Q&A: Global Business Experience in the MiM Program
Georgetown University’s McDonough School of Business has announced the launch of a new Master of Science in Management (MiM) program, which incorporates experiential learning into the curriculum, including the school’s signature Global Business Experience.
Ricardo Ernst, Baratta Chair in Global Business and director of the Global Business Initiative, discusses this distinctive opportunity and reveals where MiM students will travel.
What is a Global Business Experience?
In the Global Business Experience, students work in small teams on consulting projects for international organizations to solve a problem, such as how a company can penetrate the U.S. market. They work on campus first, learning about the company and the industry and thinking critically about global issues like supply chains, tariffs, branding, and diplomacy. Then they travel abroad to meet with their client’s senior leadership and deliver recommendations in person.
It’s an incredibly memorable experience for the students, and the global experience impresses potential employers. It’s also memorable for the companies — we consistently hear how impressed they are by the sophisticated level of our students’ presentations and solutions, and they often implement their recommendations.
Georgetown McDonough has offered the Global Business Experience for nearly 25 years. More than 8,500 students have completed over 1,600 projects in 22 countries. It is a required course for our graduate programs, including MiM, and is an elective for our undergraduate program.
How is the Georgetown Global Business Experience different from global trips that other schools offer?
Many schools offer a sophisticated tourism trip — they travel to another country and might visit some companies. Georgetown McDonough works with real companies. Our students have real exchanges with managers of global organizations. For example, our MBAs have weekly, one-hour phone calls with them. It’s really hands-on. That’s the fundamental difference — our students have the opportunity to work first-hand, not second-hand, on a specific business challenge that the company is currently facing. That’s what makes them global-ready leaders.
What makes the MiM Global Business Experience unique? Where will MiM students travel?
No other U.S. MiM degree programs do global projects. Georgetown MiM students will work with companies in Singapore and travel there in the spring to meet with executives. MiM is the only degree program at Georgetown McDonough to go to Singapore, so that is unique. Singapore is amazing for many reasons. If you look at the global competitiveness index, Singapore is number two. It is a dynamic global powerhouse with the third-highest per capita GDP in the world and several important industries — it’s a finance and fintech powerhouse, a global transportation and shipping powerhouse, and an oil and gas powerhouse.
Arthur Dong, teaching professor of strategy and economics, will lead the Global Business Experience to Singapore for MiM students. He is an expert in international trade and knows the region better than anyone.