Prove You're Career Ready
Today's employers seek graduates who can think strategically, communicate effectively and solve complex business challenges. That's why Nebraska Business develops students to become data-driven decision-makers, effective communicators, purposeful strategists and empowered professionals.
Your undergraduate business curriculum culminates in the Business Strategies Capstone (MNGT 475), where you'll put those skills into action. Working alongside corporate partners, you'll explore real business challenges, apply strategic frameworks and present recommendations to organizational leaders, demonstrating you're ready to make an impact in the workforce.
What You'll Do
Throughout the 15-week semester, you'll learn about different business strategies and apply them to a current challenge posed by a Nebraska business or organization.
As part of a student team, you'll:
- Analyze a real business problem
- Research the company, industry and competitive environment
- Develop strategic recommendations
- Meet with corporate mentors for feedback and guidance
- Refine your recommendations
- Deliver multiple rounds of your professional presentation that lead to the top three teams presenting to the organization's leadership
- Gain an in-depth work sample to utilize for your job search
If your team gets chosen by the organization's leadership as the top presentation, you'll also earn the bragging rights of being your class's Business Strategies Capstone Champion!
Work With Industry Professionals
One of the defining features of the capstone experience is direct engagement with business leaders. Throughout the semester, corporate partners introduce their organizations and the business challenge students will explore, meet with student teams twice to provide mentorship and professional feedback, answer questions as projects progress and evaluate final presentations alongside faculty. This hands-on collaboration will show you how strategic decisions are made in real organizations while also providing meaningful opportunities to build your professional network.
Why Students Love This Experience
This experience is not like everything else I've experienced at the university. Being able to take some shots in the dark, start developing a plan and see it come to fruition while receiving input from our mentor and professor was a really great experience. Beyond winning, I learned to think more strategically, apply frameworks like SWOT, PESTEL and VRIO in a real business setting and collaborate at a high level with an amazing team.
– Madison Tarencz-Rasmusen, Management and Marketing Major, McCook, Nebraska
My favorite part of the project was working with my teammates. Building friendships while learning from one another made it really enjoyable. We were able to push each other, collaborate and have fun throughout the process. We couldn’t have reached that point without our corporate mentor, Leah. She consistently pushed us to stand out through thinking differently and being creative, which is why I believe we won.
– Devan Zahl, Finance Major, Monument, Colorado
Corporate Partners
The Business Strategies Capstone wouldn't be possible without the organizations that invest their time, expertise and mentorship in our students. Innovative partnerships like these will continue to shape the future of business education at Nebraska.
For our partners, this collaboration goes beyond giving back. Students apply proven strategic frameworks to real business challenges, while company mentors engage with emerging talent and gain fresh perspectives from students who approach problems without the constraints of day-to-day operations.
Interested in becoming a corporate partner? As the Business Strategies Capstone experience expands across more course sections, we're seeking organizations ready to provide a real business challenge, mentor student teams and help shape the next generation of business leaders.
