Students from the International MBA programs at IE Business School and Wharton School have just completed 6 months working as consultants for 5 Spanish companies in the mobility technologies sector looking to operate in the U.S.

The initiative forms part of the Global Consulting Practicum (GCP), an international consulting project run by Wharton School for the last 30 years. Wharton School run the GCP in collaboration with schools from China, India, Israel, Chile, Peru and, since 2007, Spain, after signing an agreement with IE Business School, the only European Business School to participate in the initiative.

The IE Business School-Wharton School project team comprises a mix of 11 students from the two schools. Participating students from the IE Business School International MBA Program were Carlos Raventós (Spain), Marco Guarda (Belgium), Rafael Angélico (Venezuela), Tom Schapira (US) and Andrew Reader (UK). All worked for 6 months alongside Wharton students and the directors of 5 companies that are members of the CIM -Centro de Innovación en Movilidad (Innovation and Mobility Center), co-financed by Microsoft and the Castilla y León to provide assessment for their entry into the US market, their search for funding for international expansion plans, and their search for synergies.

In the course of the project students interviewed the senior directors of participating firms to gather relevant information, and have worked with professors from IE and Wharton. Thus students put into practice their consulting, marketing and entrepreneurial skills, and the knowledge of strategy, internationalization and technological development acquired during the MBA programs. Finally, students presented their proposals to the senior management teams of the participating firms at a workshop on US Mobility Trends held at the Wharton School campus in San Francisco (US), and attended by the Dean of Wharton School, Thomas Robertson, and executives from companies that included Google, Salesforce.com, Benchmark Capital, Accel Partners and Clairmail. All participating companies visited technological firms in Silicon Valley to meet management teams and explore potential areas of collaboration.

Posted on 17 outubro 2008

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