Longistics, a full-service provider of global logistics solutions, announced that Duane Long, chairman and co-founder, and his wife, Pat Long, vice chairman and co-founder, will participate in the Global Business Project’s kickoff weekend along with students and faculty from the University of North Carolina Center for International Business and Research and its partner schools. The kickoff weekend will be held through Sunday, March 17, in Washington, D.C.
The Global Business Project is a graduate-level course offered to MBAs and other graduate students at 14 member universities, including UNC. Students apply cross-cultural awareness and foreign language skills to produce strategic, focused, compelling and actionable advice for companies. UNC’s Kenan-Flagler Business School is leading the GBP in China, where Pat Long has established the Rare Bird Trading Co. The firm provides import and export services to and from China.
The Longistics team, under the direction of Noel Greis and Cai Linning, professors and co-directors of the UNC-Tsinghua Center for Logistics and Enterprise Development in Beijing, will work with Rare Bird to implement a successful business model in China. The GBP kickoff weekend will allow the Longs the opportunity to meet their team and develop a detailed project scope of work, project timeline and work plan for the 10-week project.
Students will spend eight weeks working virtually here in the United States and then travel to China for the last two weeks of the project. For the latter period from Monday, May 16 to Friday, May 27, the GBP project team will research and prepare to reveal their findings during the final presentation to Rare Bird. The team also will provide Longistics with copies of the final report and supporting research materials. Students receive academic credit for their work.
Longistics has been emphasizing more trade relations with China, believing commerce and trade with that nation offers excellent business opportunities for companies of all sizes in North Carolina. Besides Rare Bird Trading Co., Longistics has announced the launch this year of the Suzhou Industrial Park International Commodities Exhibition Center in Suzhou, China, which offer business development opportunities for exhibitors and generate opportunities that accelerate the export of products from U.S.-based companies to China.
