The consulting projects are an important aspect of the last study term in Austria. During this valuable practical experience, students work together with evolving or established companies accompanied by their JKU supervisors and a representative of their respective company. Krawinkler Solutions is one of the young companies that provides two projects. One project addresses the development of a new plant-based milk brand that is locally produced in Austria. Hence, among other marketing related tasks, students were requested to organize a tasting event including 40 different types of plant-based milk to identify the greatest competitor. The test survey addressed different characteristics of the product ranging from overall flavors, sweetness, through after taste and whether they were compatible with coffee and black tea. Students had great fund while they were also learning about the logistics of organizing and carrying out such vital task in the product development stage. Logistics of emergency food reserves is another project provided by Krawinkler Solutions.
Voestalpine contributes to the consulting projects as well by requesting students to dive into the automation process and its lingo to come up with improvement recommendations. Umdasch, the store maker company offered a similarly technical project to the group. Whereby, students need to come up with suggestions for automation in grocery stores. Among the partners is Business Upper Austria. Stay tuned to learn about the project for that organization!
The above mentioned, real world business projects are certainly challenging and require perseverance, especially as working together in intercultural teams demands additional sensitivity and sometimes has its language barriers. Yet, those projects represent great learning opportunity, where theory can be translated into the world outside of university, which awaits the graduates of the Global Business Masters.