Embracing the age of online international exposure

My student team were assigned to Two Hands, a company based out of Shanghai and Melbourne with roots in ethical supply and block-chain technology. Our task was to design a product launch for the Chinese market, allocating our three weeks of the project period across research; analysing market trends; and strategising viable marketing and financial plans for profitable business development.

The Global Business Practicum taught me how to effectively communicate my ideas and manage the expectations of stakeholders from a remote setting. I learnt to work with team members across different time zones and together we pitched an online 40-minute presentation to board members. As a team, we felt ecstatic after delivering our final presentation and received meaningful feedback from our host company, which we later incorporated into our report. Delivering a presentation online helped me work on projecting my voice, body language, and keeping my audience engaged, all of which are essential for any professional pitch.

Prior to the project period, the subject curriculum also included content on fundamentals of consulting and report writing, which were extremely valuable in shaping the final deliverables that my team submitted to our host.

The Global Business Practicum enables holistic development, as I was not only able to apply my theoretical knowledge and skills to a real-world business problem, but also to enhance my soft skills of teamwork and time management.

Collaborating with my team and host is what made the learning process most memorable. All team members were transparent about their progress, empathetic and respectful of diverse opinions. We spent a month focusing on completing our project and remained motivated towards developing a problem-solving mindset in the face of adversity. I am grateful to Two Hands, for providing my team with a learning experience which encouraged us to be critical and creative.