A cornerstone experience in Goizueta’s redesigned Full-Time MBA curriculum, Growth Week challenges students to integrate finance, strategy, marketing, operations, and management in a real-world growth case.
When Goizueta Business School introduced its redesigned Full-Time MBA curriculum this year, the goal was clear: move beyond siloed coursework and help students understand how finance, marketing, operations, strategy, and accounting actually come together inside real organizations.
Growth Week is where that vision comes to life.
Launched this fall as a new, cornerstone experience for first-year Full-Time MBA students, Growth Week challenges students to synthesize what they’ve learned across the core curriculum into a single, integrated growth strategy for a real company—reinforcing the idea that business decisions don’t happen in isolation.
“The primary purpose of Growth Week is to strengthen our curricular experience for our students by integrating the various core subjects into a project that reinforces how those subjects must work together for a company to grow,” says Brian Mitchell, associate dean of Full-Time MBA Programs and Goizueta Global Strategy & Initiatives.
From Core Concepts to Integrated Decisions
Throughout the first semester, Full-Time MBA students move through Goizueta’s core courses—each designed to connect with the others, but still taught within distinct disciplines. Growth Week marks a turning point.
“It provides students with real and tangible experience to connect knowledge across areas at the end of the first semester,” says Omar Rodriguez-Vilá, professor in the practice of marketing and faculty lead for Growth Week. “Up to that point, they have taken core classes that faculty attempt to relate, but which nonetheless remain independent areas of study such as finance, accounting, strategy, marketing, and operations.”
During Growth Week, that separation disappears.
It feels less like a traditional class project and more like working on a live strategic decision.
Omar Rodriguez-Vilá, Growth Week Faculty Lead
Students are presented with a growth challenge that requires them to draw simultaneously on concepts from every core discipline—testing not just what they’ve learned, but how well they can integrate and apply it.
“Growth Week is primarily about application rather than the acquisition of new knowledge,” Rodriguez-Vilá explains. “It presents a unique moment for them to link their understanding and put it to work in a truly integrated way.”
A Real-World Growth Challenge
This year’s inaugural Growth Week centered on The Coca-Cola Company, with student teams tasked with identifying and pitching growth opportunities grounded in rigorous analysis and strategic coherence.
Sherman Grant 27MBA, a first-year Full-Time MBA student, worked with his team on an inorganic growth strategy for Coca-Cola’s Fairlife platform.
“Our team pitched an acquisition strategy for Coca-Cola’s Fairlife platform (a line of premium dairy drinks), recommending the purchase of a company in the high-growth functional dairy segment,” Grant says. “We evaluated strategic fit, market growth, and financial feasibility, and ultimately built an executive-style acquisition pitch.”
For Grant, the experience felt fundamentally different from a traditional group project.
“I would describe Growth Week as an immersive experience that pulls together everything you are learning in the MBA program and applies it to a real business challenge,” he says. “It feels less like a traditional class project and more like working on a live strategic decision.”
Integration Under Pressure
What distinguishes Growth Week from other applied learning experiences is the level of integration—and the pressure that comes with it.
“Instead of focusing on one subject area, we had to apply skills from across our coursework simultaneously,” Grant says. “A strong idea alone was not enough; it had to be supported by thoughtful analysis and communicated clearly.”
That pressure is intentional, says Rodriguez-Vilá.
Growth requires integration. You cannot grow a product, service, or solution in silos.
Omar Rodriguez-Vilá
“Signature Goizueta experiences like Growth Week and IMPACT prepare students to lead in environments where cross-functional management is a requirement for success,” notes Rodriguez-Vilá.
For students, the experience reinforces how interconnected business decisions really are.
“One key takeaway for me was learning how to synthesize a lot of information into a clear, concise narrative,” Grant says. “Growth Week reinforced the importance of making decisions with imperfect information and confidently explaining and defending those decisions.”
The Growth Cup Moment
Growth Week culminated in the Roberto C. Goizueta Growth Cup, where finalist teams presented their ideas to a distinguished panel—including James Quincey, chairman and CEO of The Coca-Cola Company, Javier Goizueta, retired vice president of The Coca-Cola Company and son of Goizueta’s namesake, and Gareth James, John H. Harland Dean of Goizueta Business School.
“To have the CEO of the Coca-Cola Company come to Goizueta and participate at this level with our students is remarkable,” Mitchell says. “To get this level of intimate exposure to a leader like James Quincey during their very first semester of business school makes our aspirations for them immediately tangible.”
Faculty reinforced the integrated nature of the experience by using a shared assessment rubric, challenging students to demonstrate how their recommendations addressed every core subject area.
“For the final presentations, the CEO of The Coca-Cola Company shared feedback on how our students integrated key business topics into their recommendations,” Mitchell adds. “What an incredible reinforcement of the objective.”
Looking Ahead
While Growth Week’s inaugural year was designed to build anticipation by revealing details later in the semester, the experience will continue to evolve.
The first year of Growth Week was an enormous success. We are extremely proud of this distinctive integration experience, while also working on continuous improvement opportunities.
Brian Mitchell, Associate Dean of Full-Time MBA Programs
Future iterations will feature different companies and earlier communication about expectations, allowing students more preparation time while preserving the intensity and realism of the challenge.
For Goizueta, Growth Week is more than a single event—it’s a defining expression of the school’s integrated approach to MBA education, preparing students to think, decide, and lead the way real organizations require.
Learn how Goizueta’s Full-Time MBA combines integrated coursework with immersive experiences like Growth Week to prepare principled, day-one-ready leaders. Explore the program.
