Global Experience
To be a successful business or civic leader, executives must increasingly be attuned to the larger global picture. Since its inception in 1992, the Telfer Executive MBA Program has offered an integrated curriculum that provides you with a global perspective across all business functions. Telfer Executive MBA candidates complete two international consulting projects as a part of the curriculum’s Signature Series of Six Business Consulting Projects.
The Telfer Executive MBA Program extends beyond visiting companies within a chosen destination. The Program places a practical consulting focus on the global experience: to create relationships and to identify opportunities and value within the market for a client organization, to gain relevant global business experiences for your career growth, and to provide you with the analytical frameworks relevant to your own organization's global strategy.
Through the Innovation & Entrepreneurship Consulting Project in Silicon Valley, you will:
The objective of the Silicon Valley trip is to provide candidates with a full understanding of why Silicon Valley matters in the global economy. Candidates will appreciate the ‘uniqueness’ of Silicon Valley through direct discussions and networking events involving executives and entrepreneurs who will share insight on why Silicon Valley is attractive to entrepreneurs and new investments, and why Silicon Valley is best positioned to produce ‘game changing’ technology and applications.
2015 Company Briefings
- IBM Almaden Research Center
- Google Inc.
- Avaya Inc.
- Aruba Networks
- RocketSpace
- Stanford University
- US Market Access Center
In addition to executive briefings and company visits, you will also gain insights by previewing current technological advancements and breakthroughs from leading research centres. The rich discussions on active research projects will open your mind to the astonishing future of technology. Through your business consulting project, you will uncover insights into Silicon Valley’s distinct management practices and a unique culture that promotes learning and new ideas along with fostering broad-based collaboration.
You will be asked to address a real business challenge facing your client organization in Silicon Valley. Through your respective business consulting project, you will come to appreciate the innovative and entrepreneurial ecosystem that many of the largest technology companies in the world belong to and you will come to understand the challenges and opportunities of doing business in a highly innovative environment.
The focus on the global market and consulting experience within the curriculum provides you the frameworks to:
Through the International Market Evaluation and Strategy course in your first year, your class will use a structured process to select the international destination with market potential for Canadian companies for your international consulting project and trip. Candidates will be exposed to the broad range of factors that an organization needs to consider when deciding to undertake entry into a new international market.
Through the Business Strategy Consulting Project for the Strategy Formulation and Implementation course, your team will identify the viability of a consulting project for a client organization's involvement in the International Consulting Project. The project will enable you to identify the client’s business strategy and analyze a potential fit to the selected international destination environment and to the client's business strategy. Based on your analysis and research, your team will identify if the organization will be your client for the International Consulting Project in the chosen destination.
The Multi-National Corporations and Strategies course assists you in gaining an appreciation of the strategic, legal, operational and organizational problems which management faces when engaging in international business activities. The course facilitates the preparation of background research and analysis required for the International Consulting Project.
You will examine the challenges of management in the global economy by conducting a major business consulting project in the chosen destination country as a part of the International Market Evaluation and Strategy course. Candidates typically develop market entry strategies, channel development strategies or strategic alliances for the organizations they represent abroad. Client representatives often choose to accompany the class on their trip given the real business value to the client organization, directly resulting from the relevant work done by candidates of the Telfer Executive MBA Program.
"Personally, the experience of the International Business Consulting Project shifted my way of thinking of all that I had learned in the Program. It changed the way I view my own future in business. There were numerous take-aways for me; having created and executed an amazing project with four teammates, working within a country I may never had otherwise discovered, meeting with high-ranking and influential figures, delivering tangible results to a client organization and achieving excellence all at once. This was a game-changer for me."
Harry Webster, EMBA 2013 Manager,
Rugged Computing and Display Programs, General Dynamics Canada
