Team Flowers and Team Samai Present at the 2017 IBD Conference
Two student teams were chosen to present their IBD projects to the audience at the 2017 IBD Conference. IBD Team Samai was the first to present. This team was made up of Evening and Weekend MBA students Sushant Barave, Bill Conry, Dan Conti and Joe Layton.
Team Samai worked with a rum distillery in Phnom Penh, Cambodia. While Team Samai had a fun project, the students also talked about the impact they had on the Samai organization, as well as the recommendations they gave their client so they could scale the business “tactically and strategically.” The student team also focused on making sure their suggestions were actionable once they left and, in fact, Samai was already 
implementing some of their recommendations before they departed Cambodia. Team Lead Sushant Barave declared, “I was surprised at how rewarding that feeling can be — that you design something, you recommend something, and the client is taking action on that. That was the best part of it.”
The second student team to make a Conference presentation on stage was Team Agripacific Holdings, aka Team Flower. Full-Time MBA students Mary Harty, George Panagiotakopoulos, Laura Smith, Leah Finn and Anne Kramer made up the team. In order to understand the flower business in Asia, Team Flower traveled across China, visiting flower markets and distributors in Kunming, Beijing, Shanghai, Hangzhou, Guangzhou and Hong Kong.
Team Flower member Leah Finn said about the IBD Conference that “it was definitely fun to reflect on our experience in China, and to learn a bit about how it contrasted with the other projects. It helped me appreciate how adventurous and hands-on our IBD experience was. I think it’s rare to get to experience so many different sides of China in one trip, so I’m grateful that we were able to have that experience as part of the IBD course.” Team Lead Mary Harty agreed by sharing that “it felt great to share our experiences with the broader IBD community. As we presented, the photos and slides bought back so many fantastic memories for us all!” To view the photos from the Conference, click here.
