Spring 2020 IBD Teams Deliver!
As we complete this year’s demanding spring semester IBD course — unexpectedly impacted by the sudden COVID-19 pandemic — we want to highlight the outstanding work accomplished by our 80 Full Time MBA students. Among these, 16 IBD student Team Leads in particular deserve special mention. They willingly took on expected Team Lead responsibilities, including managing their MBA peers and project clients in the midst of a global health crisis and unforeseen shifts in project scope. None of these IBD students were able to travel overseas to complete the complex project work they had begun in January with their clients and MBA teammates. Despite that, they recently completed the remote delivery of final project recommendations that made a real and valuable impact on their clients’ organizations.
We would like to share below some of the comments we received from our spring semester 2020 IBD clients, following the successful delivery of final project recommendations by their student teams. Also included below are a few impressions we recorded from this year’s IBD Faculty Mentors and Team Leads.
2020 IBD Clients:
“The benchmarking, revenue modeling and pricing structure proposal we received were excellent, and have left us with valuable tools and reference materials that we’ll use across the lifetime of the business.” Ross McConnell, Blinder Limited
“We sincerely appreciate the hard work, dedication and extensive collaboration of the IBD team. Despite the global widespread of the Coronavirus and consequent cancellation of the India trip, the IBD team still came out with a substantive report. We are extremely grateful for their valuable contribution.” Gaurav Mohan, Dura-Line India
“The group work was very much visible and each member gave their best while preparing the implementation plan. The team efforts are commendable and contributed greatly to the final deliverable while ensuring the larger good for the hospital.” Kuldeep Singh, Seva Foundation
“These months working with the IBD team were of great value to us, both for the process of building the project and for the legacy it leaves.” Guilherme Quandt, Softplan
“I’m so impressed that our IBD team is managing to keep their motivation and work ethic despite the challenging pandemic environment, along with being even able to conduct the necessary research. Our team produced valuable strategic guidance for us.” Auli Parviainen, Maston Oy
Faculty Mentors:
“The team did a lot of heavy lifting in the final weeks of the project, and it all came together well with a solid recommendation to proceed with Hilltribe Organic organic desserts. The team’s creativity and success interviewing potential channel partners and Thai consumers was particularly impressive, and their survey results indicating how to position, price and roll out the offering will be invaluable as the client moves forward.” Judy Hopelain, Faculty Mentor, Team Hilltribe Organics
“It’s been lots of hard work, and they went the extra mile more than once, but this is the kind of presentation and effort that will get you remembered (and promoted)!” Olaf Groth, Faculty Mentor, Team SAP Ariba
Team Leads:
“I am proud of the deliverables we presented to our client. In fact, they invited a few high-ranking executives to the presentation, so they must have felt confident about our project and final recommendations.” Eddie Consigliere, Team Lead, Team MEC
“I really appreciated the team’s integrity and their ability to put the team first and put the work first, and to want to produce something that we were proud to put our name on.” Josh Raines, Team Lead, Team SAP Ariba
“We had a valuable and fun experience learning how to work within an immersive cross-cultural business environment through the IBD program. We enjoyed getting to know our client and about the China-US investment environment; it was a really great opportunity for us to complete a full end-to-end international strategy engagement.” Oriana Chu, Team Lead, Team ToJoy
Enjoy this video of IBD Team Lead Emily Lapham sharing her thoughts on the team’s final deliverable to project client Entrepreneurs Without Borders.
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Congratulations to all of our spring semester 2020 IBD student teams in accomplishing so much for so many clients in such a difficult environment. Well done!
