DECATUR, Ill. – At the conclusion of Millikin University’s Master of Business Administration (MBA) program, students from both the Accelerated and Evening cohorts come together for a unique Performance Learning opportunity that gives them international consulting experience.
In a partnership with WHU-Otto Beisheim Graduate School of Management in Koblenz, Germany, the students are tasked with a consulting project with the brand Sebamed, which manufactures medicinal skin care products.
Sebamed is looking to expand its business in the United States, and the students used their business management and administration skills to develop recommendations during a five-week immersion class before heading to Germany for a week to present their findings.
“Sebamed is a skincare company focused on specialized pH balance skincare. They are looking to expand more into the U.S. market. We divided up their different areas within the different project groups to tackle different subjects related to coming into the U.S. market,” MBA student Shelby Baum said. “My group focused on the pitfalls of coming into the U.S. market. We compared other companies that had tried to expand into the U.S., and it didn't go well for them. We made some recommendations on what to do and what not to do.”
It wasn’t all business during the trip as the group took advantage of a German bank holiday to travel to Dusseldorf and see more of the country. On the Friday of their visit, the group presented their findings to Sebamed leadership, including executives who had traveled the globe to see the presentations in person.
“We got to see their production facility while there, which was cool. We met their CEO and learned a little bit more about the company. The thing that we focused on during our time there was these smaller, family-owned businesses were ‘hidden champions,’ that was how they phrased it. Some of these mid-size corporations are the backbone of the German economy, and we see how prominent and thriving those businesses are in keeping their economy moving forward.”
Making the trip to present their findings added much to the students’ experiences and placed them face-to-face with decision makers of Sebamed.
“Sebamed has a global presence, and they have a facility in Hong Kong. The president of that location came with a couple of his associates to see our final presentations. They flew in from Hong Kong, and so the pressure was on. It was incredible. They were great and really engaging and asked many good questions,” Baum said. “The risk feels low when you're here (on campus) talking about it, because we're talking about it in the safety of a classroom with a professor, and it is all from the lens of a student. But then, when you realize that someone has taken their time to fly halfway across the world to listen to what you're doing, you want to make it of value for them. We wanted to make it something of substance. It felt like the group put a lot of work into the projects and wanted to represent ourselves and Millikin well so that the partnership could continue.
“The whole week was great, and when it was over at the Friday night farewell dinner, we got to sit and visit and interact with the faculty that we worked with, and we felt like we all had a sense of accomplishment.”
