Around the world with an MBA
Executives in search of an international focus for their careers
Gabriela Samela
Special for Clarín
Each module in the Georgetown-ESADE Global Executive MBA (GEMBA) is carried out in a different country. Students see their internationalisation as a way to overcome the crisis.
“Instead of investing in the market, I’m investing in my own career. It’s a little frightening, but I think it’s the right decision in this context of crisis,” declares Laura Boydston, 36 years old, Director of Executive Products for the financial firm, Legg Mason Capital Management, in the United States.
Like the other 34 participan¬ts in the ESADE and Georgetown University Global Executive MBA programme, Laura paid $120,000 to take part in this programme. It lasts just over a year and consists of six modules in six different countries: Spain, Brazil, Argentina, India, Russia and the United States.
The group arrived in Argen¬tina on Monday for part of the third module at ESADE’s facilities in Beccar. The participating executives and managers are 38 years old on average and they come from 14 different countries with 15 years’ professional experience. The majority are from the US, but there are also several Europeans from various countries and 3 Latin Americans: two Colombians and one Brazilian. Many already have a global profile: they work for multinationals or have moved from one country to another.
Such is the case of Nawaf Marjan (36), born in Kuwait where he lived half of his life, then immigrating to the United States. He works there as a Senior Analyst for Ravenwing, a division of Boeing providing IT solutions. "It's a small company but with international operations," he states. In his case, his company partially financed the postgraduate programme. "Jobs come and go, but this is something that will stay with me," he declares.
The Moscow native, Denis Stepanov (30), is Financial Director for Zao InCore and he hopes to reach a General Management position: "I want to change from finance to business strategy,” he tells us. "Since Russia is doing business in countries such as Turkey, Vietnam and many others, I chose a global perspective."
Methodology
Each module in the MBA lasts 15 days. Classroom activities are held in the morning while students meet with local businessmen and politicians in the afternoon. In addition, obviously, they have time to immerse themselves in the local culture: tango and barbecue in the Argentine case.
"Our aim is for students to not only know about the developed markets but also the emerging ones," explains Patricia Marcaida, international Director of the ESADE Executive Education programme. Each modules focuses on a specific topic. The programme in Buenos Aires and Sao Paulo focuses on multinationals. In India, the next stop, the topics are entrepreneurship and emerging countries.
Despite the crisis, "no one dropped out," says Maracaida. But during the breaks, few students can be seen without their mobile phones. "MBAs are counter-cyclical," declares Pedro Parada, the ESADE Academic Director for the GEMBA programme. "In times of crisis, there are more candidates than ever to do them [MBAs]."
But, in addition to increasing the number of registrations, business schools have another task at hand in times such as this one: "we have to examine our role in training executives; they're the ones making the decisions that lead to crises but they also make the decisions that bring us out of the them. It is a question of ethics, a reflection on the mission of business schools," feels Alejandro Behart, General Director of the Executive Education programme at ESADE’s Buenos Aires campus.
The Figure
€85,000 That is how much the Georgetown-ESADE Global MBA costs. It includes lodging and travel within the different cities, but not air fare. Next year the programme will cost €95,000.
The Programme
China, a new destination as of 2009
The Georgetown-ESADE Global Executive MBA (GEMBA) incorporates two schools from the American university: the McDonough School of Business and the Walsh School of Foreign Service. The programme lasts approximately 16 months: it begins in June and ends in August the following year. It was launched during the 2008/2009 academic year, and they are already recruiting candidates for 2009/2010.
The next group will visit a different country, however. Instead of India, the students will travel to China. "They are two, very big markets with special traits, which is why we’ll be alternating visits," explains Pedro Parada, the ESADE Academic Director for the programme.
Admission requirements are an undergraduate degree and a minimum of 8 years’ professional experience, 5 of which must have been managerial positions. Some candidates, depending on their undergraduate programme, have to take the GMAT exam.
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