1. X-Culture©
◦ 1217 Lakewood Dr ◦ Greensboro, NC ◦ 27402-6165 ◦ USA ◦ 1(336)854-4102 ◦ admin@X-Culutre.org ◦ www.X-Culture.org
X-Culture, Inc.
Dr. Vas Taras
POB 26165
Greensboro, NC
27402-6165
USA
1(336)256-8611
admin@X-Culture.org
www.X-Culture.org
December 22, 2016
Subject: Performance Review and Reference Letter for Karan Karthik Shkla
TO WHOM IT MAY CONCERN:
Karan Karthik Shkla participated in the X-Culture Project in 2016.
X-Culture is a large-scale international experiential learning project that involves over 4,000 MBA and
business students from over 120 universities from 40 countries on six continents every semester. Over
30,000 students have participated in the project since its inception in 2010.
The students are placed in global virtual teams of about six, each student coming from a different
country. Working with people from around the globe and dealing with cultural differences, time-zone
dispersion, and global communication challenges, the teams complete a consulting project for a multi-
national company.
Before the project started, the students received training on online collaboration tools, international
team dynamics, cross-cultural communication and conflict resolution, and more. During the semester,
the students have had multiple live webinars with the CEOs and owners of the partner companies. A
number of students have also had opportunities to present their work to and received feedback from the
top managers of their client companies.
We rigorously measure and compare performance of the students and in the end rate the students on
over a dozen performance indicators, including peer evaluations, report quality, timeliness, creativity
and more. This provides an excellent work sample as performance in X-Culture is probably a good
predictor of performance in jobs requiring teamwork, cross-cultural interactions, and analytical and
research skills.

2. Our records of Karan Karthik Shkla’s performance over the several months of X-Culture are provided
below:
Diligence and ability to meet deadlines: High.
Peer-evaluated performance:
(1=very good, 2=bad, 3=acceptable, 4=good, 5=excellent)
Effort (project average: 3.9): 3.8
Creativity (project average: 3.7): 3.6
Leadership skills (project average: 3.4): 2.6
Collegiality and positive attitude (project average: 4.2): 4
Overall peer evaluations (project average: 3.7): 3.5
The team has shared with us that of all work completed by the team, the percent of work completed by
Karan was 16 (project average: 18.5%).
Compared to the other 4,000+ participants this semester, Karan Karthik Shkla’s individual performance
was better than that of 27.7% of the other project participants, or it was in Top 72.3%.
Expert-evaluated ability to:
(1=very bad, 2=bad, 3=acceptable, 4=not bad, 5=good, 6=very good, 7=excellent)
Solve international business problems and develop a business consulting project (project
average: 5.2): 5.5.
Creativity and ability to produce novel unconventional solutions (project average: 4.9): 5.2
Writing skills, ability to clearly present arguments and write properly formatted business report
(project average: 5.2): 5.1
Compared to other 784 global virtual teams that took part in the X-Culture competition this semester,
Karan Karthik Shkla’s team’s report was better than 78.6% of other submissions, or in other words, the
business report was in Top 21.4%.
Recommendation:
Based on my thorough review and comparison of records for all the teams and students who took part
in X-Culture this semester, Karan Karthik Shkla’s performance in the project over these several
months, and in comparison to other participants and teams, I can confidently recommend this person
for a job that requires work in teams, including cross-cultural virtual teams.
Also, I can confidently for jobs that require strong analytical, research, and writing skills, such as
business consulting projects.
Provided that Karan Karthik Shkla has learned a lot during the X-Culture Project, I predict that Karan’s
performance will be better the next time.

3. If past performance is a predictor of future performance, I expect that Karan Karthik Shkla will will do
very well on team-based international business consulting projects in the future.
Most sincerely,
Dr. Vasyl Taras
Associate Professor
D&T Priddy Dean’s Notable Scholar
X-Culture Project Director
Fellow of the Academy of International Business, Southeast USA
Associate Editor of the International Journal of Cross-Cultural Management
Bryan School of Business and Economics
University of North Carolina at Greensboro
349 Bryan
POB 26165, Greensboro, NC 27402-6165
336-256-8611
v_taras@uncg.edu
www.X-Culture.org
https://www.facebook.com/XCultureProject