The Capstone Course at Rice University’s Jones Graduate School of Business brings together teams of Rice MBAs to develop recommendations that help community organizations solve critical strategic challenges, such as major growth or expansion plans, organization turnaround strategies, and new ventures by the organization in need of a business plan. The course is offered during the spring semester.
Fall Semester
Capstone professors work with student teams during the fall to frame the problem. An 8-12 page written "case" that provides details about the business challenge and the organization is developed collaboratively with the professors before the spring semester as a starting point for the student teams.Â
Spring Semester
Student teams develop comprehensive strategic solutions during the spring. From January to early May, they work through a series of assignments focused on the organization that build from initial assessments of your situation to strategy development to detailed strategic designs and implementation plans. A Capstone Course professor supervises and guides the student teams and is in regular contact with your organization throughout the spring semester to help facilitate a satisfactory experience and outcome for your organization.Â
Highly-Collaborative
Capstone is highly-collaborative between students, organizations and professors. Student teams will interact with the organization throughout the spring semester. Your initial interaction with the student teams working on the project will be a 2-hour, on-campus session in which you and other leaders from your organization will interactively discuss the situation in detail with the teams. Then, students conduct in site visits, interviews with the leadership team, board members and staff and request additional data as recommendations are developed. The investment of your organization’s time is critical to the students’ ability to develop rich, detailed strategic recommendations that your organization may adopt and implement.
Near-Term and Long-Term BenefitsÂ
- Participating community organizations realize many benefits from the Capstone experience:
- Provides fresh ideas and multiple solutions for the specific strategic challenges
- Taps both student and Capstone professor's expertise for the strategic recommendations
- Exposes the organization to current and up-and-coming Houston executives
- Builds and strengthens the organization’s long-term relationship with Rice University
