Contact: Choton Basu
(262) 472-5005
basuc@uww.edu
WHITEWATER The Global Business Resource Center at the University of Wisconsin-Whitewater has received a new U.S. Department of Education Business International Education grant that promises to help current and future business people in Wisconsin better compete in the global economy.
The grant funds a two-year effort called Project Atlas, said Choton Basu, director of the center and associate professor of information technology and business education at the university.
Basu said the center will help Midwest companies expand and improve global communications and collaboration skills that enable their employees and contractors worldwide to work together while limiting expensive employee travel.
The Global Business Resource Center was formed in 1998 and has received five previous Department of Education grants. Basu, who became director in 2003, said the federal department awarded fewer than 30 such grants nationally this year.
“No one else has ever received six of these grants, so we’re extremely proud of our achievement,” he said. “We always promise a lot, but then we deliver even more. If we promise we will complete six projects with a grant, we deliver eight projects.”
The Project Atlas grant provides about $88,000 each year in federal support, he said, and has three distinct parts.
The first part, which he calls “Babel 3.0,” is aimed at focusing “on ways to enhance the global collaboration capabilities of some of the major multinational corporations of our state to make them more competitive.
“If we can do this with one company, it will work with other companies and the skills we develop will also trickle down to our students, giving them the skills to help build the companies they join in the future,” Basu said.
The second part of the federal grant will also help Basu and his colleagues prepare students and business professionals for the exam to earn the designation of certified global business professional.
UW-Whitewater will cooperate with UW-Madison’s Center For International Business Education and Research to offer training on campus and online for students. Basu said it will be especially helpful in retraining workers in areas such as Janesville where workers have been displaced by the changing automobile economy.
For the third part of the grant, UW-Whitewater will support activities to create an international business major under the direction of Linda Reid, chair of the Finance and Business Law Department in the College of Business and Economics. The major will emphasize foreign language and global project management skills in order to help students be more competitive in the international market.
“One thing I always tell my students is that, when they prepare a resume, they prepare it for companies all over the world,” Basu said. “Most companies today have a global outreach or, at least, have extensive relationships with companies overseas.”
Both Basu and Reid have extensive experience in developing international business initiatives at the school.
In addition to Basu and Reid the project team will include G. M. Naidu, emeritus professor of marketing; Amy Coon, a lecturer in marketing and assistant director of the center; Lawrence Neuman, a professor of sociology and international internship/language consultant; Manohar Madan, a management and travel study professor; Tom Bramorski, management professor; Janet Olson, assistant dean of the College of Business and Economics; Harlan Smith, director of International Education and Programs; and Marcia James, global consortia coordinator and professor of information technology and business education.
The Global Business Resource Center was established to provide market research studies for Southeastern Wisconsin businesses that are seeking to enter the international marketplace. During the past 10 years, it has been involved in multiple grant activities to increase the international focus of the UW-Whitewater. The e-mail for the center is gbrc@uww.edu and Choton Basu can be reached at basuc@uww.edu.
