding of practical business issues and helped get us ready for future career challenges."