This is the fourth article in a series of blog posts in which we will share our experiences of IRPdelft, a non-profit foundation which gives master students a challenging international and educational experience abroad during the summer. We will share our experiences throughout the year.
As mentioned in our previous blog post, the team had some training to fully prepare for our projects. In the meantime, another training session has passed. We visited the global strategy consulting firm Roland Berger, for a session on how to approach a client’s problem and how to present the results in the best way. The analysis of the client’s question is very important and you always have to ask yourself whether the research question covers the problem. Other motives often hide behind the client’s question. Our client could ask “Should I open an office in Buenos Aires?”, but the motive behind the question could be many things such as making profit, reducing costs, increasing efficiency or even just ‘the fear of missing out’. So, the first step is to find out what the client really wants.
The day at Roland Berger was productive and very interesting. We worked on issue trees (dividing the main question into sub questions) and on our presentation skills, based on IRPdelft’s cases last year (Makro, DHL, Shell, Oceanus, TMF group). But now the question is what are this year’s projects going to be?
You always have to ask yourself whether the research question covers the problem
We are delighted to announce that we have popped our first champagne! The first contract is signed. Other promising proposals are being discussed as we speak, so we hope we can announce our definite projects in the coming weeks, including the subject of the projects we will work on. But for now, we will only tell you that the destination of our first project is not in Argentina … it is in Chili! This project got our attention immediately for its very interesting and challenging subject. It opened our eyes to look beyond the borders of Argentina to neighbouring countries.
Luckily we don’t have to keep everything a secret in this blog post: the IRPdelft board not only had a busy period managing the acquisition process of getting five challenging projects with interesting companies, but also with finding their successors. We are very proud to announce that David Kamp, Freija Rozendaal, Johan van den Heuvel and Michiel Hickey will represent the IRPdelft foundation next year! In the next few months, they will be onboarded on all important matters that have to be done before the summer, so they can kickstart their year on September 28th at the Seminar!
But before that, lots of work has yet to be done by the current team. The summer is coming closer and we have four more contracts to be signed before the end of the month, meaning that we are spending lots of time in our new office!
- Visit irpdelft.nl
- Read the first blogpost of IRPdelft
- More about the executed projects from last year
The IRPdelft group 2018
From top to bottom, left to right:
Joppe Born, Joël Kuyper, Jesse D’Haens, Mathijs Hoogland; Ewout Ruijs, Wilan Hartwig, Tim de Vries, Sander Vermeulen, Lieke Kroese; Louise-Anne Zaat, Anna Filippi, Marnix van der Donk, Madelon Abbes, Marloes Emmen; Lotfy Hassan, David de Jong, Rik Oude Grote Bevelsborg, Anne van Bergen
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