Multidisciplinary Action Projects - MAP

There is a dramatic need for advanced skills to operationalize knowledge and lead in a more competitive, results-oriented business environment. Organizational and individual success depend on it now more than ever. In light of these needs, Michigan chose to not simply tinker with traditional ways of teaching but, rather, to invent a new way.  The result of this innovative approach in applying cutting-edge research and theory to real-world setting is the Multidisciplinary Action Project (MAP). Offered in Domestic, International or Entrepreneurially focused assignments during the final seven weeks of your first year, MAP has been called "Michigan's business residency program" because of its similarities to how medical schools teach students to go from text books to practicing medicine.

Building on the fundamentals absorbed in our intensive core curriculum, you will work as a team member on a select in-company project, taking your understanding of business issues from the abstract to the concrete. This real-life fieldwork challenges you to apply theory to a functioning workplace to help it overcome challenges and affect meaningful change. The MAP program also serves as a unique opportunity to examine your abilities and refine your objectives for the second year and beyond.

The MAP Experience

MAP is a fully-engaging, full-time experience with significant educational and developmental objectives, and not simply an extracurricular consulting project. It is built around solving real-time, real-world business problems. The assignments are constructed to develop skills like integrating knowledge of various business functions, working effectively in teams, networking and leveraging others' capabilities, knowledge, and leadership. It all adds up to turning knowledge into action, and action in quality results.

Each MAP assignment is done in cross-functional teams and involves working with a cross-disciplinary team of faculty, who review students' work and provide guidance at crucial points during the project. Teams also work closely with a consultant on team effectiveness and project management, as well as host-company executives. At the conclusion of MAP, student teams present findings and recommendations for action to both faculty and their sponsoring companies.

Projects take place throughout the U.S. and the world, and range in scope from a market segmentation study for a Wall Street investment bank, to the development of a competitive intelligence process for a global health care provider, or a product launch and distribution strategy for a European biotech start-up.