概要報告
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教育活動
The capstone project course, a unique and integral part of GraSPP’s curriculum, offers students a rewarding learning opportunity. It allows students to engage in independent projects in a team setting, addressing real-world problems at the client’s request. This challenging experience, as the word “capstone” suggests, is typically reserved as a final assignment for students with the necessary knowledge and skills acquired during the enrolment years to tackle real-world challenges. However, GraSPP, as a professional school, encourages first- and second-year students to take capstone project courses, recognizing their potential and maturity.
One of the capstone project courses offered since the academic year 2023 is Asia’s Geoeconomic Landscapes with Bain & Company, a global management consulting firm, as the client.
As a practical training course with an active learning approach, students worked in teams under the instructors’ guidance. Their deliverables were reviewed and submitted to the client as if the students ran a real-world consulting project. The consulting assignment was to produce a report to assist a semi-fictional Japanese company in developing a business strategy under given scenarios in Asia’s geoeconomic reality and seek public policy implications.
The course provided hands-on professional writing and communication training to prepare students for future professional positions addressing various geoeconomic challenges in the public and private sectors.
Teaching staff and client representatives
The teaching staff and client representatives in the academic year 2023 were the following. All the statuses and affiliations of the persons are as of December 2023.
Teaching staff
Toshiro Nishizawa, Professor
Shiro Armstrong, Visiting Lecturer (Associate Professor at the Crawford School of Public Policy of The Australian National University and Editor of the East Asia Forum.)
Michio Ueda, Geopolitical Strategy Consultant
Bain & Company representatives
Azusa Owa, Partner, Tokyo
Sho Ikeno, Partner, Tokyo
Kaori Nogami, Manager
Student voices
“I strongly recommend this course for the following reasons. First, this course provided students with intensive professional training, including teamwork, problem-solving, presentation, and report writing. By preparing a corporate geoeconomic strategy under the guidance of a real consulting firm, I gained a better understanding of how interwoven geopolitics could influence the business world and what kind of deliverables would meet professional standards. Second, this course is a perfect networking opportunity. We got to present in front of people from Bain & Company. Not only did we learn a lot from them, but we were able to show our ideas and increase our presence in the world-class consulting firm. Moreover, the boot camp increased our exposure to professionals from Bain & Company. This was an excellent opportunity for students interested in consulting firms.”
“I appreciate the practical approach of this class. More than knowledge, it taught us skills that will be usefully and easily transferable to other classes and future professional experiences. The well-organized course had complementary phases (scenario planning and consulting case). The clear and structured methodology we learned is unique. The iterative approach and continuous exchanges with the instructors and client representatives from Bain & Company also helped us a lot. They allowed us to understand the consulting world. Prof. Armstrong’s lectures complemented the class and gave us a different, more academic perspective on the issues we dealt with.”
“Enjoyed the opportunity to work on a mock-up consulting case guided by professionals in the field. I recommend it to anyone who’d like to be exposed to consulting work or the professional services industry in general.”
“The course surely had the most interesting and stimulating teaching approach I have ever experienced at GraSPP. In addition to finely grasping the geopolitical issues specific to Asia amidst the increased tensions between China and the United States, it allowed us to be familiar with the methods and requirements of the professional world. I produced comprehensive deliverables on an exciting consulting case with my team members. The entire team of instructors and professionals overseeing this course showed a benevolent demand that pushed us to excel and improve. I learned a lot. Thank you!”
