
Reach out to [email protected] with your interest.
Strategy
- New business and product assessment, including design, packaging, and distribution channels
- Customer/user experience journey mapping
- Identifying socially responsible and sustainable business solutions
- Cost benefit analysis of strategic initiatives
Finance/Business Planning
- Pricing optimization
- Industry payment terms benchmarking for policy and practice optimization
- Asset lifetime value optimization
- Landscape assessment and recommendations for increased profitability
- Strategic growth plan for international expansion
- Cash flow management optimization
- Carbon offset program identification and emissions stabilization strategy with carbon-neutral growth
Market Research / Marketing Strategy
- Market research and new product positioning
- Optimized target customer segmentation and market-sizing
- New Product or service channel optimization
- Competitor marketing analysis and messaging recommendations
- Strategic launch, including e-commerce and store openings
- Customer lifetime value (CLV) analysis and recommendations for growth
- Communications and marketing plans for strategic initiatives
Operations & Supply Chain
- Cost optimization for supply chain delivery services
- Production efficiency and efficacy assessment with recommendations for improvement
- Outsourcing optimization assessment
Organization Governance/HR
- Employee satisfaction and long-term part-time employee retention optimizations
- Succession planning guide and employee training plan
- Performance metrics scorecard/dashboard toolkit
- Organization structure assessment
Decide when to engage and submit your proposal!

Offered during our winter (Jan to Mar) quarter, teams of 5-6 first-year full-time MBA students engage on a project with you while deepening their knowledge and experience through our core Applied Strategy project course, guided by leading Foster faculty.
Submit your project proposal here!
Next Project Period: Jan 3 – Mar 10, 2023
Proposal Deadline: October 07, 2022

Offered during our autumn (Sep to Dec) and spring (Mar to Jun) quarters, MBA students use their knowledge and skills gained from prior experience and their current MBA studies to deliver you valuable insights and recommendations relevant to your business strategy, customer journey, supply chain and inventory management, financial optimization, or organizational governance.
Submit your project proposal here!
Next Project Period: Mar 28 – Jun 3, 2022
Proposal Deadline: February 11, 2022

Offered during spring quarter (Mar to Jun) by the Foster MBA Net Impact Club, the Service Corps program pairs teams of Foster MBA students with leading nonprofits to address critical, unmet business challenges in a 10-week project. Each project is supported by a faculty advisor and an external consultant from firms such as BCG and McKinsey.
Submit your project proposal here!
Next Project Period: Mar 28 – Jun 3, 2022
Proposal Deadline: February 11, 2022

“My MBA Consulting Project required me to push myself harder than any other course I’ve taken and was one of the most rewarding. It forced me to develop and hone my skills in the way that only a hands-on experience like this can and provided an incredibly valuable real-world opportunity to apply those skills toward a meaningful, valuable final product.”
Christine Wainwright
MBA, 2021
What to expect when engaging Foster MBAs
Our program follows the UW calendar, offering three opportunities to engage in 10-week projects with one to six MBAs candidates on a team for a nominal fee. Nonprofit organizations are exempt from fees.
The below four steps are what it takes to engage any one of the three Foster MBA Strategic Consulting Programs described above …

- Consider your business needs and define a discrete scope of work – Connect with Samantha Buhr ([email protected]), the Foster Director of MBA Strategic Consulting with 10+ years of experience at a large global management consulting firm, to discuss how your business can get the most value out of a project
- Submit your project proposal by the deadline listed above – This link to submit your proposal includes an overview of the questions asked to help you prepare
- Finalize logistics & expectations for success – You will be notified if your project is selected or not and asked to participate in a 30-minute meeting with Samantha, prior to project start, to finalize logistics and expectations, if your project is selected
- Schedule the project kickoff with the MBA team – You’ll be introduced to the team the week before the quarter and 10-week project starts, in which they will respond with a request to meet no later than week 2 for an initial discovery and kickoff session, giving the MBA team time to prepare
Accolade Adobe Alaska Airlines Apptio Avvo Amazon Boeing Boys & Girls Club Brooks Sports Bunker labs CDK Digital Marketing Costco Dell EMC Disney Dolby Dry Soda Co. Eddie Bauer Egencia, an Expedia Company Everledger Expeditors International Fair Trade USA F5 Networks Foss Maritime Getty Images GM Nameplate Golob Partners Groundspeak Holland America Line Intel K2 Corporation Landesa La Panzanella Lumenal Lighting |
Magnolia Chamber of Commerce Marchex Microsoft National Park Service Nike Outdoor Research PACCAR Pacific Integrated Energy PepsiCo LatAm Philips Ultrasound Planetary Power Providence Health & Services Puget Sound Energy REI SAP Concur Saltchuk Seattle Children’s Hospital Seattle Mariners SightLife Skanska Smartsheet Starbucks Ste. Michelle Wine Estates Talking Rain T-Mobile Vulcan Volt Athletics Wells Fargo Bank West Monroe Partners Weyerhaeuser Wunderman Wyze Labs Xbox YMCA |
Our Foster MBAs
For more information about the Foster MBA Strategic Consulting program, contact us at [email protected] or submit your proposal here!