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The purpose of this paper is to discuss experiential education as a way to develop future consultants in human resource management and marketing with the goal of developing consulting competence.

This is a conceptual paper that proposes, outlines, and discusses a model, containing 11 dimensions of consulting competence.

The conceptual model includes 11 building blocks: foreign language competence, non-verbal competence, perception of cultural distance, cultural self-awareness, knowledge, skills, motivation, effectiveness, appropriateness, contextual interaction patterns, and affinity. Considerations for each of these elements are introduced and discussed.

This model and the explanation of its components should guide management and marketing educators in their efforts to build and develop experiential education programs of excellence.

The model proposed and outline in this paper will assist institutions of higher education and faculty members to guide students in their development of a successful career in consulting.

Experiential learning projects require students to go further than the typical theoretical and conceptual MBA coursework requiring them to draw on their previously acquired skills to solve actual business problems from a real-world client. The purpose of this paper is to offer a detailed overview of an experiential learning global consulting project and its potential benefits, along with practical classroom recommendations.

This paper describes a global consulting project embedded in an MBA international consulting course involving a German manufacturing company operating a single production facility in the USA.

Findings suggest that in post-class assessments students were quite supportive, touting is as one of the most beneficial to their MBA education and their job placement upon graduation.

This experiential project has largely been assessed through qualitative feedback from both the students and the client. Future research efforts should assess the project in a more robust fashion. Going forward, the use of survey assessments on the project as a whole would provide more objective feedback. Obtaining feedback from graduates 1 to 5 years post-graduation would provide a valuable perspective on the project’s overall effectiveness.

The global consulting project described in this manuscript provided students with a vehicle to mimic a consulting engagement with an actual client in a real-world context.

The global consulting project described in this manuscript provided students with an opportunity to develop further their global and cultural competence. In addition, it provides an opportunity for students to fully develop the critical thinking skills, business acumen and the soft skills required of them to be successful in their future careers.

The combination of an international context and high degree of client engagement on this project make it a unique learning opportunity. This project is different as it provides a comprehensive, step-by-step, integrated approach that begins with an extensive interview process to secure a spot on the team with limited openings, then client discussions to identify the problem and determine the scope of engagement, which includes a client contract that outlines the objective and the deliverable of the engagement, followed by personal skill assessment to draw upon meta-competences necessary for the project’s success. Immersing the students in the client engagement, wherever it may take them both intellectually as well as physically (i.e. domestic and international locations) creates a template from which they can draw upon periodically as they progress in their professional.

The purpose of this paper is to present perceptions and valuations of research skills that members of one student consulting group reported based on their coursework and participation in experiential consulting projects.

In interviews conducted in Fall 2009, students were asked to describe the research skills they acquired through their participation in experiential consulting projects and, for comparison, the research skills they acquired through their course assignments. The students' responses were placed into categories based on the Association of College and Research Libraries (ACRL) information literacy competency standards for higher education, where applicable. Other categories were created to address responses that did not correspond to the ACRL standards. Categories with the highest overall number of occurrences, representing recurring themes in the responses, were analyzed.

The students identified research skills that they believed would be important in their future professions and everyday lives. However, these were generally not the same skills that the students mentioned developing through their experiential consulting projects and their courses, presenting a disconnect that requires further examination. Some of the research skills mentioned correspond to ACRL Standards, while others represent the students' own interpretations of what research skills are, revealing opportunities to instruct students in more effectively articulating transferable research skills.

This is the first study to focus on student consultants' perceptions of research and the value they place on the research skills they develop. Insights gained have influenced instruction efforts to the group under study, as well as provided starting points for future investigations.

This instructional tool provides management accounting instructors with an efficient and practical way to teach the Balanced Scorecard using experiential learning. This exercise requires students to visit their college or university bookstore, meet with store managers, and develop a Balanced Scorecard for the business. Students address contemporary performance measurement issues in a simulated consulting engagement as they research industry trends, analyze store operations, interview employees, and prepare a written report for store management.

The requirements of this active learning assignment address many of the analytical, communication, and experiential competencies recommended in widely discussed calls for accounting education change. Instructors appreciate the convenience, practicality, and rigor offered by this exercise. Students value the opportunity to engage in a realistic exercise that allows them to draw upon their own consumer experiences. The authors used these materials in both undergraduate and graduate accounting courses, and received positive feedback from students and bookstore managers alike.

Explores the extent to which academic offerings are serving the consulting industry and identifies ways that academia can help. The numbers of management consulting courses, field experiences in consulting and consulting concentrations by graduate business schools were tracked over a three‐year period to assess the current state of offerings. A survey of members of the Academy of Management's Management Consulting Division was conducted to gather perceived developmental needs for career stages and types of consulting. Proposes the potential future of courses in management consulting. Provides suggestions for course offerings to meet developmental needs by career stages of consultants that are currently being overlooked. Offers practical advice to academia to serve the consulting industry better and ideas for the consulting industry to consider in the ongoing development of consultants. Encourages managers who engage consultants to demand better educated consultants. Further research is needed to investigate the developmental needs of internal consultants and the apparent resistance of the consulting industry to turn to academia as a resource.

This article discusses the experiences of a university's business school in enhancing the preparation of undergraduates through the innovative design and delivery of Business Policy, the capstone course taken by all business students.

The case discusses the proactive approaches taken to explicitly align efforts between thinking and doing, for both faculty course designers and student participants alike.

Ten strategic areas of innovation and improvement are identified and discussed as areas for individual course alignment as well as the impetus for college and university business program development and delivery.

These innovations can be replicated by other institutions to enhance graduates' career preparation, pursue greater consistency with their organization's mission, develop external stakeholder engagement, and enhance internal collaboration with colleagues within the business school and across the university.

The unique value of this innovative and multifaceted approach was recognized by AACSB International, the elite accrediting agency for business schools, in several articles and at a conference on undergraduate program innovation.

The subject area of the assignment is cost accumulation. This instructional tool enhances coverage of cost accumulation topics in graduate level Introductory to Management Accounting courses.

The assignment entails visiting a small business and interviewing the owner to learn about the company’s process for determining costs of products and/or services. Such active learning hones leadership and critical thinking skills by requiring students to employ interviewing and listening techniques as they act as business advisors to discuss cost accumulation processes with small business owners. The assignment provides flexibility since a range of business types can be used from a landscaping business operated out of one’s garage to a mid-size manufacturing company.

Students see how a small business accumulates costs and gain experience analyzing the effectiveness of cost accumulation systems and providing recommendations.

A list of supplementary materials is included, covering teaching notes, assessment data, and grading rubrics.

Student feedback suggests that students value the opportunity to engage in a realistic exercise that allows them to draw linkages between textbook material and the real world, while also acting in a consulting role to apply class concepts to small businesses. Furthermore, assessment data based on grading rubrics indicate that all students meet or exceed instructor expectations, thus increasing the viable use of this course project.