Gabelli School students to experience Virtual Business Immersion in Ireland

Global , Graduate Stories from Abroad | Jul 30, 2020 | Gabelli School of Business

There’s no better way to learn about doing business in Ireland than to learn from those who live and work there. The Emerald Isle is the focus of a new Global Industry Project: Ireland Professional MBA course, featuring an engaging virtual learning experience this coming fall.

Last fall, an initial group of Professional MBA students enrolled in the course – taught by Meghann Drury-Grogan, Ph.D., associate professor of communication and media management – got a glimpse of what it’s like to launch and grow a business in Ireland during a weeklong visit.

Students worked with clients at the Guinness Enterprise Centre (GEC), a Dublin-based small business incubator, conducting market research and developing marketing plans for firms in different industries, including technology, life sciences, and manufacturing.

Besides creating marketing plans and website updates for her client, an augmented virtual reality firm, Elizabeth Holub, GABELLI ’20, honed her communication skills and learned to navigate cultural differences. “I worked with people from India and Spain who had different perspectives than my own and who lived in different time zones,” she said. “This taught me how to manage a global client and meet deadlines under very challenging circumstances.”

In addition to conducting fieldwork, students visited the Dublin offices of Facebook, Fidelity, and Mazars Ireland to see how multinational companies operate in different countries. Back in New York, they continued to manage their Irish clients virtually and wrapped up with final presentations they delivered via webinar.

Drury-Grogan said that this fall’s virtual format, implemented due to COVID-19 restrictions, will allow students to more frequently connect with their clients over digital platforms, allowing them to build relationships and experience working with clients in a real world virtual environment.

She said she felt confident that the high caliber work students produce would be effectively shared in a virtual environment, and that this year’s course participants would continue the impressive legacy of the initial group.

“Our clients knew the scope of work for their projects was overly ambitious and were floored by the volume and quality of work,” said Drury-Grogan. “One said they would hire their entire student team if they could. The positive relationships and networking opportunities the students built will really lead to valuable connections in the future.”

Photos taken in fall 2019, before social distancing guidelines.