ENHANCE Program at McCombs

February 9th, 2006

I am quickly finding that attending a business school in the evening has its pros and cons when it comes to applying the lessons we learn.

On the pro side, you take classes during the evening, and go to work during the day. That means the stuff you learn in class the day before can be put to use immediately, and even brought back into the classroom for further discussion. This happens all the time in my classes. Contract that to the full-time program, where the application of a lesson in the “real world” has to wait until after classes are done, long after the professor and classmates have moved on to other subjects. The collaborative learning in the evening program (and for that matter, any executive program) really shines in this area.

Of course, there are the cons. With the evening program, you don’t have summers off. Not only are you still working full-time, but you’re also attending class. That means that some staples of the full-time program, like summer internships, are out of the realm of possibility. That’s a real shame too, since the internship can serve at a stepping stone in terms of experience and networking in the areas you want to pursue after school.

The good folks at the Texas Evening MBA Program at McCombs, however, have realized this imbalance, and have stepped forward to correct it. I’m sure the press release will shortly follow, but allow me to steal their thunder…

The McCombs School of Business is now offering a new summer consulting program called ENHANCE. ENHANCE is an 8-week consulting arrangement delivered by a team of 4-7 Working Professional MBA’s from the McCombs School of Business. Here’s how it works:

• Companies provide a project description to the program based on an existing business challenge.
• Student teams select projects that match their professional goals, with the expectation of spending 80-90 hours on the project over the eight weeks.
• Progress is reviewed by McCombs Executive Education staff halfway through the period to ensure the teams are on track. Advice and direction are also given to help ensure companies’ expectations match the project’s final deliverables.
• Students continue their normal summer session class workload while involved in the program.
• At the end of the 8 weeks, a presentation of the deliverables is given to the company.
• Best of all, it’s FREE.

There are, of course, certain guidelines that should be followed. You can download the full details of the ENHANCE program here (PDF).

It’s important to note that this is very different from an internship. While the man-hours appear to be equivalent (instead of one student working 300-400 hours, you have several students working 80-90 hours), the nature of the collaboration dictates that the project scope be defined at the outset. The resulting effort is the equivalent of 2 weeks of full-time work, so exposure to a tangible and immediate business issue is key.

As far as geography is concerned, companies located in Texas are definitely preferred (Austin, Houston, Dallas, San Antonio, etc), but the program is open to any company that is willing to work with the limitations of travel on the students’ schedules.

I’m definitely excited about the new program, as are a lot of other executive students. It gives the students and companies a chance to try each other out for eight weeks, and see if they like each other. Companies get free consulting, which is always good. If nothing else, everyone benefits from the networking opportunity that the business/education collaboration provides. Check it out if you’re interested!

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