Macquarie University (MU) is a strategic partner with ExpatriateConnect (EC), that recently (5/08) invited EC staff to join a review panel for undergraduate students and provide feedback to students (teams) presenting business plans.

It is always inspiring to observe students presenting their terms work especially when they hail from multiple nationalities! A few observations that may be worth considering for Australian firms looking to go global, include:

• Students were from >9 countries in the course
• >8 teams tackled innovations (shopping aides to new phone health application) with plans to raise funds and go to market
• the teams prepared product 'go to market (GTM)' and business GTM plans, for the innovations they assessed
• market scans considered political/economic/social/technological (PEST) & peers in current and candidate markets
• that customer feedback via test marketing (on and off line) is inexpensive, practical and revealing
• that universities are regularly looking for products and companies considering new markets as 'real world' problems for students
• that universities like to interface with industry and explore problems and potential solutions (academic and research)
• that universities are rich with talent from overseas (>$3b/year is earned by Australian universities from overseas students)
• that Australia has a population of ~21m a fraction of global >6b

EC regularly connects companies with universities where 'real world' challenges can be matched with teams that can develop 30-50 pages of innovative insights and marketing plans. The results vary, but seldom disappoint, as companies are often too consumed in day-to-day activities to be as creative as the student teams demonstrated they could be. It is rewarding to see the 'real world' experience that the students are exposed to as part of the planning process and the extra value it creates when they put it on their resume and hear the feedback when they share their project report during interviews.

• as >40% of Australian university students are from overseas;
• as ~ 30% of lectures and researchers are from overseas
• as unis receive >$3b/year in student fees from foreign students;
• uni courses (undergraduate & graduate) often require students to work with Australian companies to develop course deliverables based on 'real companies' rather than just text book case, and
• unis are regularly looking for companies with real challenges that they can assist.

Several of the EC team have been involved with universities in lecture, research, or support roles; and can provide first hand suggestions as to universities and associated programs that may be of assistance to your organisation. Of course, universities also provide courses, degrees, testing labs, researchers and graduates that may be appropriate for organisations in building their global teams.

For further information on EC and University links send an email to uni@expatriateconnect.com.