Putting It All Together

When Niang Kim enrolled in the Sawyer Business School’s MBA program, she had two goals: “To further my education and start a new life.” 

A native of Myanmar, Kim had already earned a bachelor’s degree in computer science from the University of Computer Studies in Yangon, the country’s largest city and commercial center, and landed a job as a researcher for Kantar, a global data, insights, and consulting company there. But conditions in her home country were growing increasingly dire. The Southeast Asian nation has been beset by political violence, a worsening economy, and widespread poverty, and so in 2022 she made the difficult decision to leave.

Although Kim has made a new life for herself in Boston, Myanmar is never far from her thoughts. And now, as part of a new Business School course that teaches students how to make a business argument and create a successful business plan, she’s developed a proposal to help support small business owners and entrepreneurs in her home country.

Integrate Business Essentials (or MBA 715) is designed to help students understand the interplay of four functional major areas of business—accounting, finance, marketing, and operations—and use them to develop a business plan for a semester-long project or company study. While business students study each of these areas in separate courses, MBA 715 is their first chance to integrate them together.

“It’s amazing to see the students connect the dots and learn how the different areas of a business come together,” says Accounting Professor Ariel Markelevich, who designed and teaches MBA 715. “They leave the course understanding how the four areas of business are not silos, but how they all connect as one to make their business plans work.”

Markelevich uses a step-by-step process to teach his students how to coordinate information from each of the four areas. “For example,” he says, “you need a detailed operations plan to create a budget, and a marketing plan to figure out how much you plan on spending to be included in the budget. This is all before you calculate the projected accounting figures to see if the project is viable or not.”

Vigneshwaran Hariharasubramanian, an MBA student from India and one of Niang Kim’s classmates, says MBA 715 has been a game-changer for him. “It not only helped me refine my idea into a marketable and viable concept,” he says, “but also guided me through the essential steps of creating a successful business.”

Developing integrated solutions

Kim’s goal was to develop a business plan that would “enhance and support Myanmar’s economy through entrepreneurship and technical assistance,” she says. Her plan proposed an online platform for small business owners and entrepreneurs in rural areas, which would provide training, networking, and marketplace opportunities. Funding would come from grants from intergovernmental organizations and international nonprofits, as well as private donors.

“I envisioned generating thousands of new jobs, improving lives, and making a lasting positive impact on my nation’s economic landscape,” she says.

Kim has already been making a positive impact at Suffolk, where she served as a graduate fellow for Suffolk Votes, coaching a team of more than 10 student volunteers as part of the voter registration initiative. She also helped to organize the Center for Community Engagement’s annual Service Day event, collaborating with more than 20 community organizations.

For his business plan, Hariharasubramanian designed a subscription-based startup called Taskify, which provides a full software solution for agile, interactive project management using an automated planning system. This process would enable tech leaders to streamline planning and assigning tasks to their teams.

“By reducing the amount of time wasted in meetings, developers can allocate more time towards actual work and concentrate on delivering high-quality results,” says Hariharasubramanian, who has an undergraduate degree in computer science and engineering from Madras Institute of Technology at India’s Anna University. Prior to enrolling at the Business School (and taking his first-ever airplane flight to get here), he worked as a software developer and technical leader for Citigroup in India.

Thanks to the course, Hariharasubramanian now has a comprehensive business plan that showcases not only his technical prowess, but also Taskify’s commercial viability. “I am confident that I am now better equipped to succeed in the competitive business world,” he says.

Some of Markelevich’s students will pursue their business ideas; others will take what they’ve learned and apply it in their workplaces. However they use their new skills, he says, “The most important part is that they have learned how accounting, finance, marketing, and operations are connected and how they are all important aspects of the business. That’s the essential lesson.”