Chapter 8: Using Seam As The Philosophical Basis for A Graduate Consulting Program: Employing Diverse Consulting Tools and Approaches

In 2000 a faculty team was charged with building a Management Consulting concentration in our MBA program. We found few models for such programs until we built a relationship with ISEOR and its SEAM framework. We subsequently participated in numerous training programs in SEAM and the approach became the foundation of the new concentration. The Institute for Management Consulting (IMC) initiated its program in the fall of 2003 and ran through 2011, when the university administration decided to discontinue funding for niche programs such as the IMC.

The program enrolled a cohort of students for two contiguous semesters, with MBA students and doctoral students from the Industrial/Organizational Psychology program constituting most of the enrollment. Each year, there were three or four consulting engagements that were integrated into the program. These were paid engagements, and depending on the extent of the services the fee ranged from $5,000 to $8,000. The fee provided assurance that the client would treat the engagement seriously, students would feel sufficient pressure to perform, and it would generate funds to help sustain the program.