Collaboration with JobsOhio yields valuable GAP experience for MBAs

When Kyle Clark walked across the stage as a newly hooded Fisher College of Business MBA graduate in May, he did so having just wrapped up an experience that combined hallmarks of a Fisher education― while also helping to strengthen Ohio as a leader in global business.

Clark (MBA ’25) was one of five graduate students to complete a Global Applied Projects (GAP) experience at MKV GmbH Kunststoffgranulate, a German industrial plastics recycling company. The connection, the latest GAP project sponsored by JobsOhio, challenged the Fisher students to present MKV leaders with actionable insights on the company’s positioning for U.S. market entry.

“The GAP program was the perfect opportunity to combine learning from multiple different areas of my MBA experience into one comprehensive project while working with a real-world client,” Clark said. “I loved the opportunity to have a very hands-on project and the ability to work as a consultant for the course of the semester. It felt like the perfect way to finish my MBA journey.”

The GAP program provides graduate students at Fisher an unmatched opportunity to strengthen their career readiness through robust experiential learning, strategic partnerships and cultural immersion.

“Our collaboration with JobsOhio epitomizes Fisher’s commitment to two very important strategic priorities ― valuable experiential learning opportunities for our students, and meaningful and mutually beneficial connections with our corporate and community partners throughout the state,” said Aravind Chandrasekaran, interim dean at Fisher and the John W. Berry, Sr. Chair in Business.

“We’re thankful for the continued support that JobsOhio has provided to our students via GAP experiences. We look forward to scaling this established relationship in new and creative ways.”

Clark, along with fellow students Daniel Hottois, Sumaire Shamlal, Shuchi Sharma and Yui Yu, conducted three months of intense preparation domestically before traveling to Limburg, Germany, for a weeklong consulting site visit and concluding the project with a presentation to MKV leadership in April.

“This trip to meet MKV at their facility near Frankfurt was deeply insightful into how they run their operations as well as how the culture of Germany, and the EU as a whole, impact their operations when viewed through an American lens,” Hottois said.

Designed to support MKV’s expansion into the U.S., the team’s comprehensive go-to-market strategy included an integrated marketing plan, customer engagement strategy, labor analysis, transportation analysis, and regulatory analysis, in addition to a location recommendation for future operations.

The opportunity to see MKV’s production in action was especially powerful, said Sharma.

“Our trip to Germany was an incredibly insightful experience in the plastics recycling and plastics manufacturing world,” she said. “We toured three separate plastic injection molding facilities. We understood its niche in the high-quality plastics recycling segment due to high-quality control and its decades-long relationships with injection molders, suppliers, etc.”

Throughout the course of the project, the team conducted primary research, including interviews with industry stakeholders and experts, ensuring the strategy was both actionable and market-ready.

“We could not have asked for a better team,” said Kai Zies, CEO of MKV GmbH Kunststoffgranulate, who worked closely with the MBA team as their point of contact. “The team covered everything in the project scope and went beyond it with their location analysis and marketing strategy. We were amazed by the level of detail provided.”

Since its inception in 2013, GAP has worked with approximately 52 host companies and provided real-world work and consulting experience to more than 300 graduate students at Fisher.

The project with MKV was made possible by a longstanding collaboration between Fisher and JobsOhio, which works to empower world-class corporations, entrepreneurs and talented individuals to build their businesses and careers in Ohio. The success of the public-private partnership exemplifies Ohio State’s commitment to its modern land grant mission by building connections and promoting talent development critical to Ohio’s continued economic prosperity. 

“Career readiness and global awareness in a rapidly changing world are critical to strengthening Ohio's workforce,” said JobsOhio President and CEO J.P. Nauseef. “The GAP program at The Ohio State University helps students gain real-world business experience and showcases Ohio’s talent to international companies. JobsOhio values the opportunity to partner on the program and connect students to companies looking to expand their operations to the United States.”