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CAP Hong Kong: The Big Day

Blog post by Josh Lodestro, GMBA '20

Five months of work led up to just one hour of one day: final presentations to the client. Over the last five months, each team has been diligently working towards their final deliverable, a 30-minute presentation and final report. The CAP journey begins with meeting your client for the first time through a video call. The client presents the team with a business problem to research and develop solutions for by the end of the semester. Through extensive research and preparation, each team aims to provide three recommendations for the client. The bulk of the final presentation is justifying each recommendation.

As one can imagine, the final presentation in front of the client is both nerve-racking and exciting. Teams are nervous about whether their recommendations will work, but find relief knowing that months of hard work and dedication culminate in those 30 minutes. My team suggested several recommendations to improve brand consistency and pursue international expansion. Only through numerous primary research interviews, extensive secondary research on the market, and the help of our professor for estimating capital expenditure projects were we able to arrive at these recommendations. After about an hour of presenting and a question and answer session, we were done. What an exciting feeling to see your work come together in such an impactful way for the client!

For many of my classmates, and myself included, this was our first experience working with businesses in Asia. On one of our great informational meetings, Anny Kwok, a Partner at Heidrick & Struggles, said that Hong Kong is, “introductory Asia.” Even with this in mind, each team had to overcome some struggles with cultural differences in business. Learning how to navigate the cultural differences when conducting business in the East versus the West was the most significant takeaway for me from CAP. These experiences are what makes the GW Global MBA program genuinely global.

After all teams delivered their final presentations and sent the final reports to the clients, we had some time to continue enjoying the fantastic food in Hong Kong. This dinner was well deserved by all! The following day we were able to visit one of the most iconic structures in all of Hong Kong, Tian Tan Buddha (colloquially known as Big Buddha). Being able to experience some more of Hong Kong’s culture before heading home was the perfect cherry on top of a wonderful five-month experience.

It was a sad goodbye as we all gathered in the hotel lobby to head to the airport. Some students chose to continue to travel through Asia and some students were heading back to Washington, DC to start their summer internships. My family met me in China, where we will be spending a week experiencing a new country together before I head back home to start my summer internship. The skills learned in CAP will undoubtedly set up a summer of success for my classmates and me.