Global Capstone
Strategy Project
Hear from students about the International Capstone Strategy Project.
Global Capstone Strategy Project Case Study
How Five MBA Students Helped Bridgestone Improve Distribution
Client: Bridgestone
Project: Analyze Bridgestone’s distribution model in Brazil, Mexico and Argentina and recommend ways to improve it
Client sponsor: Vibhav Veldore, Director, Agriculture and Off-the-Road Tires, Bridgestone Latin America Tire Operations
“When I was approached about sponsoring a project, we were planning to work on a distribution study involving several countries in Latin America, where I had worked for a number of years. We wanted to optimize our distribution model to serve our customers better, and we wanted an outside perspective on what we were doing. So the timing was perfect. It was not hard to convince our management that this would be a good project. They are well aware of things Vanderbilt has done, and it helped that I am an alum of the program.
The team set a timeline and executed it. We had meetings at least once a month. The team members from outside the U.S. participated by phone conference. We also had much more frequent, informal communication when I could answer questions or offer guidance.
They had full access to me and my time. When they visited Brazil, our corporate team made time to meet with them and take them to our facilities so they could see everything in person. The team did a lot of research, both into our operations and into those of other companies, so we could benchmark best practices.
The team’s work equaled outputs we would expect from premium consulting firms. They confirmed some of our thinking by putting data to some things that had previously been our assumptions. They also simplified solutions for some of our systemic challenges.
We had pre-meetings to go over their findings and recommendations. They did a fabulous job. Our management was very excited about the presentation they made to us. In fact, I received positive feedback directly from the president of the company!”
“The team’s work equaled outputs we would expect from premium consulting firms.”
