Guest Blogger: Prof. John Francis

Prof. Francis teaches SMBA's International Business course, and led our trip to the Dominican Republic last month. The following is excerpted from his "Featured Professor of the Month" write up for the program e-newsletter, sent to alumni and current students.

SDSU SMBA 2010 with Ozzie Virgil, first Dominican to play in the Major Leagues, at the Mets facility.

“As you all have heard, for MGT 710 this year I had the unique opportunity (thanks to Scott [That's program director Scott Minto -ed]) to take Sports MBA V [class of 2010 - ed] to the Dominican Republic June 29 through July 10, for the purpose of assisting the San Diego Padres in their efforts to provide economic development and assistance to the community of Najayo.

Najayo, on the south coast of the DR, is the location of the Padres recently completed $9 million baseball park. The DR is one of the poorest countries in the Western hemisphere with over 60% of its population living on $2/day and it’s even worse in Najayo with extreme poverty, poor sanitation and a lack of educational opportunities as just some of the prevailing norms.

I envisioned this class as meeting at the cross-section of international business, entrepreneurship and social responsibility. Scott and I wanted the class to be more than just a tour of a developing nation so we put the students in problem solving mode. And as you all know, I’ve always been keen on my classes taking a toolbox approach to developing their MBA skill set. Therefore, we created a field-based experiential class that leveraged the partnership with Padres and used the trip as a means for creating business cases that would provide tangible economic benefits for the community.

Part of the course overviewed the international business environment with an emphasis on understanding how an organization like Major League Baseball interacts with the unique culture, political and legal issues of a developing country. The students participated in a walking cultural and historical tour of Santo Domingo, saw the inner workings of Major League Baseball’s Dominican Republic front office, and met with MLB’s various business and media partners. We also got a visit from the U.S. ambassador to the DR who was an SDSU alum.

The group toured the N.Y. Mets and Detroit Tigers team facilities to get an idea of the different approaches MLB teams take. (Tiger fans should feel embarrassed, by the way.) All of these activities were designed to provide a context to the students for the importance of baseball in the DR, where one in seven major league players originate, and to highlight the various issues that MLB faces as it operates in this region.

The students also observed the business models and operations of several NGO organizations that are involved in MLB’s Dominican Development Alliance. The students walked through the barrios of Boca Chica observing micro-credit interactions with community entrepreneurs, were guided up coffee growing mountains by an alliance of growers, and lastly, saw a successful sustainable community development model created by IDDI and Arturo Fuente’s Cigar Family Foundation.

The final stage of the course centered on the Padres facility and the Najayo region. In teams, the students studied the community and its needs and then developed business ideas that would address the various needs and opportunities that were discovered. After multiple rounds of five minute elevator pitch presentations, the “final four” most feasible and impactful ideas were chosen by a panel of Padre, USAID, and NGO officials. Now the group is back in San Diego working to develop full blown business plans with the intention of implementing them with funds raised by the students and matched by a grant from USAID. On the last night of our trip, it was announced that Sports MBA IV graduate Veronica Nogueira was hired by the Padres to more fully develop community relations in the DR and to assist in the implementation aspects of these projects.

I think we all expect this type of field-based experiential course to become a mainstay of the program in the future. We can all see the benefits to the students for this type of unique “real world” international experience and how it can be used in recruiting and promoting our program. Some very interesting and creative ideas have emerged.”

If you have any questions, or would like to hear more about the projects and plans we put together, let us know in the comments!

Megan Moyer, SMBA 2010