8 years of International Residency and Business Consulting with Donald Lang

Professor Don Lang has taught at Kennesaw State University - Michael J. Coles College of Business Executive MBA Program for over 16 years. This past weekend he gave his last classes to the 2023 EMBA cohort and retired from KSU. Don has led eight international residencies throughout Latin America with Austral Group, so we took this opportunity to talk about his experience through all these years.

"Through these years at Kennesaw State, I've traveled with the EMBA cohorts twice to Peru, and Colombia, I've also been to Chile, Argentina, and to Panama I've been virtually, and in real life!"

Do you have a favorite destination or program from all the years of running the international residency?

Don: There's something about each country that has made it special. I loved the European flair of Buenos Aires and the wineries of Santiago; we had great business visits and amazing meals in Colombia, but a highlight for me was my first trip when we went to Peru. The academic program was phenomenal, but I was most excited about the trip extension to Cusco, as I always wanted to go to Machu Picchu.

A really important element for us on these travel programs has been doing service learning, I've enjoyed the projects and NGOs that we've worked with through the years; as you know, we've been very involved in education for this component and working with local schools, improving school facilities, or interacting and reading to the children in different communities has been very rewarding and eye-opening to our students. Giving back is a great way to immerse and learn more about the local culture and different realities of those countries we visited.

How important is the consulting component to the EMBA curriculum?

Don: this is one of the experiences students enjoy most about the program because it allows them to apply to a real business the concepts they've learned through their Executive MBA.

Do you recall any projects where the students were able to make a great impact on the businesses they consulted for?

Don: one that immediately comes to mind was a recent project for Cerveceria Feroz in Panama. What was exceptional about that project was that the original consulting they were seeking came before the pandemic, and by the time the students were working on it, their business was shut down with strict lockdowns, so the students had to pivot and help them ideate a plan to get through that uncertainty and survive. That project was delivered online, and the following year we did a follow-up project in person and saw that they were growing and doing quite well.

A few years earlier, there was a nonprofit for children in vulnerable communities, and they were facing a challenge with some funding stream that was about to end. The student's assignment was to develop ways to build new donation sources by building awareness through a communications campaign and analyzing potential donor lists. The recommendations from this project made a big impact on that organization. We have had a lot of interesting projects around Latin America through the years. Still, these two I have mentioned stand out because the students were able to help these organizations during a very vulnerable time.

What elements of the International Residency have changed through the years?

Don: The first year I traveled for our International Residency, the trip included business visits but did not include the consulting component. That year, students conducted analyses of international companies independent of the Residency. In the second year, we introduced consulting projects as a core focus of Residency and the semester as a whole. The year after that, we introduced a consulting module to help with the consulting experience, for our students to understand how to do consulting and teach how to approach it in an international context. This made a difference in the student's abilities to contribute and add value to their clients. Doing this through the years helped them prepare better for their client meetings on the ground, so we added another unit just before the trip where the consulting teams presented to the class and faculty the progress they had made and the challenges they encountered and got external points of views and advice. This is now the framework that has increased their confidence when working with their clients and improved the quality of the consulting work they deliver.

Something else that changed is that we moved the trip to their final Spring semester because we got great feedback from the students who originally traveled in October. After all, this International Experience was their program's capstone as it combines everything they've learned during their MBA with the consulting piece. So, after a few years, we decided in 2021 to switch the program to the spring -and little did we know that we would not be able to travel and had to have it online- so it was also our first international residency online!

So let's talk about our International Residency Online program in 2021!

Don: It was challenging because we had students both in the classroom and also at home, as well as speakers that came to campus, and others that joined on Zoom, so the challenge was not only to make it engaging but also to deliver the experience in-classroom and online for those at home, and also trying to provide a cultural component that they would've gotten if we traveled. We worked with Austral Group and came up with a coffee tasting, a rum tasting, and even a cooking class to bring those interactive and culinary elements to the online program, so it wasn't just about having speaker after speaker. This was a lot of logistics to organize, but the program came up great, and students loved it!

What do you think you'll miss the most?

Don: I think interacting and sharing with students the knowledge about the subjects I teach: leadership, teaming, and coaching. Also, the international experience has been very enriching for me, I have learned a lot working on the trip preparation and engaging with speakers ahead of the travel program; I find that very energizing.

What are your plans after retirement?

Don: Well, I just co-authored a book with Laura Butcher , titled Hire the Best, and I am exploring writing another book soon. I will also continue to coach executives and teams, design and facilitate leadership development programs and education, and speak on related hiring and leadership topics. I expect to keep busy!

From everyone at Austral Education Group , we wish Professor Lang all the best with his upcoming plans and congratulate him on all his accomplishments!