Entrepreneurship students participate in global presentations

Wednesday, November 2, 2022

Media Contact: Bailey Stacy | Communications Coordinator, Marketing & Communications | 405-744-2700 | bailey.stacy@okstate.edu

For the first time, Oklahoma State University Spears School of Business students are participating in the Technion Multi-Cultural Team Project (TMCTP) during the fall 2022 semester as part of upper-level entrepreneurship courses taught by Craig Watters, associate clinical professor in the School of Entrepreneurship and executive director of the Riata Institute for Global Social Entrepreneurship. 

TMCTP is a collaboration of universities from around the world. This year eight academic institutions are participating from the U.S., India, France, China and Israel. OSU, Manhattan College and Georgia State University are the schools from the U.S. Chandragupt Institute of Management Patna, ESCE International Business School, Xidian University and Technion, Bar Ilan are the international universities involved.

The project began in October with the formation of multicultural teams and culminates with a presentation from each team on Dec. 2.

TMCTP assigns each group a country and asks students to meet with their team members to brainstorm a creative idea with a social impact in their country. This task can be a challenge as team members are in different time zones, some countries being as much as 12 hours difference. Their idea should meet a need in the country they have been assigned and consider the suitability to the host country culture and its potential contribution to society. After their initial brainstorming session, they will continue to meet to further develop their idea and consider how it will impact their countries culture.

Students must learn to navigate the social, cultural and geographic differences while working with others from around the globe.

“This project is a great opportunity to experience and learn about cross-cultural management and virtual teamwork, as well as improve your skills interacting with and managing people in a global business environment,” Watters said.

Teams will present their proposal to a board of faculty from all participating universities who will grade and judge their presentations.

“As OSU makes an international presence more widely known, this project is an important addition,” Watters said. “Students will negotiate meetings across their team's different countries and times to create their ideas for social impact products/services. Both of my classes have studied appropriate technology and how to analyze for it. This will be an important aspect of these projects.”

Watters’ work with TMCTP is also part of the Riata Institute for Global Social Entrepreneurship, an institute which identifies, analyzes and encourages student interest and involvement with international social entrepreneurship. Next semester he plans to create his own version of the TMCTP to allow his spring students the opportunity to also participate. For more information on the Riata Institute for Global Social Entrepreneurship visit the website.