By Renee Graham
In August, as the fall semester commences on the Wellesley campus, 11 Babson MBA students and their faculty advisers will depart to different parts of the world to partake in the initial phase of the consulting programs known as JMCFE (Joint Management Consulting Field Experience) and International MCFE.
JMCFE and International MCFE are credit courses run by Global Program Services that combine the educational tools Babson students acquire in the classroom with real life consulting experience. Eligible students are chosen to participate based on an application and interview process, and are placed on teams based on their industry knowledge/expertise, career interests and team needs. The JMCFE Program teams Babson students with students from an international university to work on a consulting project with an international company sponsor. The International MCFE Program pairs students from Babson with a host international company to consult on a project for that company. Each program requires the students to travel to the host country for an initial meeting to define the scope of the project, participate in cultural awareness activities and familiarize themselves with the people and company with which they will be working.
On August 31 Tawfiq Elahi Suman, Sebastian Saporiti and Allan Telio will travel with their faculty adviser, Olaf Thorp, to meet with student counterparts from Chalmers University of Technology in G öteborg, Sweden and their client sponsor, Pilotfish Networks AB. During the visit the students will gain an understanding of the company’s needs and begin to build their team strategy for addressing the business development questions presented by this specialist in wireless gateway solutions.
Another JMCFE experience will occur concurrently with the Sweden course in San Jose, Costa Rica, under the faculty advisement of Enio Pinto. MBA students Sergio Boppel, Kivanc Ozseden, David Hu and Michelle Park will participate in a joint consulting experience with students from INCAE Business School in San Jose to address the marketing business strategy needs of their client sponsor, TII Smart Solutions Inc. TII Smart Solutions develops software solutions for the payment industry and is interested in penetrating the US market in the future.
Client sponsor, Sociedad Imporatdora Italiana Itda has also provided the opportunity for students Salomon Rayek, Jessica Yang, Maria DeSousa and Matthew Brown to work on a business strategy for entering the US market. The Chilean-based company develops private brands of sporting goods in Chile, Mexico and Colombia to hypermarkets in the retail sector.
Upon completion of their travels, the Babson teams will work through the semester with their counterparts, culminating in a visit to the Babson campus in December by company representatives and international student teammates. Final presentations by these teams are scheduled for the end of the semester. For more information about consulting programs for MBAs at Babson, visit:
http://www3.babson.edu/Centers/Glavin/gps/Academics/MBA/
