BroadWeek - Business Expertise Meets Creative Thinking
“It was encouraging to see everyone embrace this work and see them have some fun and advance the thinking.”
June 11, 2015
So what exactly is BroadWeek? It’s a challenge to students at the Eli Broad Graduate School of Management. Over three days, full-time MBA students form teams to create business solutions under the tutelage of top corporate executives, who donate their time and expertise to educate the next generation of business leaders.
The students draw on their growing knowledge and business imagination to present ideas to executives from companies like Procter & Gamble and General Motors. These intensive one-credit courses are designed to put creativity, innovation, and business acumen to the test.
During BroadWeek IV this spring, student teams pitched ideas to GM to best use the bundle of technologies related to connectivity and automated driving, determining best business models and considering new services that could be offered to drivers.
BroadWeek IV challenged students with experiential exercises for creating new business models. Along with other executives, Kathy Fish, CTO at Procter & Gamble, made presentations that reinforced the students’ work. In turn, the corporate partners heard student ideas on how to approach business differently.
Todd Stollberg, vice-president of business development of the Global Gillette Shave Care Team, said, “It was encouraging to see everyone embrace this work and see them have some fun and advance the thinking.”
Richard Simonds, MSU Professor of Finance explained the executives’ role: “The case study GM developed challenged the students to think about the future of the auto industry worldwide and the role of connected-car technology. This entire experiential learning effort has helped GM learn more about our students’ capabilities, and our students have a much richer understanding of the technological revolution in the auto industry.”
BroadWeek can be stressful for students, but the experience is highly beneficial, according to second-year MBA student Chris Schramski, who saw significant benefits in the challenges. “This is good stress,” he said, “similar to what we’d experience in the real world with time constraints.”
For more information on making a gift to the Broad College of Business, contact Director of Development Vivian Leung at leung@broad.msu.edu or by calling (517) 355-8504.
Author: Ben Kilpela
