Two Master of Business Administration (MBA) graduates realised that contact with colleagues is rapidly lost after graduation. Given the absence of an alumni association for the MBA the idea for this bachelor’s thesis emerged. It must be clarified whether there is interest in an alumni association and whether it is feasible to found one. The goal of this thesis is to collect and evaluate the needs and interests of current and former MBA participants and develop a concept for the creation of an MBA Alumni Association.

In a first step, secondary data collection was conducted. The alumni associations of four institutions were compared using the first two phases of the Xerox benchmarking model. Second, primary data collection was carried out. Undertaken quantitative data collection was performed through an online survey using the survey tool SurveyMonkey. Furthermore, qualitative data collection was completed through six personal interviews. With the help from the findings from the primary data collection, a comprehensive concept for the establishment of an MBA Alumni Association was developed.

The concept contains the recommendation of a club as the legal form of the MBA Alumni Association. A club is legally dependent from the Alumni FHNW umbrella organisation. Club members would need to pay CHF 80 for their annual membership fee, whereas MBA participants from the third semester onwards can be members for one year for free. To be able to contact the alumni members and for them to use the benefits and services, the utilization of the Switch edu-ID is recommended. Every quarter, the members should receive a newsletter with information such as the details of upcoming events. Additional information can be found on the LinkedIn group of the association. Events, which should transpire twice a year, are also an important element of the concept. The goal is that some of the events are organised by volunteers. Having a mixture of professional and social events, containing both theoretical and networking parts, is recommended. Finally, the existing offers of fringe benefits from the Alumni FHNW and FH Schweiz should be used rather than organising new ones. With this concept, a comprehensive framework has been created to successfully establish an MBA Alumni Association.