Some consultancy projects do not need a six-figure budget, a twelve-week work plan, and three layers of PowerPoint quality control.
Earlier this year, I attended a Queen Mary University of London careers event for SMEs, where I learned about its student consultancy scheme: small teams working on tightly defined business challenges over a short sprint.
During a coffee catch-up with a client from a specialist med tech company, I raised the scheme and asked if they had any ideas for a project.
They had mentioned an interest in auditing their social media activity, including if the platforms they were on were the best ones to reach their audience.
We decided that competitor benchmarking would be a good way to do this, with the client’s questions focused, researchable, and well-suited to the consultancy project format.
We worked to define the brief, and then I shared a simple framework for identifying and benchmarking competitors, so the students wouldn’t be starting from a blank page.
Two student teams then worked on the same challenge in parallel. After ten days, both teams presented their interim findings.
That gave me an opportunity to challenge the emerging conclusions and coach the students on how to analyze and visualize the data more clearly.
A week later, they submitted their final reports, combining the data with clearer conclusions and practical recommendations.
At this point, the obvious interpretation is that this was simply an opportunity for ‘cheap’ research. Cost was certainly part of the appeal, but the real value extended beyond that for everyone involved.
🔹The client walked away with a clear view of which platforms and content types its competitor’s physician audiences actually engaged with.
🔹The students gained experience working on a live commercial brief, interpreting imperfect data, and presenting findings to a client.
🔹I also strengthened relationships with a former client, the university, and a group of students who may soon enter the industry.
University consulting schemes will not replace specialist consultancy, but for the right-sized question, they can be a surprisingly effective solution, so if you’re a small/medium biotech/medtech, get in touch with your local university and see if they run a scheme!