Let a team of business students from Nyenrode Business University help you out with developing or adapting your business strategy.
Call for Strategic Challenges – Collaborate with Future Business Leaders
Are you a startup or small business facing a big-picture decision that could shape your future? We invite you to submit a strategic challenge to be tackled by final-year Business Studies students at Nyenrode Business University.
This is a unique opportunity to gain fresh, well-researched insights from students trained in strategic thinking. Your challenge will be part of a university-level Strategy course, where student teams will analyze your situation and deliver thoughtful recommendations.
We are specifically looking for strategic challenges—not marketing, operations, finance, or market research problems. Strategic challenges involve decisions that affect your company’s long-term direction, positioning, or structure. These are the questions that influence your future trajectory and competitive edge.
✅ Key features of the challenge
Program: Bachelor Business Administration
Course: Strategic Leadership
Students per team: 3-4 students.
Number of teams: Up to 3 teams
No. of hours spent per team: 112 hours (this is the total amount of hours spent by all team members)
Duration: September - October
Supervision: Student teams are supervised and guided by senior lecturers.
Deliverables: Presentation and report (in the form of slides) with recommendations.
Company time investment: 8-12 hours in total (e.g. kick-off meeting, weekly meetings, final presentation, etc.)
Costs (when matched to one or more team): This edition is free of charge
📑 Challenge Examples
The student teams can work on challenges like, but not limited to, the following:
Developing a Strategic Vision
“Help us shape our long-term vision. How can we define a clear mission, align with stakeholder expectations, and integrate ethics, CSR, and innovation into our strategic purpose?”
Analyzing Resources and Capabilities
“We want to better understand our internal strengths. Can you assess our resources and capabilities using the Resource-Based View and value chain analysis to identify areas for strategic advantage?”
Evaluating and Supporting Strategy Development
“We have a strategy, but we’re unsure of its effectiveness. Can you evaluate it using established frameworks and help us identify a clear path forward based on learning and knowledge?”
Implementing and Controlling Strategic Plans
“We’ve developed a strategic plan—now what? Assist us in setting objectives, allocating resources, and monitoring progress using tools like the Balanced Scorecard, while addressing implementation challenges.”
Scaling Without Losing Identity
“As we grow, how can we scale operations and our team without compromising our core values and culture?”
Entering a New Market
“We’re considering expansion. What strategic approach should we take to enter a new region or customer segment sustainably?”
Strategic Partnerships or Alliances
“We’re exploring partnerships. How do we identify the right allies and structure a collaboration that supports our long-term goals?”
Business Model Evolution
“Our current model is under pressure. Should we pivot, diversify, or double down—and how do we make that decision strategically?”
🏢 Company requirement
Any company (startup/scale-up/corporate/incubator/NGO) with at least 4 founders/employees working full time in the company.
In business for at least 6 months.
💰 Costs
This edition is free of charge!
📨 How to apply
You can submit the challenge directly through the website. Provide a title that summarises the challenge. Subsequently, briefly elaborate on your challenge. See link for a template you could use: https://link.masterchallenge.me/challenge-template or use the challenge generator: https://masterchallenge.me/challenge-generator
🗓 Planning
July 15: Deadline for submitting your challenge
July 20 (or sooner): Receiving message if your challenge is approved by the Course Coordinator
August 26 - September 3: Matching phase
August 27: Student teams rank the challenges
September 2: Companies rank the teams that want to work on their challenge
September 3: Our matching algorithm will create perfect matches
September 4-10: Kick-off meeting with your team
October 8: Final presentations in time slots of 45 minutes (after you are matched to a team, we will schedule the time slots).
We're happy to have you on board 👋
Make sure to completely finish your registration by August 26. Incomplete profiles will not be taken into account.
This will happen next 👇
We will use your input to form well-balanced teams. We will notify you about your team on Aug 27.
Once you are assigned to a team, get together (offline or online) with your team asap, to discuss which challenges you want to work on and why, and submit this selection. Deadline is August 27.This will happen next 👇
Subsequently, the participating organizations will rank the teams that want to work on their challenge on September 2.
Finally, our platform will generate and share the team-challenge matches on September 3.
Once you're matched to a challenge, schedule a kick-off meeting with the company representative on September 4-10 (or sooner if you're feeling ambitious). (☝️Use this template). Make sure to prepare for this meeting (e.g. read about the company and the contact person, draft and share an agenda, formulate questions, etc.).
TIP: Create a 'Social Contract' for your team (click here to learn why this makes sense). And check this article for clear instructions on creating a social contract.
Consulting Skills Course
To boost your consulting skills we offer you the Master Challenge Online Consulting Skills Course for free, click 👉 here (password 👉 mccsc).
Good luck!
Bram Kuijken