Boise State’s Executive MBA (EMBA) program offers a unique international residency in Vietnam. During this week-long immersion, EMBA participants work on real international business projects, but they’re not the only ones gaining hands-on experience. Undergraduate students from the National Economics University (NEU) in Hanoi, Vietnam, are paired with the EMBA groups and serve as liaisons with the business community.
“The trip was a blend of vacation, tourism, culture, social, education and business. I view it truly as a once-in-a-lifetime trip,” said Kristal Searle, EMBA participant and director of strategic projects for Coleman Oil. “It didn’t feel like a fabricated educational environment. We were there doing real projects and representing our businesses. Working with the students was a highlight.”
A tailored, business-focused experience
When Boise State’s EMBA program started in 2008, their inaugural international residency in Mexico City took a more standard “industrial tourism” approach. However, Boise State’s EMBA team wanted to offer participants a more tailored and enriching experience abroad.
Beginning in 2009, the EMBA team leveraged Boise State’s long-standing relationship with NEU to offer business interactions and experiences that would normally take years to develop. During their week in Vietnam, EMBA participants meet with government and business officials, take factory tours and work on targeted business projects in small teams. Past team projects were sourced from Treasure Valley businesses (like finding manufacturers of mesh for a local raft company, or fabric for an area backpack manufacturer), but over the last few years, EMBA participants have brought projects from their own companies.
“It’s very much practical and applied, and it fits right in with the EMBA international business class, Business in a Global Environment,” said Brian O’Morrow, senior director of Executive Education and MBA programs for working professionals. “The biggest goal of this immersion is for EMBA participants to learn what it’s like to do business in a foreign country. Since they’re doing a tangible project, they get deep insight into international business. We could teach a class for an entire semester on what they learn in just a few days abroad.”
Getting Vietnamese students involved
The partnership with NEU students is a more recent addition. For the last few EMBA trips, NEU undergraduate students have worked with the group as translators and liaisons to the Vietnamese business community. Not only does the partnership help students develop practical business skills, but it also raises awareness of the 2+2 partnership between NEU and Boise State.
For the recent 2024 trip, Matt Stoddard, EMBA participant and manager of data and analytics for Idaho National Laboratory, participated on a team project exploring the feasibility of bringing Simplot frozen potato products to Vietnam.
“The students were instrumental in arranging a meeting with a large frozen food distributor and interviews with friends and family members to explore individual and family food preferences in greater detail,” Stoddard said.
Following the EMBA residency, Stoddard’s wife joined him for an additional week.
“Julie and I were able to spend numerous hours with Minh Anh and Binh Minh, talking about education, professions and families, as well as Vietnamese culture and history,” he said. “Connecting with them is what enriched our visit, and we established a friendship that we continue to strengthen with regular calls.”
Kristal Searle’s team worked on a project for her employer, Coleman Oil, seeking out a Vietnamese provider of petroleum-absorbent water-repellent pads used for spill cleanup.
“Before we left on the trip, we gave the students some background on our project and the next thing we knew, we’re getting emails about the meetings they had set up,” she said. “I was so impressed with what they were able to get done. Behind the scenes they were picking up the phone and sending emails to these big companies. They had no fear.”
During the project, students got an insider’s look at business in action. “Thinking back to when I was in college, to have the opportunity to observe real business meetings and spend time with business executives for a few days would have been more valuable than any classroom lecture,” Searle said.
Partnership in action
Beyond the practical skills and experience, Searle remarked that the trip emphasized a less tangible lesson.
“Overall the trip really reinforced the lessons of doing business in an unfamiliar place. That experience of relying on others was a reminder that the whole is better than the sum of the parts,” she said. “We had been in the country for four days and when we met the students it felt like a burden was lifted off my shoulders. The students could navigate the language barrier and it felt so liberating to be able to communicate with people again. And during the group project, our cohort members played on each other’s strengths. Another EMBA participant whose job deals with international logistics asked questions I never would have thought to ask. All the collaboration brought so much more to the trip and the project than if we had been alone. ”
Stoddard agrees.
“The trip overall was fantastic,” he said. “When I got home I was ready to turn around and go right back to Vietnam.”