Business Plan Competition and Collaborative Learning in Management Education

Implementing a cross functional assignment and collaborative learning are major challenges for many business schools. Business plan competition was designed to help students acquire the teamwork skills necessary to succeed in business school and as professionals. Using the knowledge of business core courses, such as Strategy Management, Marketing and Writing for Business, the participating students make business decisions by work teams and develop a comprehensive business plan for a new product idea. A major focus of the business plan competition is on collaborative learning and developing teamwork skills. Exposing students to such collaborative learning has the added benefit of helping students to build a sense of community through involvement in shared learning with other business students.