MENA Lab

Benefits of becoming a host organization

Our enthusiastic MENA Lab teams deliver measurable impact to host companies in a wide variety of industries.

MENA Lab is a unique opportunity for hosts:

  • to work with a team of skilled, business-savvy MIT students, ranging from young professionals to mid-career executives on specific issues startups are facing
  • to collaborate to find concrete, implementable solutions through research, analysis, and knowledge sharing
  • to gain insights and guidance from a student team with wide-ranging skills, work experiences, and cultural backgrounds

Project scope

When selecting their project scope, host companies can choose from a broad spectrum of business challenges, such as strategic growth, new market entry, pricing, marketing, benchmarking, VC and fundraising, and financial strategy.

MENA Lab strongly emphasizes concrete “leave-behinds” as a primary component of the teams’ project deliverables. For example, student teams may deliver tools such as financial models, potential customer/investor/partner pipelines and screens, and go-to-market roadmaps.

Student teams

MENA Lab teams are typically comprised of MIT students representing a range of backgrounds and expertise, from management consulting and financial services to engineering, technology, and operations. Each team works with a MENA Lab mentor who meets with the team and oversees the team’s progress, both logistically and substantively. The team, however, is in charge of building and managing the relationship with their host company.

Options

  1. Fall MBA session: Hosts work with a team of four MBAs from September to December. The team will travel to work full time onsite for two weeks in January.
  2. Spring Executive MBA session: Hosts work with a team of four to six mid-career Executive MBAs (EMBAs) from January to April. The team will travel to work onsite for one week in mid-March. Please keep in mind that EMBA students are also full-time working executives. 

 

Fall MBA host timeline

  • June - August

    Application and project scoping
    Companies submit applications to host a MENA Lab team.

      Describe the scope of the challenges they are facing and the solutions they would like a MENA Lab team to deliver Detail the skillsets and expertise they believe would be most useful for team members to possess

  • September

    Projects are matched with teams; team commences project work.

  • Late September-December

    Team collaborates with host company remotely from MIT's campus; team undertakes initial research.

  • Two consecutive weeks in January

    Team works full-time with host company. The majority of project work happens during this intensive onsite phase in January.

  • Final day of full-time phase in January

    Final team presentation to host company

  • Mid-February

    Host company receives final deliverables from team and takes feedback survey.

Spring EMBA host timeline

  • October

    Application and project scoping: Companies submit applications to host a MENA Lab team.

      Describe the scope of the challenges they are facing and the solutions they would like a MENA Lab team to deliver Detail the skillsets and expertise they believe would be most useful for team members to possess

  • December

    Projects are matched with teams. 

  • January - April

    Team collaborates with host company remotely from MIT's campus; team undertakes initial research. 

  • One week in Mid-March

    Students travel to work onsite with host company.

  • April

    Host company receives final project deliverables from team. 

Project calendar

Teams work for their host organizations on a semester-long project engagement. Potential host organizations submit online questionnaires in which they describe the scope of the challenges they are facing and the solutions they would like a MENA Lab team to work on. We ask potential hosts to detail the skillsets and expertise they believe would be most useful for team members to possess. MENA Lab faculty and mentors are available to assist organizations in shaping and defining their project scope for the questionnaire.

MENA Lab faculty match approved host organizations with the best-qualified teams. Throughout the fall or spring semester, the teams work with their hosts from campus to finalize the scope and agree on a work plan, and then undertake research, interviews, and analysis. Host organizations and teams build their working relationships through online collaboration and regular conference calls throughout this remote phase.

For the fall MBA session, teams travel to work full-time onsite with their host for two consecutive weeks in January.** For the spring EMBA session, teams work onsite with their host for one week in mid-March. The teams’ final deliverables include a formal presentation and, more importantly, a concrete analysis that host organizations can begin to use immediately.

**We ask that you allow your team time away from work for cultural activities that MIT Sloan coordinates for the student group. The dates of these activities will be communicated to host companies in advance.

Host company obligations

Host organizations receive optimal results when the CEO or other senior managers are available to devote focused time and energy to the project and to working directly with the MENA Lab team, especially while teams are working full-time. Please make sure that the appropriate leaders will be available to work with and guide the student team.

Host companies should be comprised of at least 15 employees. Hosts should provide a clear project statement, strategic objectives, and access to people and data. 

How to apply

In order to participate, companies will complete the MENA Lab new project questionnaire. If you are interested in becoming a host company for MENA Lab, please contact Jake Cohen with your questions or ideas.