
Departing for Vietnam
Still widely referred to by its former name Saigon, Ho Chi Minh was chosen by the Telfer Executive MBA’s Class of 2018 one year ago as the destination for its final engagement of the Signature Series of Six Business Consulting projects - the International Business Consulting Project. The process that led us to select Ho Chi Minh City mirrors the rigorous assessment that an organization would take when evaluating potential international markets.

Seven Days in Ho Chi Minh City
A video blog outlining the activities of the week and objectives for the consulting engagement.

A Consulting Engagement in Vietnam
Our team was very fortunate to work with a client in the Canadian education sector. One of the biggest challenges facing our client as well as other Canadian educational institutions has been highlighted in the media is the decline in the youth population. A report by Maclean’s Magazine anticipates that the Canadian population, aged 18-21, will decline by 10% by 2020 resulting in a fall of 2.8% in post-secondary enrollment.

Reflecting on the International Experience
We worked closely with NER from October 2017 to May 2018 hitting several key milestones along the way. We completed our strategic assessment of the Vietnam Market for NER in December 2017, in-country outreach and stakeholder assessment in March 2018 and culminating in our in-country market entry assessment during our one week trip in late-April 2018.

Our Last Day of the Telfer Executive MBA Program
As a challenging and rewarding week draws to a close here in the bustling metropolis of Ho Chi Minh City, the Class of 2018 finally has the time to reflect on what an incredible journey these past 21 months have been. The first session of the Business Mathematics Preparation Workshop in the summer of 2016 literally feels like it was yesterday and yet so much has transpired for us, both personally and professionally, since that first indoctrination to the program.