MBA projects

The MBA programme includes two projects which give you an opportunity to take the knowledge and skills you have gained and apply them in entrepreneurial settings.

If you are passionate about social entrepreneurship, you can work closely with the Skoll Centre to tailor these projects to focus on areas of social innovation.

The entrepreneurship project

The Entrepreneurship Project challenges you to develop a complete business plan for a new venture. To work with the Skoll Centre, the project proposal must address a real social issue and be practical in approach. If you already run a social enterprise, the Entrepreneurship Project offers a chance to develop new products or models in a safe environment.

The strategic consulting project

The Strategic Consulting Project enables you to contribute valuable expertise to a social venture. Working in teams of four, students undertake an eight-week consultancy project over the summer team. Projects take place all over the world and for all kinds of organisations.  The Skoll Centre is committed to identifying top social enterprises around the world for students to engage with, learn from, and contribute to. Read more here

Case studies

Strategic consulting project: APOPO

A team of 4 MBAs, including Skoll Skollar Christie George spent their summer working with APOPO, an organisation designed to train sniffer rats to detect explosives and diagnose disease. Social entrepreneur and founder of APOPO, Bart Weetjens, and George talk about the experience here.

Entrepreneurship project: Biofuels

Shashank Verma and Sagun Saxena got their start in biofuels in 2004 when, as part of their entrepreneurship project, won a distinction with their “BioDiesel in India” business plan and presented the biofuels business idea at the Skoll World Forum on Social Entrepreneurship.

By October 2005, soon after graduating from Oxford’s MBA, Verma and Saxena founded CleanStar Energy, The company, which is based in India, promotes sustainable development by designing, implementing, and operating commercially viable bio-energy production systems, that are socially responsible and environmentally friendly.

Verma credits Saïd Business School and the Skoll Centre for inspiring him to play his part in helping combat global warming.  “My experience at Oxford, and my close interaction with the Skoll Centre, introduced me to the world of social entrepreneurship,” he says. “It gave me confidence to believe in my dreams and pursue them and as a result."

Find out more about the Oxford MBA Programme Outline.