MU International Trade Center market research interns impress

Fifteen Trulaske College of Business students interning with the MU International Trade Center recently shared findings from the semester-long market research projects completed for two Missouri and two Kansas manufacturers. The students completed extensive research to identify and evaluate international markets or industry sectors with sales potential for each of the participating companies.

Companies working with the International Trade Center this fall included: ROCKR Indoor Training (Chesterfield, Missouri), MotorParts Nation (St. Louis, Missouri), Industrial Accessories Co. (Mission, Kansas) and Ultra-Tech Aerospace (Kansas City, Kansas). Observing social distancing guidelines, the students were able to maintain a face-to-face meeting schedule for the majority of the semester, connecting with the participating companies via Zoom.

Feedback from all of the participating companies on the quality and usefulness of the research reports completed and final presentations shared was extremely positive. Following the presentation delivered to Industrial Accessories Co., Jim Morgan, executive director of marketing, said, “I’ve sat through a lot of these types of presentations before and this student team was a professional, prepared and polished as I’ve ever seen any consulting company do.  You should take pride in what you were able to produce. You all did a terrific job.” 

Doug O’Reilly, senior program manager with Ultra-Tech Aerospace, noted, “We really appreciate all of the work that went into preparation of the report shared.  We have a ton of data to review, and know that we will be able to take immediate action on much of it.  We’ve already reach out to some of the resources identified in the report for follow-up assistance.  Additionally, the individual contacts shared are huge – to be able to pick up the phone and call a potential lead in Canada or in the UK is invaluable.  I truly believe that we have reaped value many times over from this report.”