In classes for this year’s Global Research Practicum course, students learned about strategy, finance and leadership as it relates to building resilient organization. To see these topics first-hand, students traveled to San Juan, Puerto Rico over spring break.
“The week in Puerto Rico gave life to one of our readings from Professor John Camilus, titled ‘Strategy as a Wicked Problem.’ We saw firsthand how many of the island’s challenges involve a tangled web of stakeholders and interconnected issues with no obvious solution,” says Zena Kesselman (MBA/MPIA ’26). “However, the visit to Power Solar, an alternative energy installer, highlighted how problems can generate innovative business and policy opportunities. Seeing real examples of resiliency in action was powerful.”
Kesselman spent spring break in Puerto Rico with 15 other students as part of this course from the University of Pittsburgh’s Joseph M. Katz Graduate School of Business and Graduate School of Public and International Affairs, led by Professor Ravi Madhavan and Chris Gassman, executive director of the Center for Sustainable Business. The course drew inspiration from the Center for Sustainable Business’ Resilient Organizational Architecture Diagnostic (ROAD), enabling the students to apply the tool to the location of Puerto Rico.
Organizations Share Strategies with Students
While in San Juan, the students engaged with many organizations and entities that touched on the challenges currently faced by their communities and how they are developing strategies to address them. For example, students met with the Puerto Rico Science, Technology & Research Trust and Parallel18. There, Héctor Jirau, executive director of Parallel 18 explained the accelerator is leaning into strategic pillars such as life science and bio-technologies as it seeks to bring entrepreneurs to the island and help them scale their innovations to market.
The overarching theme of the week was the legacy of Hurricane Maria and its effect on public health and infrastructure. Conversations on community health initiatives and telemedicine in Puerto Rico highlighted challenges related to access and equality in patient care. A visit to Johnson & Johnson emphasized the resiliency of their supply chain operations and how they coordinate distribution of medical supplies from their manufacturing centers to the mainland of the United States.
The students also visited the largest installer of solar panels on the island, Power Solar, who showcased the many public and private organizations seeking to keep the grid operation in Puerto Rico. Later, a panel session with Doug Davis, Sam Talman and Ivan Santos covered some of the “wicked problems” that challenge those working and doing business in Puerto Rico. The group stressed an honest assessment of the issues facing the energy and water infrastructure as well as ways that leaders can begin to provide solutions to these challenges.
Students see Collaboration in Action
One of the highlights of the week was a behind the scenes tour of the airport operations. This included a discussion on the IT and sustainability architecture to keep the airport running, plus a look at the Air Traffic Control tower and seeing the controllers operate in real-time.
“I hadn’t realized what a genuinely collaborative workplace the Air Traffic Control tower is, with team members rotating through each station to mitigate fatigue and create a resilient workflow, one in which everyone knew how to fill each different role at a moment’s notice. It was fascinating,” says Lucy Clair Curran (MSW/MBA ‘26)
Before traveling abroad, the group had class sessions with Pitt Business faculty members, including John Camillus, Adrian Lam, Kim Abel and Prakash Mirchandani.
These trips are integral parts of the coursework and Pitt Business’ commitment to real-world learning. Built thematically and led by faculty, these experiences challenge full-time MBA, part-time MBA, and Master of Science students to consider issues from a global perspective and expose them to business environments outside of Pittsburgh. Part of their final deliverables from this program includes a professional development piece designed to help students critically reflect and articulate the experience in a meaningful way.
In addition to Madhavan and Gassman, Associate Director for Integrated Learning, Bill McShane, traveled with the students. This program was supported by the Global Studies Center, part of the University Center for International Studies.