Oxford student Andy on his Oxford Strategy Challenge project with a spend management consultancy
The Careers Service original programme The Oxford Strategy Challenge (TOSCA) is a team-based experiential learning event for Oxford University students, with participants taking part in real strategy-focused client challenges over a week.
Andy, MPhil in Global and Area Studies, took part in the March 2025 programme. Here is a look back at his time on the programme.
Andy's highlights
I’m glad to share that last week I completed The Oxford Strategy Challenge (TOSCA), organised by the Careers Service, University of Oxford, alongside a team of exceptional peers. This was my first-ever real-life consulting project, particularly in a technology and strategic context, and I’m deeply grateful to the TOSCA organisers for offering such an invaluable opportunity to drive real-world impact.
Our client is a leading spend management consultancy exploring the integration of AI solutions. Despite having no prior exposure to either the business travel industry or enterprise-level AI applications, our team rapidly grasped the core of the client’s value streams and pain points. With their support, we co-designed a brief AI readiness survey and identified time-intensive, manual tasks that could be alleviated through automation.
From there, we developed a set of grounded and actionable AI transformation initiatives, which were received warmly by the client. At last, We proposed a 12-week roadmap for implementation, focusing on decentralised workflow coordination and cost-efficient, interoperable solutions.
My personal highlight from the project was learning how to design a socio-technical architecture for cloud-based business processes. For the first time, I attempted to visualise a professional business process, producing several drafts that were certainly imperfect—but deeply confidence-boosting. This experience not only equipped me with a crucial employable skill relevant to product management and tech consulting, but also unexpectedly recalled my interest in platform economies and platform capitalism.
At our initial meeting, our insightful client posed a powerful question:
“As a consultancy, how do we position ourselves—between being an outsourced extension of our clients, and being an independent advisory partner?”
Though seemingly tangential, the question echoed with my current research interest in data brokerage and platform strategies. Strategically, to what extent can a firm optimise its performance through participation in—or ownership of—a double-sided market? While I don’t yet have a definitive answer, I believe that platformisation, both internally and externally, offers a promising path for firms seeking to leverage their fictitious capital (data, intellect...) in increasingly networked industries.
A heartfelt thank you to my brilliant teammates, including Gaspard. From sharp business analytics to creative thinking, each of you brought something unique to the table, and I learned so much from working alongside you. It was an absolute pleasure and a joy to share this journey together.
How to take part in the Oxford Strategy Challenge
To apply for the next Oxford Strategy Challenge, you must complete the application form on CareerConnect. Demand for this programme is high and an early application is advised. Find out more and apply now for The Oxford Strategy Challenge.
The Challenge aims to provide Oxford University undergraduate and postgraduate students with real-world client experience and development opportunities across key employment skills that you can deploy on your CV, cover letters, and at interviews.
