In the summer of 2004, Coram Deo Consulting engaged with a new client, a manufacturing company in southern China. The team created a marketing strategy to help the client expand a product line built on a newly developed capability.  

 

                                       Great Wall of China

Engagement:  Marketing Strategy

 

The purpose of our project was to provide the client with a marketing strategy for a product line built on a newly developed capability.  The client exports this product to Europe and North America.  The Coram Deo Consulting team delivered to the client a marketing strategy, a prioritized list of potential distributors, and the detailed methodology  behind our results.

 

A domestic research team began researching the targeted geographic markets 2 months prior to the onsite work in China.  They gathered and analyzed data on demographic trends, economic trends, targeted industry trends, and other information.

 

This analysis was further developed by the team in China.  The project team regionalized the data to identify attractive metropolitan clusters.  The team in China provided the results of this analysis to the domestic research team, who then identified potential distributors in the top ranked clusters.  The research team then contacted these distributors and gathered specific data on each in order to qualify these potential leads.

 

While this analysis was being developed, the China team created a market assessment and strategy analysis to provide context for the list of potential leads, accompanied by recommendations for entering the market.

 

 City in China

The Team: Integrating work and faith

 

The Coram Deo Consulting team consisted of three students, John Om of the Ross School of Business, Jeremy Smith of Harvard Business School and Chris Kilburn-Peterson of The Sloan School at MIT.  Team leaders included Mathew Cobbett, a MIchigan alumnus and Kevin Ford, Intervarsity staff worker at MIT.

 

We gathered together in Hong Kong for a two day orientation, covering history and culture of the area in China where we would be living, background on our client, and scope and objectives of our work.  We also engaged in a good deal of shopping in Hong Kong.

 

 China boats

 

While in China, the students lived with two Americans working at the client.  Living together during our time in China, the team enjoyed a variety of regional Chinese cuisines, participated in activities with students at a local university, shopped, and visited local tourist attractions.

 

Our client demonstrated a unique integration of work and faith.  It was a challenging and humbling experience to offer our skills and talents while learning so much from experienced servants and leaders in the Kingdom.  Each of us is at a different place in our spiritual journey and God used the trip in different ways in all of us.

Team Biographies

 

 

Team members - (from left to right) Matt, Chris, Kevin and John

 

Chris Kilburn-Peterson - Mr. Kilburn-Peterson is a first year graduate student at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.  Enrolled as a Leaders for Manufacturing Fellow, he is concurrently pursuing a Master of Business Administration and a Master of Science in Mechanical Engineering with a focus on Manufacturing Systems.  Mr. Kilburn-Peterson was formerly a structural design engineer with Lockheed Martin Space Systems and holds a Bachelor of Science degree in Mechanical Engineering from Princeton University . 

 

John Om - Mr. Om was formerly a Business Development Manager at National Instruments prior to attending his Master of Business Administration degree program at the University of Michigan .  His experience in consulting projects includes new product release strategies, venture capital entry strategy analysis, financial project planning, and systems engineering engagements.  He currently studies at the University of Michigan Business School, and is planning to graduate in 2005 with concentrations in Operations and Finance. 

 

Jeremy Smith - Mr. Smith is currently a first-year MBA student at Harvard Business School (HBS).  Prior to HBS Mr. Smith worked at Merck, Pharmaceuticals in Latin America Operations and then Asia Pacific Operations.  At Merck, Mr. Smith worked on global-level productivity-increasing projects and also served on two capital project teams.  After Merck, Mr. Smith completed a master’s degree in World Religions at Harvard Divinity School focusing on comparative and human development ethics.   He spent last summer interning at the World Bank.  Mr. Smith studied industrial engineering with a minor in Chinese Studies at the University of Arkansas and spent spending three semesters studying Chinese in Dalian , China .

 

Mathew D. Cobbett - Mr. Cobbett was formerly a Senior Consultant with Deloitte & Touche prior to completing his Master of Business Administration degree at the University of Michigan in 2002.  His experience leading consulting projects includes many business process reengineering, strategic planning, market entry strategy, and organizational restructuring engagements.  He currently works in business development at a software and hardware company based out of Stuttgart , Germany .  Mr. Cobbett is a Certified Public Accountant. 

 

Kevin Ford - The Rev. Kevin Ford is an 18 veteran of InterVarsity Christian Fellowship who has worked with graduate students and faculty at MIT for 15 of those years.  He pioneered the Christian fellowship at the Sloan School of Management where he has developed a focus on the role of faith in the marketplace, especially on how it shapes the ethics of business practice.  He has served as an ambassador of IVCF's Graduate/Faculty ministry to its sister movements in the International Fellowship of Evangelical Students around the world.  This will be his second project with Coram Deo in Asia .