business@school

TL;DR

Completed BCG's three-phase business@school program: our team analyzed BMW and Berlin bag manufacturer Anke Runge, then developed a dynamo with a USB port as our own business idea. We won the first and second phases.

Program

business@school is a year-long educational initiative by Boston Consulting Group that gives students practical experience with business analysis and entrepreneurship. Teams progress from analyzing established companies to developing and presenting their own business concept.

Our three phases

  1. We analyzed BMW as a large, publicly listed company.
  2. We analyzed Anke Runge, a local Berlin bag manufacturer, as a smaller regional business.
  3. We developed our own business idea: a dynamo with an integrated USB port.

For every phase, we researched the business, developed our analysis as a team, and presented the results. Our team won the first and second phases of the competition.

What I learned

The project was my first sustained experience with company analysis, business models, competitive positioning, and presenting a recommendation to a jury. It helped turn a general interest in building things into an interest in whether an idea also creates value, reaches people, and can work as a business.