San Diego State University CIBER’s Cross Border Consulting (CBC) is a unique program designed for MBA and graduate students to work with business clients and provide valuable consultant services which address cross-border opportunities and/or challenges. Students from a consortium of regional universities (CETYS- Mexico, San Diego State University, UC San Diego and the University of San Diego) compete for placement as consultants on teams. Each team works with clients over four months to collect data, analyze issues and find solutions. Upon completion, students provide clients with high-quality, actionable recommendations meticulously researched and professionally presented. CBC projects are typically focused on cross-border trade between the U.S. and Mexico. As part of the program, students normally travel to Mexico to conduct on-the-ground research, meet with their clients and collaborate in-person as they work together to analyze data and develop recommendations. Because of COVID-19, the program’s travel component was curtailed.
Given the circumstances, the CBC program was able to pivot academic and team interaction from face-to-face to online. In order to achieve this, additional content and training was added in order to assist students in making a smooth transition in order to conduct their work in a cross- culture virtual setting. This additional training allowed teams to successfully use online modalities for academic instruction, interviews, research, reporting, and student-team meetings. SDSU CIBER is pleased to report that final presentations with clients were conducted virtually with complete success. U.S. companies who participated in the CBC program this year received valuable research and recommendations that could be immediately implemented even in the current economic environment. And, students in the CBC program learned how diverse teams could mobilize virtually to intelligently and creatively research, analyze and solve critical global business problems.