Fox IMBA Adds New College To List of International Partners
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Trinity College in Dublin, often called the Oxford of Ireland, joined the ranks of international partner universities this spring in The Fox School’s award-winning International MBA capstone, the Global Entrepreneurship in Technology Consulting Practicum (GET).
This year’s international teams included two groups from Trinity College, as well as two groups of students from long-time Israeli partner Ben Gurion University (BGU). The Trinity and BGU students collaborated with Fox School students to develop U.S. market entry strategies for four early-stage international companies, and then to present those strategies at Temple University’s Eighth Annual International Business Venture Fair. The Fox School’s Innovation and Entrepreneurship Institute sponsored the fair.
The consulting projects were designed to incorporate the challenges of international business, including multicultural communication, and the gathering and analysis of foreign market data.
“The students in The Fox School’s International Business MBA program go from learning the basics of consulting, to setting the agenda, and managing and influencing their client, all while working with international partners,” explained professor T.L. Hill, the course and project manager.
“The companies who hire the GET teams get four things: extraordinarily high-quality consulting at a good price; access to experienced project managers; smart, motivated and creative students; and the benefit of Temple’s extensive network,” he added.
One of the companies that benefited from this international student-driven consulting was Cellix Limited, a Dublin-based biological instrumentation company. Vivienne Williams, CEO of Cellix Ltd. commented, “As a young company gearing up to enter the U.S. market, the student team provided invaluable information about the market in the United States, saved us months of research, built us a network of contacts, and ultimately made some excellent recommendations regarding future operations for Cellix in the United States.”
A second successful GET team developed a plan for another Dublin company cREME, a provider of software that assesses investment risks. The cREME GET team suggested carving out a small niche market of independent financial planners for their software product. To create this strategy, this Fox School-Trinity College team conducted separate studies of both the American and Irish markets. The end result was a realistic, feasible marketing strategy.
cREME's co-founder Cronan McNamara said, “The team's work on the business plan exceeded what I would have expected from professional consulting firms.”
“I was so impressed with the amount of time the students devoted to the project,” said Eustace Kangaju, cREME project leader and director of the Small Business Development Center. “Their short final presentations at the Venture Fair didn’t even begin to capture the amount of work they did. They were able to learn a host of new skills and implement them right away.”
The cREME team’s plan was so well received that the company is preparing to use it as their business plan. Jaclyn Ryan, a GET team member working for crème, said, “It took us a while to get comfortable with our client, but we gained a lot of confidence, were able to apply what we had learned, and eventually were able to take a leadership role. It was really gratifying when our work and ideas were well received.”
The two other international GET teams worked for Israeli companies Scientific Biopsy, which develops and manufactures robotic biopsy systems, and GRT Development Ltd., a young company that created a new insulin pump.
Among the venture capitalists and angel investors at the fair were students visiting from the Ecole Nationale des Ponts et Chaussees (ENPC) School of International Management in Paris, another Fox International Business MBA partner. Next semester, along with previous international options, Fox MBA students will have the opportunity to work with ENPC students on Paris-based consulting projects similar to this year’s start-up Israeli and Irish companies, and with students from Welingkar Institute of Management in India.
Summing up what he gained from the fair, IMBA student Will Tae who worked with cREME said, “All the company had for us was step one, the product. It was up to us to figure out the rest.”
“We were the ones that came up a master plan, which was a great experience,” he added.
