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Standing in a glass-walled conference room at Unicorn Factory Lisboa, Portugal’s largest startup incubator, Manning School of Business student Disha Patel was expecting to give a 15-minute presentation to the organization’s executives. But when they kept peppering Patel with questions about her team’s market analysis, the presentation stretched to nearly half an hour.

That’s when Patel realized this wasn’t a typical assignment.

“Presenting in class is one thing, but presenting to actual business representatives is more of a two-way conversation where success depends on building spontaneous connections and earning trust on the spot,” says Patel, a senior marketing student. “This was business. This was real.”

The exchange capped a semester-long consulting experience for 13 Manning School undergraduate and graduate students who collaborated online throughout the fall before traveling to Portugal over Thanksgiving break to deliver their final recommendations in person.  

The new Global Business Consulting course, led by Marketing Professor Berk Talay, included seven undergraduate students and six MBA students, four of whom are enrolled in the Abitus program in Japan.

“I wanted to see things through a new lens, and I knew this was going to be a great opportunity to learn how differently things work outside of what we see in the United States,” says Master of Business Administration (MBA) student Ashley Gutierrez, who found it to be “a perfect personal and professional experience.”

For more than two months, student teams met online each week, conducted market research, analyzed Portugal’s entrepreneurial ecosystem and developed three strategic options for the organization’s global growth.

In Lisbon, students spent much of the week refining written analyses, preparing presentation materials and rehearsing their final pitch at Unicorn Factory Lisboa’s campus. 

“My gauge in these presentations is the amount of questions the audience asks, and they asked quite a lot,” says Talay, chair of the Marketing, Entrepreneurship and Innovation Department. “The students did a very good job. They exceeded my expectations.”

Students also visited two marketing agencies, Publicis Groupe and VML Portugal, and had time for cultural experiences, including a fado performance.

“Meeting senior management at the companies was incredibly valuable and inspiring,” says MBA student Astrid Cerbone. “And learning about Portuguese history, sampling local cuisine and engaging with residents enhanced my understanding of their communication styles.”

Kazuyuki Kimura, an Abitus MBA student from Tokyo, says meeting classmates and faculty in person after months of online coursework was one of the most valuable aspects of the program. 

“I usually study entirely online, so opportunities for truly interactive communication are limited,” he says. “Meeting faculty members and classmates face-to-face was extremely valuable.”

Adolfo Mateo, a junior biology major who is minoring in business, says the course expanded his professional outlook.

“Working with students from multiple countries, solving real challenges and presenting to international partners gave me the confidence to operate far beyond my comfort zone,” he says.

The class also included undergraduate students Eden Barclift, Tyler Fleming, Jillian George, Aaron Morris and Liv Rice and Abitus MBA students Momoka Kawano, Shota Miyoshi and Kenji Murakami.

The project was completed in partnership with GIOBA, an organization that works with universities to facilitate global, project-based learning experiences.

Yi Yang, associate dean of graduate studies and research, notes it was the Manning School’s first study abroad program involving graduate students since the pandemic.

“It’s exactly the kind of applied opportunity we want to continue building in the Manning School,” she says.

For Patel, who hopes to land a job that includes international travel, the course gave her confidence to work in a global business environment.

“It was thrilling, challenging and incredibly rewarding — one of the best experiences I’ve had in my academic journey,” she says.