A group of 32 Executive Evening MBA students of the McDonough School of Business visited the Indian Institute of Management — Lucknow (IIM-L) Noida campus on August 11 to meet with students of the International Program in Management for Executives (IMPX).

A two-hour joint case discussion was held at the IIM-L Noida campus, which was facilitated by MSB Professor Stanley Nollen and IIM-L’s Professor M. Akbar, professor of strategic management and entrepreneurship.

According to Nollen, the objective of the case discussion was twofold.

“We had two goals for this activity. One was to enable our students and their students to become acquainted professionally, and the other was to reveal differences in business practices and analysis across two student groups,” he said.

To prepare for the case discussion, students from both schools developed a case called ITC e-Choupal, “which is about the use of an electronic marketplace in rural India to benefit small farmers as well as the ITC company,” Nollen said.

The Georgetown students who attended were all MBA evening program students, meaning each individual is employed and attends classes on weekday evenings.

The Executive MBA program is designed especially for mid-career professionals who would like to enhance their knowledge and management skills in the changing business environment.

According to Nollen, the Global Integrative Program offered this international opportunity and is regularly part of the MSB’s core curriculum. It was designed to “locate the foreign residencies in different cities and countries of the world,” Nollen said.

“We select foreign residency locations in part because we see something that is unusual and important to learn in that location. India is now growing rapidly, is an important global economic and political power, and offers new opportunities for businesses,” Nollen said.

Dean of IIM-L Noida campus, Professor Punam Sahgal, shared Nollen’s enthusiasm for the case discussion. He told MBAUniverse.com, "This is a very innovative activity for the student of both institutes. Both the groups have an opportunity to exchange their thoughts."