Two Business Management students recently took their learning beyond the classroom by participating in the international X-Culture project through their Global Business Fundamentals course.
Cheyenne Spade and Ed Gates teamed up with students from around the world to tackle real-life business challenges for real companies. Sponsored by the nonprofit X-Culture, the project, which occurred in March and April, brought together more than 3,000 students globally in the spring session.
To qualify, Cheyenne and Ed had to pass a Readiness Test, which included an English exam and an assessment of their collaboration skills. Once accepted, they were each placed on a global virtual team with students from different countries.
Global teams
Cheyenne’s team members were from Kansas, Taiwan and Poland, while Ed’s team members were from South Carolina, Kenya, and two from Pakistan.
Each team was given an international business challenge. They had less than two months to develop a solution with weekly deadlines and progress report update surveys.
Ed’s team was tasked with developing an entry strategy for Pacoa Eco, a sustainable-material shoe company based in Brazil that is looking to expand into the U.S. market. He explained how the team put together a plan targeting areas of the U.S. where people vacation. The plan included marketing ideas, customer surveys, alternate names for the company and more.
Cheyenne’s team focused on a U.S. company, DARTdrones USA, that was looking to expand internationally. She said after doing some research, they targeted Germany and developed an entry strategy for that market. They created a pricing strategy, marketing ideas, analyses of competitors and more.
Overcoming Challenges
Cheyenne and Ed encountered several challenges as they each worked with their teams. For both of them, working across time zones tested their communication skills, as meetings were during the day for some and at night for others.
Ed had a few people on his team who didn’t want to use video during their meetings. There were some language issues as well, as not everyone’s English was good.
“There was some language confusion,” he said. “We had to keep sentences very simple.”
Cheyenne’s team member in Taiwan also had some difficulties with English, but as the group helped her understand, she was able to contribute to the project.
“You have to do your best,” she said. “If everyone is intentional about it, it’ll go well.”
Cheyenne also shared how her group got to know one another and then assigned roles based on who was appropriate to do certain types of tasks.
‘Favorite project ever’
At the end of the project, the teams presented their solutions through team reports. The reports get evaluated by about a half dozen independent experts who decide which teams get the X-Culture Best Team Awards. There are also awards for individual performance.
Despite the difficulties, “It was my favorite project ever,” Ed said. “It’s a good way to expose yourself to all aspects of business.”
As a key takeaway, he said, “Communication is important. Don’t be afraid and don’t take things personally.”
Cheyenne said she enjoyed the cultural exchange and getting to use practical business concepts in the real world.
“You have to be curious about others and be open to understanding other cultures and mannerisms,” she said. In retrospect, she added, “It would be interesting to see how to go about [the project] in a different way.”
A Learning Experience
Business Management Instructor Lavinia Baldivieso emphasized that X-Culture is an experiential learning exercise—not a test. Students aren’t graded on their knowledge, but rather on their participation and effort.
“It was a very large project,” Lavinia said. “I could see weekly reports on their engagement, and both students consistently put in effort, sometimes up to 12 hours a week.”
Cheyenne added, “It was like taking another class.”
While other technical colleges in Wisconsin have previously participated in X-Culture, this was Blackhawk’s first time involved in the project.