Experience SMU Cox Immersions

The immersion experience included:

• Keynote speaker DART President and CEO Nadine Lee
• Team consulting projects provided students the opportunity to solve real-world and real-time business problems. Projects took place at Children's Health and local non-profit, Catch Up and Read
•  Networking opportunities with Dallas-based corporations and non-profits through consulting work

In partnership with Draper Startup House - Santiago, this thrilling experience offered students the opportunity to prepare and execute intentional business strategies. The immersion included:

• Opportunities to collaborate with startup founders
• Stress-tested real-world frameworks from startups and proposing strategies to optimize their processes
• Attendance at business meetings with partner companies
• Cultural tour of Santiago and wine tasting

This immersion centered on innovation for social entrepreneurs and NGOs. MBA students worked with early-stage companies in need of a holistic business strategy. The immersion experience included:

• Pre-trip sprints to help cohort teams create customer-facing, stakeholder-informed business strategies.
• Applying Lean and Agile methodologies to solve ambiguous problems for local companies.
• Networking and collaboration with local professionals to develop and present proposals.
• Cultural excursions, including a Cape Town city tour and trips to Table Mountain and Aquila Private Game Reserve.

The immersion experience included:

• Cohort team building exercises focused on innovation and human-centered design.
• Wargame-style activities – judged by Seattle professionals – that shape critical thinking, ideation and problem-solving skills.
• Immersive activities exploring ambiguity and employing strategic tools to create operational solutions.
• Exposure to the Seattle ecosystem and networking opportunities with local companies embracing innovation.

Underpinning this immersion was the use of the Be-Novative platform for anonymous collaborative ideation. Companies like Apple, Cisco, Bank of America, ABB, GE Healthcare, HSBC London and British Telecom use Be-Novative to help develop strategy and to hack solutions where old assumptions are no longer valid.

• Two weeks ahead of the immersion, participants worked on their projects while collaborating in Be-Novative.
• Team projects provided opportunities to practice strategy and leadership skills by working with NGOs, social entrepreneurs and other enterprises within Madrid’s thriving startup ecosystem.
• These real client projects became a competition.

The immersion experience included:

• Keynote speaker Dayle Rebecca Carden, Managing partner of Elliott Barrett Group, a Dallas-based strategic advisory firm.
• Team projects that integrate strategy and leadership skills with several companies in UAE.
• Opportunities to network and interact with SMU Cox program faculty.

The immersion experience included:

• Team projects that integrate strategy and nature with the executive owner of Devil’s Thumb Ranch (DTR).
• Opportunities to network and interact with SMU Cox program faculty.
• Team adventure games featuring ten physical and intellectual challenges across the 6,500 acre ranch, designed to develop leadership.
• Voluntary activities including horseback riding and fly fishing.

• Students participated in workshops teaching competitive intelligence, scenario planning, and war gaming.
• The three-round war game ended with a catastrophic scenario challenging student teams to recalibrate their strategies to survive and prosper.
• Judges included c-suite executives from the world’s leading cloud providers and their global clients.
• Jay Nakagawa, Director of Competitive Intelligence at Dell Technologies, delivered the keynote address.

• MBA student teams worked with 15 early stage companies from around the world to reimagine their businesses in the midst of a global pandemic. 
• Students pitched innovative business solutions to judges representing leading early stage investors. 
• Keynote addresses from Cox School of Business Dean Matt Myers, Dallas Mavericks CEO Cynt Marshall, and Co-Founder and Managing Partner of the Billion Dollar Fund for Women Entrepreneurs Shelly Porges. 
• Students gained first-hand experience  and applied best practices on collaboration in a virtual business environment.

The immersion experience included:

• Presentations from industry giants, startups, and NGOs, including: Microsoft, Eversend mobile online bank, Monzo bank, and TACT fostering agency.
• Students used complex problem solving skills and analyzed business, economic and financial market implications in real time.
• Opportunity to explore the rich history and cultural landmarks of London, Bath, Windsor and Stonehenge.