Year Two - Global Immersion Track

FOUR DYNAMIC ECONOMIES. ONE UNRIVALED GLOBAL MBA.

In Vanderbilt’s Global Immersion Track, you don’t merely observe global business. You immerse yourself in it.

In year 2, you will embark on the Global Immersion Track (Americas MBA for Executives), in partnership with 4 international schools. During 4 week-long residencies in Brazil, Mexico, Canada, and the United States—the largest economies in this hemisphere—you’ll develop an understanding of what drives success in these countries and the ways business and people are interconnected within the region.

Your cross-cultural team in year 2 will include classmates from each country. With the oversight of a regional in-country faculty member, your team will embark on a yearlong Capstone Project in which you will advise a company on a strategic business challenge in the Americas, giving you the opportunity to work in global virtual teams and to apply your academic curriculum throughout the year.

This unique experience gives you an unparalleled opportunity to explore each country’s people, politics, culture, and business dynamics, exposing you to issues to consider and questions to ask regarding any international business undertaking.

You will participate in an International Capstone Project in each residency.

WHERE YOU’LL GO

Vancouver

Simon Fraser University Beedie School of Business (SFU): a Canadian leader in global business teaching and research

Mexico City

Instituto Tecnológico Autónomo de México (ITAM): named the best business school in Latin America

São Paulo

Fundação Instituto de Administração (FIA): an Executive MBA program ranked by a number of leading international publications as among the best in the world

Nashville

Vanderbilt Owen Graduate School of Management: globally recognized as one of the country’s top business schools Courses: Cross-Cultural Management Global Strategy

Courses: International Competitiveness Family Business Governance

Courses: Corporate Social Responsibility Strategic Management for Emerging Markets

Courses: Creating and Launching New Ventures Global Innovation Strategy

HOW A TEAM OF STUDENTS LAUNCHED A LINE OF ORGANIC VACCINES AS PART OF A VANDERBILT EXECUTIVE MBA COURSE.

Similar to the Executive Edge track, during year 2 of the Vanderbilt Executive MBA program, students from the Global Immersion track will participate in a course called Launching the Venture. In the class, student teams develop a business plan for a startup or an expansion into new areas and present their ideas to venture capital firms for financing.

Here are some highlights of one such project from the perspective of the student whose idea became the foundation for a new venture.

Project: The capstone team developed and marketed organic vaccines

Idea Generator: Aaron Laviana (Vanderbilt EMBA, Global Immersion) Urologic Oncologist at the University of Texas at Austin Dell Medical Center

“The diversity of backgrounds, experience, and intangible skillsets allowed us to work harmoniously together and create a product we were incredibly proud of.”

AARON LAVIANA

Aaron Laviana worked as a resident physician at UCLA and then became a fellow at the Vanderbilt University Medical Center before deciding to enroll in business school. While he was at UCLA, he noticed that there was a trend of people choosing organic food and products. He also had detailed conversations with people who were anti-vax and came to the realization that the reason why many of them were against vaccines was usually the products inside the vaccines, rather than the shots themselves.

Laviana combined his observations and came up with an idea of creating vaccines made out of only organic ingredients. He was able to further explore this idea through the Launching the Venture class, which is taught during year 2 to students in both the Executive Edge and Global Immersion tracks. Along with his Global Immersion track teammates Esteban Tirado, Pete Koat, Heathie Cox, and Bruna Mendes, Laviana created Clean Vax, a business that provides organic vaccines.

Creating an organic vaccine and marketing it was a unique idea for the Launching the Venture class. The Clean Vax team immersed themselves into intensive research and networking to develop Laviana’s idea. By collaborating with Creative Biolabs, the team was successful in developing a vaccine from organic products.

Although Laviana was the only student with a background in medicine, the rest of the team provided the business knowledge to help make Clean Vax a reality. “Everyone contributed in a totally unique way. So in order for the project to be successful you need market research, financial modeling, figure out a way to get partners, do our management risk, strategy planning, do our persona-based marketing,” Laviana explained.

Looking forward, the next step for Clean Vax is to acquire the finances to purchase vaccines and launch their business.