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For ������Ƶ School of Management students Brian Ng and Brian Petz, this was about as big as it gets.

They were among 43 students from 19 countries chosen for the (GMP) in Japan, a competitive opportunity to gain unique perspectives on ways to succeed in international business, Divided into nine teams, they faced executives from Fast Retailing in Tokyo and tackled complex scenarios involving branding, product and store initiatives.

How, for instance, could they market a blazer on an international scale? What design elements could make it unique for American professionals while staying aligned with the fashion norms of Japan’s business world?

The GMP is the flagship internship program for Japanese-based , the parent company of UNIQLO, the casualwear brand known for its functional basics that is rapidly expanding in the U.S. and globally. The internship program spans six weeks with eight days of in-person experiences and launched in 2019 as an opportunity to bring business students nationwide together with the company’s top leaders.

Once chosen from a pool of more than 5,000 student applicants worldwide, teams of students delve into a range of areas that include branding, merchandising, sustainability and e-commerce.

“Seeing the leadership on that global level was fascinating. They would talk about the way they shaped philosophy in other countries while remaining true to their own company values and being able to manage marketing pushes when the cultures are different,” said Petz, an accounting major with a concentration in management information systems. “Getting to learn in that unique environment isn’t something you usually get in a university or even when entering the workforce.”

Ng, a business administration major whose interests include data analytics and possibly pursuing a career in the fashion or retail industry, was gripped most by the feedback judges from within the company offered after student presentations. His team sought to market a suit blazer for international business consumers.

“We’d get told that a lot of the solutions we had were too realistic and weren’t abstract enough, which was something I did not expect to hear. But it makes sense because it made me realize that for a lot of these companies, they don’t want solutions that are too much at the ground level,” Ng said. “They want to focus more on visions for the future, something they could create within the next few years, instead of something they could implement right now. It was a really valuable lesson in how to approach problem-solving on a larger scale.”

In addition to its primary subsidiary, UNIQLO, Fast Retailing owns several other brands, including GU, Helmut Lang, Theory, J Brand, Princesse Tam-Tam and Comptoir des Cotonniers.

Students in the program are also given behind-the-scenes looks at some of the company’s stores in the Tokyo area, including their warehouse.

“We are genuinely interested in helping to nurture the next generation of global business leaders, and we believe we are contributing to the growth and success of young people who participate,” said Noriaki Koyama, chief advisor to the CEO and coordinator of the Global Management Program for Fast Retailing. “By working closely with diverse students from around the world, they have an opportunity to acquire and hone their cross-cultural leadership skills, which are crucial for a career in international business today and reflective of the talent needs at a large and dynamic global company.”

Petz, whose team was recognized for its presentation in the branding category, said he was intrigued to discover how students from different countries approach a problem from similar perspectives.

Working together, they developed new solutions that could be effectively outlined in a 10- to 15-minute presentation. That experience tapped into what originally piqued his interest in accounting, which he likes to call “the language of business.”

“Knowing how the numbers work, how to get things moving, is essential to make those creative, off-the-wall ideas happen,” Petz said. “If you want to start a business or pitch a new project at work, you can be as creative as you can, but grounding it in reality and accounting, even though it might just be about numbers and seem very boring, those hard skills are what you need to make ideas into reality.”

Reflecting on the program, Ng said exploring different phases of branding, marketing and planning showed him how to overcome the obstacles of launching a new product he had never considered.

“We’ve done case competitions here at Binghamton, but I’ve never done something like designing a new product,” Ng said. “For someone like me, who wants to be a clothing brand owner one day, it felt really nice to actually see other people interested in clothing and learn how we can make a successful product from scratch.”