About the Ivey Consulting Project (ICP)

The Ivey Consulting Project (ICP) is the largest and longest-running client field program of its kind in Canada and since the early 1950s students from the Richard Ivey School of Business have consulted to more than 3,800 companies around the world.

As part of Ivey’s core requirements, over the course of ten months each year, approximately 75 teams of 5 to 6 students partner with a company to study a cross-enterprise issue, problem or opportunity of operational, organizational or strategic significance to their business. Students apply and integrate the knowledge and skills acquired throughout the program to further develop their analytical, team and project management skills.

Each team is assigned a faculty supervisor and an Executive-in-Residence (Mentor) and has access to multidisciplinary faculty members to both guide and evaluate their projects. At the conclusion of the study, students thoroughly understand the company and its industry and make a final report to the organization's senior management team with the research findings and recommendations for senior management on how to address the particular challenge involved.

The ICP has two primary goals:

• to assist companies and organizations with issues of real significance
• to provide students with an exceptional cross-enterprise learning experience

The ICP helps students develop global business capabilities by allowing them to move beyond the business knowledge they acquire in the classroom and work with real managers facing real problems in real time. It also allows students, who are groomed to analyze businesses as a whole, to integrate business disciplines and turn ideas into action.

The ICP allows companies to receive professional consulting services from students with a variety of business skill sets. Because Ivey is one of the best business schools in the world, these students have the latest tools, techniques and theories at their fingertips. They receive the support and supervision of top industry experts (Ivey faculty and Executives-in-Residence). This program is a high priority at Ivey. Companies are treated with the utmost professionalism and students receive immediate assistance with their projects.

The ICP is one of two project programs along with the New Venture Project available to Masters (MBA) and Undergraduate (HBA2) business students at Ivey.