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The capstone project is your opportunity to apply tools from the core curriculum to a real-world business challenge. Whether you’re part of a consulting team solving a business challenge for a real organization or creating your own business from the ground up, UCLA Anderson offers proven and exciting options to satisfy this requirement.
Strategic Management Research (SMR)

SMR is an experiential learning project in which you will form a consulting team to address a business challenge or opportunity on behalf of a client organization. After a deep dive into research, you’ll present key insights and recommendations to the leadership of the organization.

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Business Creation Option (BCO)

BCO gives you the chance to work with a team of classmates to develop an implementation plan and launch your own business.

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Strategic Management Research
 
UCLA Anderson pioneered the first business school field study program in 1968. During the six-month SMR project, your consulting team will work with corporate executives to improve a specific area of their business. You’ll gain new industry and cross-functional experience that will influence your critical thinking and decision making.
Form a five-person team of students from diverse professional backgrounds
Bid on the company and project that pique your interest
Spend six months gaining consulting experience conducting in-depth primary and secondary research, including market assessments, competitive analyses, and other critical functions
Consult with company executives, attend industry conferences and conduct interviews

Gain insights from experienced faculty advisors, many of whom have directly managed and provided consulting services to leading companies worldwide
Develop an investment-quality business plan with actionable recommendations to help the company’s leadership execute its vision
Present the finished business plan to company executives, industry professionals and potential investors

Recent Client Companies
 

Business Creation Option
 
Instead of working on behalf of a client organization, your team, along with an advisor from the entrepreneurship faculty, will spend six months transforming your idea from a business plan to a functional startup organization.
BCO teams can make use of the new UCLA Anderson Venture Accelerator.

BCO Team Lucina Embryo (left to right): Greg Jensen (’17), Liana Pogosyan (’17), George Abe (BCO Faculty Advisor), Shana Berg (’17), Jeff Dang (’17)

UCLA Anderson Venture Accelerator
BCO Stats
 
BCO Success Stories
 

Amptron Team (Class of 2020)

Before COVID-19, a UCLA Anderson Executive MBA team developed a low-cost ventilator to deploy amid the pandemic.

Left to right:  Vikram Saurabh (’20), Shannon Demus (’20), Stephan Hwang (’20), Aanchal Kumar (’20), Nirav Patel (’20), and Dezireh Sevanesian (’20)

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Accelerate Podcast Series
 
How do you build a truly sustainable company? Is there really a formula to it?
A notable trend for our alumni companies is that they have gained the attention and investments of influencers. Tune in and listen to "Accelerate," a BCO podcast for entrepreneurs from the Venture Accelerator at UCLA Anderson. Entrepreneur-in-Residence, Rod Kurtz, moderated the series featuring luminary entrepreneurs.
Accelerate Podcast
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