Entrepreneurs at Bauer Get First-Hand Look at Japanese Business
Students at the University of Houston – C.T. Bauer College of Business recently had the opportunity to travel across the globe for a week-long exploration of Japanese business and culture.
The trip, which included students involved in the college’s Wolff Center for Entrepreneurship, was sponsored by the Kakehashi Project, Japan’s Friendship Ties Program which is operated through the country’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
The seven-day trip was the opportunity of a lifetime for many of the students, according to the trip’s chaperone and WCE director Dave Cook. “We pride ourselves on putting students in ‘growth zones,’ short of ‘panic zones,’ but clearly out of ‘comfort zones,” Cook said. “This trip was clearly out of our students’ comfort zones.”
In addition to the students gaining first-hand experiences of Japanese culture, language and cuisine, they had the opportunity to learn more in-depth about the business relationship between the U.S. and Japan. They were also able to learn about how business functions within the country, such as the manufacturing and entrepreneurial opportunities, and Japan’s agricultural trade and economy.
At the end of the trip, entrepreneurship student Melissa Munoz presented to leadership from the Japan International Cooperation Center. “As entrepreneurs, we are taught to value innovation, but more importantly we are taught to value the ability to make connections and find paths for innovations to get to market,” she said in the presentation.
She also commented on the work done at the Wolff Center for Entrepreneurship, where students are put in teams and asked to develop a piece of intellectual property. “Our teams are given the option to take these technologies and find customers and markets to take innovation from the laboratory to the market,” she said. “With this intellectual property in mind, at every turn, our team could see opportunities for collaboration with the Japanese business people.”
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Alanna Shaffer
Staff Writer, covering MetroMBA's news beat for Atlanta, Houston, and Dallas.
