Global Business EDGE Program
The Global Business EDGE (Education for Global Executives) program is designed to integrate the various business and non-business courses by applying theory to real business problems. Students will apply the principles, concepts, and skills learned in their academic studies to decisions faced by international business managers in real-time and in actual business settings.
Companies want graduates who have experience, not just theoretical knowledge. The EDGE program helps students understand the growing impact of international competition and how to operate in the global marketplace.
This program connects graduate students with Northwest companies doing international business. Local companies give teams of MBA and MIB students complex project assignments. Comprised of two to three students, these teams spend the ten-week quarter preparing a research and analytical report for client firms summarizing their results. Companies now working with the Global Business program include Costco, Microsoft, PACCAR, Starbucks, Weyerhaeuser, The Boeing Company, and many others.
Students benefit from the course in at least the following ways:
- learning how to apply theory and principles learned in the classroom
- contact with local business executives
- intimate knowledge of international business issues
- expanded horizons in understanding other cultures and ways of doing business
- professional development career advancement
The Global Business EDGE program consists of a number of individual programs:
Future programs may include:
Faculty Externships
In the context of today's rapidly changing global business environment, it becomes critical for business faculty to experience, first hand, the challenges of doing business internationally. To address this need, provisions are being made to offer selected faculty members the opportunity to observe and participate in the international activities of EDGE client companies either in the U.S. or abroad.
By participating in this program, faculty will study current issues and practices in fields such as marketing and sales, human resources, supply chain management, legal and regulatory compliance, risk management, and many others. This experience will considerably strengthen and expand the information that faculty are able to offer students in the classroom.
Creating a Company in International Business
This new activity will be designed to introduce students to the practical steps necessary to start and actually run an international business, and to do so at the earliest point in each student's Business School experience.
This will be accomplished in the format of an academic class linking theory and practice. Students will be challenged to: identify "real" business opportunities for export of a U.S. product; locate customers and clients; define and deliver products and services; negotiate with suppliers, administrative agencies, and other stakeholders; finance company operations; and be accountable for cash flows and company budgets.
The goal is to take experiential learning to its logical conclusion by providing a single, coherent, relevant, comprehensive, and integrated introduction to international business practice and theory in a two-quarter academic course. Working in teams, students will start their businesses, operate them, and execute an appropriate exit strategy at the conclusion of the period.