MBA Student Gallery
MBA’s Gain Business Understanding in Buenos Aires - January 2012
The students in the Saturday MBA program demonstrated the value and effectiveness of the international experience during their Winter session in Buenos Aires, Argentina. All 26 participants reported delight and appreciation for the trip. To prepare for the trip, student teams spent weeks researching specific industries, cultural characteristics, and political events relevant to international business in the region. During the trip students engaged in lively case discussions on topics ranging from the financial crisis to entrepreneurial activities. It was a consensus that the opportunity for firsthand experience observing the concepts and ideas discussed in their preparatory research and classes both reaffirmed and enhanced their understanding of international business.
The international experience featured presentations from Chris Becker from the United States Embassy and Jude Webber, the regional expert writer from the Financial Times. Students toured operations at Volkswagen Argentina, Algabo, and Greenpeace South America. Each of the company visits included lively discussion with corporate managers, including Carlo Besco, the Director of Logistics at Volkswagen, and Nicolas Bollati, Logistics manager heir apparent at Algabo.
In addition to the required workload, students had some free time to further explore the region. Several students made extra time in their schedule to expand their experience with additional trips to Peru, Chile, and Patagonia. One group even arranged its own business visits with DIRECTV’s Argentina headquarters, and Torneos y Competencias (TyC), a sports network partially owned by DIRECTV Latin America.
Overall the experience was a great success. Many thanks to the staff at Worldstrides who helped organize of the event, and special thanks to David Horne, Kathy Rice, and Mark Washburn who facilitated its implementation. All the students, staff and faculty involved agree that it marked a high point in their MBA experience.
Additional Photos: Buenos Aires 2012
A-MBA 6 Students Experience Business in Italy June 2011
For the first time, a group of 15 students from the Accelerated MBA program journeyed to Rome to visit and analyze three international companies (Cisco Italy – Cloud Services, 7 Camicie fashion franchise, and Tabarrini Vineyards – wine and olive oil family business). The program was hosted by John Cabot University in Rome, Italy. Through the support and guidance of V.P. Mary Merva and Professor Thomas Govero, both of JCU, the students were able to engage in an intensive business learning experience for one week in and around Rome. The students arrived in Rome for the start of the program on Sunday, June 5th with an opening reception at JCU hosted by President Franco Pavoncello and Professor Thomas Govero. The week of June 5th was spent visiting the three companies and working on their company projects.
Each company provided unique situations and challenges, giving the students a gamut of industries from which to learn. During the Cisco site visit, they learned the differences between Internet operations and the legal/technological environment in the European Union and the United States. The 7 Camicie visit gave them the opportunity to see how entrepreneur David Hassan was able to use the franchising model to expand his entrepreneurial clothing business to three continents. Finally, during the Tabarrini visit the students were able to experience the family operation from a four-generation wine-making family in a relatively unknown area of Italy. While the businesses were diverse in scope, there were many underlying similarities among them including the need to deal with a rapidly changing global environment.
After the site visits the students developed a set of ideas and recommendations of how the company could expand their operations into different markets or products based on our analyses. This final portion of their work was included in the report to link their secondary research with their primary research and experiences
The closing reception and dinner was also hosted by JCU with V.P. Mary Merva and Professor Thomas Govero with students sharing their experiences including their most memorable experience during the week
A-MBA Students in class in Rome.
A-MBA 6 Students exploring the sites.
Additional Photos: Italy 2011
