The Company Sponsor and Company Key Contacts are critical to the success of the Project-Based Experiential Learning team and their projects. The Company Sponsor defines the project and clearly articulates what they want the student team to deliver. The Key Company Contact works with the students throughout the semester to ensure that they stay on track with the needs of the company and have the resources necessary to succeed in the project. There may be one person who is both the Company Sponsor and the Key Contact, or there may be more than one person who acts in these roles.

Critical Tasks and Responsibilities of the Key Company Contact:

• Schedule regular weekly meeting times throughout the project (15 minutes to one hour is normal, but some weeks, the meeting will not need to be held, and other weeks may require more time).
• Establish a process for how you will communicate between meetings.
• Agree on the final deliverables and when they will be due (as part of the engagement letter) or describe work that builds throughout the semester or evolves at the sponsor’s direction.
• Give regular feedback to the team to let them know how they are doing.
• Approve team expenses necessary for the completion of project deliverables (approved expenses will be invoiced at the conclusion of the project).
• Complete the company sponsor surveys that are sent to you at mid-project and after the final presentation.

Important Factors for success:

1) It is important that the objective/goal of the project be clearly defined in the original application, but it is normally necessary to revisit the objective/goal once the project kicks off at the beginning of the semester. The final project description and deliverables of the project should be clearly articulated and documented for the team in the engagement letter you develop with them.   

2) It is good to maintain regular contact with the students to ensure that they are on the right track, answer questions, and assist with resources.  It is most common that the company will have weekly meetings with the student team (please never go longer than two weeks between updates with the team). These meetings may be in person, via Zoom, WhatsApp, or other teleconference technologies.

3)  While the student will benefit greatly from the company contact’s experience and expertise, it is important not to try and steer them too much from the perspective of one's personal experience.  One of the benefits of the student team is that they bring a fresh perspective and have recently been trained in some of the most recent approaches. Share your insight and perspective with them, but encourage them to seek fresh outlooks throughout the project

4)  It would be beneficial to set up conference calls for the students with subject matter experts within the sponsor company so the students could gain their perspective on the topics being researched. Please make available to the students all of the information sources within your company. If you have promised internal data to the students, please provide it promptly so as not to delay the project timeline.

5)  Where possible, it is helpful when you can provide contacts from your industry that are knowledgeable on the project topics. If the students are benchmarking or doing industry analysis, your personal or corporate network could provide valuable contacts that the students could meet with or interview for insight and understanding.

6) We encourage you to approve expenses for the team that are relevant to the project. You may reimburse the students directly or let us know, and we can invoice you for the costs at the end of the semester.

7) Complete the company surveys (mid-term and final) concerning the students to help the school in grading the students, giving them feedback, and improving the program.