MBA students gain experience in global marketplace

UL Lafayette’s MBA International Business class recently put theories into practice when it collaborated with university students and professionals in countries around the world.

Led by Dr. David Baker, an associate professor of marketing at the University of Louisiana at Lafayette, it worked for two months on real business challenges presented by multinational companies.

It was the first group of UL Lafayette MBA students to complete the Global E-Team X-Culture Project, a course that involves thousands of students and professionals from over 40 countries each semester. Throughout the course, students compete, collaborate and learn about the challenges and best practices of international business consulting.

During the Spring 2016 semester, teams consisting of five or six members from different countries were charged with developing high-quality business plans for participating companies, working alongside over 3,600 students from 100 universities.

UL Lafayette MBA students helped create educational toys for children in Lithuania, expand the market for chocolate in Colombia and develop new product features and promotion strategies for an electric vehicle company in the United States and India.

“The students did a great job and vastly exceeded my expectations in professionalism toward a challenging cross-cultural team project,” Baker said.

Photo: MBA International Business students proudly display their project completion certificates.