Committed to social responsibility: Students of the Mannheim MBA class of 2009 implement wide range of social projects in the region

Doing your MBA at Mannheim Business School involves far more than taking classes in Financial Accounting, Corporate Finance or Supply Chain Management. "Business ethics and social responsibility have always been core elements of our school's educational concept," says Prof. Dr. Dr. h.c. mult. Christian Homburg, president of Mannheim Business School. This is why a social class project has been an integral and mandatory part of the Executive MBA curriculum since the inception of the program. Due to the extraordinary success of these projects, both externally and internally, the full-time "Mannheim MBA" program has followed suit and, as of this year, also includes a social project in its curriculum.

As Prof. Dr. Sabine Kuester, Academic Director of the Mannheim MBA program, notes, the decision to introduce a social project as integral part of the program, was in part also prompted by student demand: Over the years, many of the school's MBA students have taken the initiative themselves, supporting existing charities and other not-for-profit organizations in the region. As such an activity, as a concerted group effort, positively contributes to the overall class spirit and allows students to directly apply the knowledge and methods taught in class, establishing a social project as part of the curriculum was the next logical step.

The Multi Competency Team (MCT) concept applied in all Mannheim Business School programs also sets the framework for the social project as realized in the full-time MBA program: As the concept hinges on two basic tenets for an ideal learning experience, diversity and continuity, participants are assigned to heterogeneous teams at the beginning of their MBA experience. These so-called Multi Competence Teams stay together for the duration of the program and jointly work on assignments, case studies – and now their social project as well.

The students of the current full-time MBA class had until December 2008 to come up with a proposal and are now entering the implementation phase of their respective projects, which will continue until July 2009. Projects range from art classes for children treated at University Hospital Mannheim over introductory internet classes for senior citizens to a blood drive organized on campus.