SUNY Potsdam Class Develops Business Plans with German Students at Cologne University of Applied Sciences

SUNY Potsdam Business Administration Students Collaborate with Students at Cologne University of Applied Sciences to Develop Global Plans

Potsdam, NY (12/30/2025) — Business administration students from The State University of New York at Potsdam recently teamed up with peers from the Cologne University of Applied Sciences (Technische Hochschule Koln) for a semester-long project, creating strategic business plans with a global focus.

During the Fall 2025 semester, 23 SUNY Potsdam students grouped into four teams developed business plans that included a global expansion strategy to Germany. The idea for the collaboration started when Dr. Kateryna Syniakova, a former exchange student at SUNY Potsdam who is originally from Ukraine, contacted Dr. Ed Portugal, who is teaching the Strategic and Global Management course.

"I was pleasantly surprised when she contacted me about the idea and I brought it up with the students in the course and they liked the idea to directly communicate with German students, in addition to doing their research online about expanding an American business to Germany," said Professor Portugal. "Our students thought it was a great idea to touch base with German students and ask about global expansion to their country."

Dr. Syniakova spent the Spring 2006 semester at SUNY Potsdam. "It was a life-changing experience for me, full of travels in the U.S., and I left with positive emotions," she said. Since then, she completed her Ph.D. at Kherson State University in Ukraine, and left for Germany with her family when Russia invaded in 2022. Dr. Syniakova is currently a research associate at the Cologne University of Applied Sciences in Germany and an adjunct lecturer at the Maastricht School of Management in the Netherlands. She was the vice dean of the faculty of business and law at Kherson University, and an associate professor there before the war.

"SUNY Potsdam sponsors a business plan competition every semester in the Strategic and Global Management course, and this is the first time that students gathered first-hand information and feedback from potential customers in their globalization plans," said Portugal, who has been teaching the course since 1993. "In previous years, teams used secondary sources and the internet to collect data and gather information on how to successfully globalize their business proposals. Direct collaboration with international students was a unique experience and we plan to continue this approach."

By completing the project, both CUAS in Cologne, Germany and SUNY Potsdam students were able to identify and evaluate cultural differences and similarities that affect leadership, communication, and decision-making. They also applied intercultural frameworks to international business contexts and develop strategies for intercultural collaboration and negotiation. Finally, students were able to reflect on how culture influences personal and professional behavior in global teams and improve how to communicate effectively and professionally across cultural boundaries.

"United by a common goal, students from SUNY Potsdam and CUAS will be able to experience an intercultural collaboration," Syniakova said. "I hope that the interaction will lead to synergy based on their interaction and combining their competitive advantages."

SUNY Potsdam School of Education and Professional Studies Interim Dean Jamie Cruikshank said: "Applied learning is woven into the SUNY Potsdam experience, and this international collaboration has elevated our students' understanding and real-world business planning skills. I am incredibly proud of the work our students are doing, and deeply appreciative that Dr. Syniakova's previous experience at SUNY Potsdam helped spark this meaningful connection with Dr. Portugal. It has been a truly symbiotic partnership -- one in which everyone grows and benefits."

The teams of SUNY Potsdam students worked on developing a business model that has sections on value propositions, target market, revenue streams, cost structure, competition, globalization strategy and exit plans, as part of the Business Plan Competition. Each team was led by a team manager, who coordinated and organized the tasks.

"Being a team manager has been beneficial for working on my leadership and group skills. It also adds more responsibility to the project for me since I have had to coordinate group efforts and deadlines, which is good practice for next year when I'm out of college," said Tyler Gould of Rochester, N.Y. "I think that working with the German students was a cool experience since I got to talk to them over Zoom and see what they were like. From the meeting, I learned that we are very similar to them as students and as people, so it was cool to see that firsthand."

In the collaborative project, student teams from the United States and Germany worked together to develop a culturally informed strategic business plan. U.S. teams took on the role as strategic planners, designing how an American product could successfully enter the German market using Alexander Osterwalder's "business model canvas" as conceptual framework.

"I enjoyed being the manager for my team this semester. Since I had the most experience taking Dr. Ed Portugal's classes, I took it upon myself to step up and lead my team because I best understood the course expectations. My group was very punctual with meeting deadlines and following instructions, which made my job as a manager easier," said Nick Long of Elbridge, N.Y. "Working with the German students was an interesting and beneficial experience that helped expand my perspective on the business world."

German teams acted as consultants, using Erin Meyer's "culture map framework" to analyze how cultural differences between Germany and the U.S. affect business activities.

Ryan Mahlmeister of Massapequa, N.Y., said: "Leading the team helped me grow in areas such as delegation, time management, and maintaining a positive group dynamic, even when schedules were difficult to coordinate," he added. "Collaborating with the German students was also very valuable for my development. The responses they sent contained detailed and thoughtful feedback that significantly strengthened our understanding of the German market. Their willingness to help, along with the clarity of their explanations, made me genuinely grateful for the effort they put into supporting our project."

"Their insights gave me a clearer understanding of how cultural expectations shape business decisions and showed me how important international communication is in global strategy. Overall, this experience taught me leadership, teamwork, and cross-cultural communication in ways that I could not have learned from a textbook alone," Mahlmeister added.

"Collaborating with our German counterparts allowed us to introduce structure, precision, and a strong sense of planning, which balances the work really well. When those two styles come together, the mix of innovation and discipline usually leads to a stronger final product. Overall, managing a team and collaborating with our German student group feels like coordinating the best of both worlds, and was a great experience that will help me propel myself in the future with confidence," said Ryleigh Ferguson of Canton, N.Y.

SUNY Potsdam's Department of Business Administration offers flexible bachelor's and master's degrees in competitive fields, and provides students with an understanding of how for-profit and non-profit organizations function efficiently and effectively in the global marketplace. The College offers its undergraduate business administration program both at the Potsdam campus and in Watertown, N.Y., at Jefferson Community College. Its Master of Science program in management is offered 100 percent online, to serve graduate students around the world.

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