From 13 to 16 January, Kauno kolegija Hihger Education Institution (HEI) hosted an intensive project “Feasibility Study of B2B”, which invited 56 students of Avans University of Applied Sciences of the Netherlands and 32 Sales and Marketing students of the Faculty of Business to work together. During the project, the students had to fulfill the task assigned to them: after performing a financial analysis of the market, competitors, and risks, prepare an export plan for the companies participating in the project, predicting the marketing actions and measures for entering the market in different countries.

The first day started with familiarization, team formation and orienteering competitions in the city. On 14 January, the participants went to the companies of the project partners “Elinta”, ”Rocket Science Baltics” and “Baltic Bio Fusion”, where they not only got to know the Lithuanian business environment, but also learned more about the challenges these companies face exporting to other countries. During these visits, project participants had the opportunity to clarify issues related to their task.

On the third day of the project activity, the participants received guests from the Dutch IT company “Centrum IT Solution” – they were met by the company’s representative Tadas Jerockas, who pointed out the most common intercultural differences between the Dutch and Lithuanians in their professional careers and revealed how to overcome them in order to achieve a common result.

Next, the students devoted time to the implementation of the task. Each company participating in the project had indicated the export markets they were interested in. 16 mixed teams were formed from the participants of the project, which analysed the contexts of different countries. On the final day, the four best teams were selected from these teams, and the winner was the team that performed a case study of “Naujasis Nevėžis” export opportunities in South Korea. According to the evaluators, this project presentation impressed the most with its inclusiveness, consistency and structured implementation of the action plan.

According to Viktorija Navickienė, head of the Communication Department of the Faculty of Business, the analysis of export opportunities undertaken by the students is basically related to the study of the foreign market, orientation towards competitors, partners and costs. ‘Sharing knowledge, experiences, application of theory and development of practical skills, discovery of new connections – all this opens up a broader perspective, increases students’ motivation to experience the value of mobility,’ V. Navickienė is convinced.

The “B2B Netherlands–Lithuania” project has been organised for the sixth time at Kauno kolegija HEI. Cooperation started in 2020.