Media Contact: Brandon Lausch, 215-204-4115, blausch@temple.edu

Operating on a 14-hour time difference and a slight lingo barrier, students in the Fox School’s Enterprise Management Consulting (EMC) Practice will work with “bizzo” (read: business) partners halfway around the world in the first collaboration between EMC and a “dinky-di” (genuine) Aussie company.

This fall a team of EMC students will help the Australia-based company Ceebron develop a market entry strategy for a potential United States debut.

“Our ability to provide professional-grade consulting services, such as a U.S. market entry plan, at an attractive price point makes needed research and advice available to the small- and medium-size companies usually coming here for the first time,” said James Hutchin, an EMC clinical professor.

Ceebron is the company behind the one-of-a-kind Smart-Trace Cold Chain Monitoring System, which allows users to track the temperature of sensitive food as it is shipped across long distances. This automated technology helps ensure food safety compliance and protects food and pharmaceuticals from spoiling.

This is not the first time EMC students have worked with international clients. During the past 10 years, EMC has partnered with more than 60 foreign businesses.

The program’s global approach began in Israel through a partnership with Ben-Gurion University. Since then, EMC students have worked with companies in England, Ireland, Japan, Belgium, India, France, Russia and Scotland. With its first Australian partnership, EMC is working toward its goal of making one-third of its projects international.

“Almost all of the international projects have been market entry in some way or another,” said TL Hill, EMC managing director. “And within that we’ve got a strong technology, high-tech bent.”

EMC students have developed market entry assessments and plans for companies such as UK-based firm Martec, French-based Senoble and India-based Jindal Iron & Steel. The students have produced market strategies, sustainability projects, and assessments of market opportunities for products like centrifuge components and HR management technology.

The EMC team will work with Ceebron as it explores bringing the company’s cold chain technology to the U.S. market. Students will consider who will purchase it, who will install it and how everyone from local politicians to the Food and Drug Administration might be involved.

“For the students, they really are like an extension, or U.S. office, of the company they’re working for,” Hill said. “They move from student workers with little question marks by their names to trusted partners. The transition is easier in overseas projects because they are being more needed, more depended on.”

Through such international partnerships EMC students learn how to read and respond to political and cultural cues, “the small p’s and small c’s,” that are involved with international, interpersonal relationships and power dynamics, Hill said.

As with many past EMC partnerships, this collaboration could help Ceebron expand from a small market into the larger U.S. one.

“From EMC’s perspective, it’s a country that is very confident, that’s full of sophisticated businesses but that still has a small market,” Hill said.

With Ceebron in particular, the high levels of expertise on both sides of the partnership are encouraging. In the U.S., the EMC students will be advised by a clinical professor who is an expert in packaging and chilled supply chains – everything from flowers from Latin America, to seafood, to pharmaceuticals. In Australia, Ceebron is led by an owner/investor with a successful career in a large food company.

“When we enter a new country it’s exciting,” Hill said. “And this one seems particularly exciting because it seems the stars are aligning with client needs and our needs as we look to expand our international exposure.”