It is quite a distance from her home in South Florida to Texas, but teenaged Brooke Giacin made the trek to go to college at Baylor in August of 2019. After performing as a student athlete on the equestrian team and earning bachelor’s degrees in both finance and journalism in 2023, she then turned her sights to Northwest Arkansas.
In September of that year, she relocated to Bentonville, Ark., to begin work for cosmetics conglomerate L’Oréal as a digital acceleration analyst focused on e-commerce data. One year later, she was ready to jump back into the academic world.
“My entrepreneurial spirit drove me to get my MBA. I had been in NWA (Northwest Arkansas) for a year by the time I decided to get my MBA,” she said. “I love networking and meeting new people. I know I am early in my career to get an MBA, but it was the right time for me. I wanted to learn from peers in my community.”
Brooke chose the Sam M. Walton College of Business to pursue an Executive Master of Business Administration (EMBA) degree while continuing her career at L’Oréal.
Brooke comes from an entrepreneurial family. Her parents founded a shower door company in Fort Lauderdale over 20 years ago. As a family, they were always looking for ways to innovate and be more efficient. So, it is natural that she would be drawn to business. For Brooke, this family business was top of mind during her trip abroad.
Global Business
The Walton’s EMBA program is deepening Brooke’s experience and skills in many areas of business: negotiations, marketing, supply chain and more! The EMBA uses experiential learning as part of the program. To implement this, each cohort has the opportunity to travel overseas to solve a business problem with their peers. The global immersion trip includes conversations and experiences with different cultures and customs, business practices and problem solving.
For Brooke and around 30 of her classmates, this meant traveling to India from July 6 to July 19, where the group visited a number of businesses, including Ninja Cart, TVs Motors, Gokaldas Exports, Walmart Global Tech and Walmart Global Sourcing. During the experience, students shared their background and knowledge in specific areas during the trip.
“Everyone had diverse backgrounds – supply chain, global sourcing, marketing, engineering, field safety, accounting, etc.,” she said. “I loved learning about my peers’ work experiences and hobbies.”
“Most of the businesses we visited were in Bangalore, India,” Brooke said. “It was interesting to see how detail oriented each manufacturer was. At Gokaldas, a textile manufacturer for several name brands in the United States, their assembly line was extremely impressive. They had a person devoted to each seam, button or stitch. Someone was even designated as the quality checker. Through my classmates with previous sourcing experience, I learned the importance of caring for their employees and ensuring work conditions were met. I enjoyed learning how the attention to details and precision of each firm led to efficiency for the entire company.”
The group also visited several other cities – New Delhi, Agra and Kabini – but Kabini was Brooke’s favorite.
“Kabini was beautiful. It was just outside of Mysore, a small city outside of Bangalore with large and beautiful trees. The weather was indescribable, and we indulged on Monsur, an Indian fudge made of ghee and sugar – it gave you a rush, but it was delicious! Kabini was where I felt the most immersed in the Indian culture. From tribal dances to safaris, we got to see the beauty of India.”
“On the safari, we saw deer and leopards, but one thing that stood out was how in tune our guide was with nature. He stopped on the side of the road and grabbed a plant and began to blow bubbles from the stem. It was remarkable to see how versed he was with nature and the environment he lives in. Beyond the safaris, we visited a tribal home. This home was comprised of four rooms and housed 18 people. Our learnings from Ninja Cart came full circle after I digested our visit. It was families like these that Ninja Cart was helping. This family lived on 2-3 acres and farmed plantains and marigolds. This was their livelihood and everyone who lived there took part in shaping their farm. They welcomed us with masala chai and fresh jackfruit, which they picked from their tree and cut up right there – some of the best fruit I had ever had. We watched their children smile and dance.”
Practical Business Applications
During the trip, students were challenged to resolve a business problem. Brooke teamed up with fellow EMBA students Stephen Tankersley, Sophia Fulgham, Reshma Sawant, Aqela Faizy, Audrey Daniels, Maddy Austinand Chelsea Ashworth to research and review an Indian manufacturer of architectural hardware for shower doors located just outside of New Delhi. The team used a pricing and sourcing challenge for Brooke’s family’s business in their project.
“Our project for Mervin Jebaraj’s Global Immersion class was centered around finding an architectural hardware supplier in India to help combat tariff uncertainty in the U.S and my family’s reliance on a sole supplier. The first full day in India, Sophie and I learned how to say, ‘how are you’ in Hindi. We learned this from the company we visited and other cultural norms in conducting business there. At this supplier, we were able to see raw metals – aluminum, stainless steel and brass – be forged, polished and shaped into everyday hardware, hinges, doorknobs, etc. Sophie and I sat down with their president and talked numbers. What was truly unique is this interaction is hopefully going to come to life!”
The trip had an impact on Brooke’s job at L’Oréal as well. After starting the EMBA program, Brooke’s position changed to an account analytics analyst on the cosmetics/skin business. The company visits sparked ideas on how to incorporate her previous role in e-commerce into Walmart’s Global Tech and Sourcing’s review project.
“Visiting the Walmart Global Tech and Sourcing was very applicable to my previous role,” she shared. “We learned about how they use VR (virtual reality) to train employees or even immerse themselves in Walmart because they don’t have Walmart in India! We also saw a walkthrough of the e-commerce shopping journey and learned about the future and importance of reviews on Walmart.com. Once I returned home, I told my old manager about what I learned, and I am working on coordinating us to meet with the Walmart Tech employee who is working on this new project with reviews to see how L’Oreal can accelerate their online business. I think it’s important to keep in mind that the MBA is built to network and help be a proponent to excelling business. You are always networking and looking to partner with others.”
The trip sparked several ideas for Brooke, but her EMBA classes are impacting her job as well as her personal life.
“Marketing taught me a lot for my work at L’Oreal,” she said. “I think it is important to understand the foundations of marketing and how we can grab people’s attention. Economics with Professor Kali was one of the most impactful classes for me. Because of tariffs, we have a lot of uncertainty and higher prices. I was able to take these learnings and apply them to my work. We learned about pricing strategies and price elasticity. This greatly applied to what I was doing at work and in my own personal life.”
In the future, Brooke hopes to use her leadership skills to better her community, mentor others and to move forward in her career.
“Personally, I hope to be a strong mentor and leader to my peers. I want to motivate others to step out of their comfort zone and take risks. Being a leader is challenging, and the EMBA program will help you curate the skills needed to become an effective and motivating leader.”
From South Florida to Texas to Northwest Arkansas, Brooke’s journey has taken several turns in the road as often happens in life.
“I never thought I would be living in Bentonville, Arkansas,” adds Brooke. “It has become this niche community for me, and I absolutely love where I live and work!”
